Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A long lost Judas Priest masterpiece!, June 20, 2008
There are two types of Judas Priest fans:
1-The ones who were introduced to the band from the time when they became popular in the US with Screaming for Vengeance in the early 80s Heavy Metal explosion.
2-Fans who are familiar with their 70's hard rock / metal catalog.
So for those who are familiar with Priest's catalog you would know that Nostradamus is basically a stylistic retake of their second album, the masterpiece called "Sad Wings of Destiny," the same album who produced the necessary live Priest staples such as "The Ripper" "Victim of Changes" "Tyrant" and "Genocide"
This album is not Painkiller, so if you are familiar with Priest's catalog, be forewarned that this album resembles their 70s catalog of songs, with updated sound and production, but this doesn't mean the songs don't rock.. to the contrary
All i can tell you is that you are a true Priest fan and you enjoy most of their albums from their old to the new, you are going to love Nostradamus very much..
Maybe some of the keyboard orchestral accompaniments sound over the top, but the songs are still heavy and never sound cheesy.
I can only imagine listening to some of these songs being played live!!
I am glad Judas Priest made this album as a nod to their own history, because they are one of the first pioneer metal bands, instead of trying to emulate and sound like every new metalcore / numetal band out there, they have done something very original that doesn't sound like anything in their catalog.
Kudos for Judas Priest for trying something new based on their own sound and song catalog.
2008.08.14 UPDATE
I was lucky enough to see (and photograph from the pit) Judas Priest playing with Voivod two days ago on Bell Center in Montreal, and let me tell all the Nostradamus haters.. the whole place was singing the opener song of Priests' set Prophecy, so this album is NOT a flop..far from it
The band sounded as heavy and loud as ever.. so there!
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
NOSTRADAMUS is AVENGED!!, June 17, 2008
I knew the majority of people who buy this are not going to like it when I heard it all for the first time last week or so.
Why?
It won't be (as REVOLVER magazine stated) "metal enough".
And I agree...this cd has 4-5 metallic hard-driving songs...that is it. But what it does have is operatic overtones...brilliant singing by Halford...some of the most tasty guitar licks.
Lots of the songs are 1-2 mins of heavy heavy keyboards with Rob singing quietly over the top of them.
A lot of feeling, growth and progressive elements...think a more keyboardsy A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH by Maiden.
So if you are looking for some heavy JP...skip this one.
If you are looking to hear some of the best moments of this band then definitley buy NOSTRADAMUS.
I enjoyed the whole cd...and it grows after every listen...but you can't just crank it up and hope for 1983 SCREAMIN FOR VENGEANCE-style ferocity.
You have been warned.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful and Epic, June 25, 2008
I was really worried about this album. I started reading some of the early bad reviews and was a little shocked as to how much some people hated Nostradamus. Even more worrisome were the mixed reviews, often coming from long-time Priest fans. Many liked it, but they were far from blown away.
I'm definitely and strongly in the "love" catagory with this CD. I can totally see why some fans don't like it. Most of the terrible bad reviews I read came from dyed-in-the-wool metal fans, and yeah, you're not going to love it if all you eat, breathe, and sleep is metal. I'm not meaning to be condescending here. People who don't love just metal, but also classical, and especially opera, are more likely to love Nostradamus.
The production is OK, (self produced this one is), but as many reviewers stated, the drums are oddly buried in the mix. Maybe Scott Travis isn't even the right drummer to be playing these kind of grooves (plods?), I don't know. He sure does wail on "Persecution" though, among others. Still it's like a weird 80's drum sound from a Leatherwolf album or something.
KK and Glenn -- awesome as ever. Maybe better than ever. There is everything a guitar lover could want on Nostradamus. Lots of natural guitar tones, distortion, crazy riffs and spastic solos, even a bloody flamenco! Mental solos. Unbelievable.
Halford -- awesome. On some songs he's really reaching back to his love of opera, no doubt of that. Sings in Italian on one song. Kind of jarring, but it suits the whole epic nature of the music. Yes, there are screams. He's learned to make the screams more effective by using them sparingly, more strategically. At the same time a lot of fans want to hear him scream at the top of his lungs again, like he did on Painkiller, and I can understand that. Fact is, maybe the guy can't do it like that anymore. Is that his fault? Of course not. His singing is very much like it was on Angel Of Retribution. Mature's a good word. I miss the screaming too, but if he can't do it like he used to, it can't be helped. It is what it is.
Ian Hill -- I can't hear the bass guitar, most of the time. I guess that's kind of expected in Priest, sometimes.
Don Airey plays keyboard -- yeah, the Deep Purple / Rainbow / etc. guy. And he's great. As always. Lots of dramatic piano, circa vintage Sad Wings era Priest.
There are also real strings, so don't fret. Lots of guitar synths as well, but not on a "Turbo Lover" sort of scale. I didn't find the synth too intrusive for the most part. In a lot of cases the string and synths combined made it sound like a Michael Kamen score. You'll know what I mean when you hear it. If you don't like Michael Kamen, you won't like those parts of the album. But if you dug S&M by Metallica, you'll dig this.
This "Deluxe Edition" comes in a nice hardcover book. It's roughly DVD sized. Very nice package even if you have to slide the CD out of a cardboard sleeve (again!). Worth the extra cash to you? Well, that's up to you. I'm not sure it's worth it to me or not, but I bought it, so there you go.
I think Nostradamus will go down easily as the most controverial Priest album ever, even more so than Turbo, Point Of Entry, or Jugulator. You look back though, and even if you didn't like them much at the time, and you see they've grown on you. Turbo is now one of favourite Priest albums, because it's so different from the others. So, if you love Priest's entire history, you'll love Nostradamus. If you liked Rocka Rolla, Sad Wings, and Angel of Retribution, you'll love Nostradamus. If you only like the stuff from Killing Machine through to Defenders, you are just going to hate Nostradamus!
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