Nostradamus

Nostradamus is an ambitious concept album on which Judas Priest takes on a grand double-album story themed on the life of the prophet Nostradamus and his mythology. By boldly mixing not only heavy guitar riffs but keyboards, solemn narration and interludes, it gives the very flow of the songs an operatic drama. It boasts a grand scale among the finest in the band’s career. Rob Halford’s varied voice, greatly changing its role scene by scene from a sharp scream to a low, restrained narration, leads the grand world. From the dramatic development of “Prophecy” and the weight of “Revelations” to the grandeur of the title track “Nostradamus,” the album is built as one huge story, while cuts like “Persecution” and “Visions” add thickness to that story. Its value lies in clearly inscribing the band’s inexhaustible ambition in a scale and construction utterly unlike a normal heavy-metal album. It is an experimental epic that asks for careful immersion in the story world over immediacy. Views are divided, but as veterans taking on new expression, it is a grand, ambitious concept album.