The Emotional Powderkeg Igniting Judas Priest’s “Panic Attack”

Judas Priest have occasionally injected social commentary into their music, although more has emerged in frontman Rob Halford’s solo work. But “Panic Attack,” the fierce and potent opening track and lead single from Priest’s current album Invincible Shield, is a high-energy assault that tackles the sinister power of misinformation. It is the most streamed song from the new release with over 8 million Spotify listens and 2 million YouTube views. And it’s a hell of a track with some awesome guitar playing to elevate the singer’s emotional delivery.

Matters of fact fall on deaf ears
While the bitter mobs ramp up their fears
Go creeping ’round those corridors of power

As the dead heads gladly suffer sins
While the euthanising then begins
The clock is ticking down to doomsday hour

Panic attack, panic attack

Tackling Disinformation

That second verse imagistically invokes the January 6 insurrection attempt, and other lyrics point to how disinformation campaigns stoke people’s volatile emotions and anger. No specific people or events are mentioned, but it is not hard to ascertain what Halford is addressing. Politics are always a tricky subject in metal, and these days even moreso when everything is viciously dissected by internet trolls, so the wordplay is purposefully clever.

For guitarist Richie Faulkner, Halford’s words skate a certain line. “It’s a little bit ambiguous,” Faulkner told me earlier this year. “But you know it’s about the influence of the internet on our lives, in the way that ‘Electric Eye’ back on Screaming For Vengeance was a reference to those electric eyes that watch us and still do. It contains that sense of ambiguity while making it point in other ways. I don’t know how he does it. How fantastic is that?”

Halford explains to American Songwriter his inspiration for the lyrics: “As soon as the internet arrived it was immediately seized upon by certain groups of people that had malicious intent. From the early message boards and forums to instant messaging, we saw political policy good and bad gain traction to spread the truth and the lies. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the negative stuff always stoked the flames. And most recently, we have witnessed that when you tell a lie long enough and strongly enough for some people it becomes the truth. All of this became potent to the point that I wanted to express my thoughts and feelings through ‘Panic Attack.’”

The song opens with a moody synth and guitar intro that builds in intensity, with a 7/8 riff that some fans think recalls Rush’s “Tom Sawyer.” Then the song bursts into a ferocious track that invokes the classic melodic Priest with some of the intensity of the Painkiller album. 

Faulker says the intro actually started “as a guitar lick, and then I transposed it to synths and it sounded great. I’m a child of the ‘80s, so I love that kind of synthy pop … not that it’s synth-pop, by any means. Because of the groundwork that Priest have laid before with things like Turbo, it’s appropriate to put down as an idea for a Priest record. There’s the 7/8 [part], a couple of different mid-sections, and two guitar solos. It’s pretty relentless, and I like that.”

Going to a Darker Place

The song was certainly a strong way to launch Invincible Shield, as Halford acknowledged when he spoke to Forbes.com in March, noting the song offers a dark view of thew power of the internet. “When I say, The clamor and the clatter of incensed keys can bring a nation to its knees, we see that all the time,” he said. “The primaries are going on, and the internet is full of conspiracy theories, hate, bullying—all of that kind of stuff.”

And while he felt Priest is known for being a positive band, “Panic Attack” journeys into a darker place. “This particular song, it stays in a very moody kind of perspective lyrically because that’s my job,” Halford told Forbes. “You wrap that up into the instrumentation and I think we made something very special and unique. It certainly caused a lot of discussion, more so than I anticipated.”

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Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame