JUDAS PRIEST — Nostradamus (review)

JUDAS PRIEST — Nostradamus album cover Album · 2008 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Warthur
As well as being the final Judas Priest album to feature K.K. Downing, Nostradamus was also the second album after the return of Rob Halford to the band. Its predecessor, Angel of Retribution, was largely an exercise in persuading the faithful that Priest were back to business as usual, after the sonic experiments of the Ripper Owens years had met a mixed reaction.

This time around, though, they seem to have felt an urge to branch out into a new sound yet again - but rather than chasing trends or meandering about in an unfocused manner, as you could accuse them of doing on Jugulator or Demolition, Nostradamus finds them chasing a distinctive musical vision which proves that merely taking the commercially easy way out was not their concern at this point in time.

Yes, it's that most Spinal Tap of prospects, the double concept album. Taking the prophecies and biography of Nostradamus as a starting point and then not allowing anything silly like restraint or the facts get in the way, the actual concept is nonsense, but that's concept albums for you: largely, the album seems to be an exercise in Priest taking a somewhat more progressive and symphonic approach to their music, complete with Don Airey guesting on keyboards (and making his presence extensively felt).

That said, don't expect a radical change. Even Airey's presence isn't necessarily that much a departure from part precedent - he'd made a welcome contribution to Touch of Evil on Painkiller, after all. As far as the prog side of the album goes, I'd be more inclined to draw comparisons to Operation: Mindcrime-era Queensrÿche than to, say, Dream Theater - it's not that they've suddenly gone super-technical on us or are throwing out challenging time signatures, it's more that they're leaning a little harder on the prog-inspired aspects of their existing sound here and there and they're trying to tie everything in to a theme.

The end result is over 100 minutes of new Judas Priest music which on the one hand is sufficiently rooted in the fundamentals of their sound to scratch your Judas Priest itch whilst at the same time different enough from what they've done before to still feel fresh. What's not to love?
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