WaveSpace

Nostradamus is the new album from hard rock pioneers Judas Priest. Leave it to JP to try something that has been anathema in popular music for a few decades: the double-length concept album!

Thankfully, it's all straight-up rock without the baroque excesses that could doom such a project to ridiculousness. Taking a medieval theme in keeping with many of their songs from the 70's, it presents a first-person narrative of the eponymous mythical seer. Needless to say, it's not trying to be historically accurate in the least bit, confabulating Nostradamus to be a heretic, misunderstood genius, and anti-hero.

As a skeptic, I would have been a little annoyed if they had tried to present the story as anything other than a work of fiction. Even in our own time the myth-making continues: new versions of his work have been published, with bits altered to make unmistakable references to 9/11!

Halford's singing is quite a bit more subdued than usual, but it fits. It's great to hear the Priest rocking once again!