For My Sunday Song #295, we are go to go through “Never the Heroes” off the band’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Firepower’. The song was the third single and it helped propel the album to a #5 ranking on the Billboard Top 200 albums and showing the band still had a lot of life left in them. It was an album and a song that saw the band return to form and show that metal was still alive and well in their old bones.

The band issued a statement about the song upon its release stating the following:

“‘Never The Heroes’ is about the courageous men and women that enter war, never trained to be heroes but becoming heroic due to their actions and sacrifices doing their duty for their people and country,” the band said in a statement. “It resonates as there is a hero in all of us and in times of struggle we can be strong and united, conquering our own challenges and helping others.”

I don’t think I need to add anything to that so I will just talk about the music.

This is one of the coolest songs on the album, “Never the Heroes”, and also one of my favorite songs, ever, by the band. Their foot comes off the gas with this one only slightly and we get a pure melodic blissful song. It shows the softer side of Priest and Halford’s vocals deliver nothing but greatness. Usually with the pounding drums and guitar, I tend to miss out on Ian’s bass playing, but this one has that deep, low end sound that helps take this one up a notch. But it is the layers of vocals and the harmonies they create in the chorus that takes it over the top. This is a solid hard rock song and shows that those old dogs can still hunt. Priest being the old dog and the hunt being the music if you missed that analogy.

Give the song a listen and let me know what you think. Do these icons of metal still have some gas left in the tank, some hitch in their giddy-up or whatever old cliche you can come up with? I think they do. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful and Happy Sunday! And if you see someone in the military, thank them for their service. They don’t get thanked enough.

“Never The Heroes”

Like a cobra they will strike
And like lions caged we’ll fight
We were taken not by choice
They put anger in our voice

We were fearless but so afraid
Though in our hearts we still felt pain
We’re on fire but on a leash
We only ever wanted peace

Never the heroes
We were made to fight
Never the heroes
We were just sacrificed
At war

Like a demon leads the youth
We are terrible in truth
No time to falter, no turning back
When we come under attack

There is no question as with a friend
We have our honor to defend
We’re on fire but on a leash
We only ever wanted peace

Never the heroes
We were made to fight
Never the heroes
We were just sacrificed
At war
At war

We are together till the end
We have our honor to defend

Never the heroes
We were made to fight
Never the heroes
We were just sacrificed
Never the heroes
(We were never the heroes)
We were made to fight
(We were made to fight)
Never the heroes
We were sacrificed
At war

Written by Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner