Heavy Metal Sunday is all about the Great Bald One

[gridlore]

This may be the closest thing we ever get to a Rob Halford autobiography. Halford - Made in Hell

Watch on YouTube

Read the lyrics


Review: Judas Priest - Nostradamus

OK, this is the big project that they've all wanted to do for years. A double CD about the life and prophecies of the Weekly World News' favorite seer, Michael de Nostadame. I think we can all agree that Priest has paid more than enough dues to have a pure vanity project.

But is it any good?

My first thought as I listened to this album was "plodding." Every song seems to have a slow tempo that I suppose is supposed to be majestic but just comes across as turgid and dull. Musically, this is quite a departure for JP, with heavy use of strings and synthesizers. The songs are good, but we could have used some changes and different time signatures. Many of the songs are so similar that the entire mass just seems to flow together.

The writing is strong, with interesting lyrics that do a good job of capturing the life of the man, but Rob's vocals are buried so deep in the mix (and he is either singing well below his usual range or screaming) that you need the included lyrics booklet to understand him. A lot of my issues come from the production of the album... the entire thing seems over-layered and muddy at points. Even the guitars seem muted.

Nostradamus gets a solid 3 penguins from me. It's a good album, but from Priest we've come to expect greatness, so it is going to be a letdown for those of us who owned British Steel on vinyl. Two songs got four-star ratings on my first listen, the title track (the only one that really sounded like Judas Priest) and Visions, both off the second disk.

I'm glad they got this out of their system.

Comments

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

*Nods along with your review.* It also felt to me that while the music was solid, the lyrics, while good, did not fit the music. It has a throw back feel to earlier albums like "Sad Wings of Destiny" but the synthesizers seem out of place on those songs. I also agree that Rob seems to be singing in a much lower range, and perhaps a different key that seems a bit jarring, at least to me. I don't like the lyrics as much as you, I found some of it very cliched, but they weren't terrible. If feels to me as though the band was not on the same page through most of the album. A bit of a let down for me.