Columbia/Epic
2008
Disc 1
1. Dawn of Creation (Intro)
2. Prophecy
3. Awakening (Interlude)
4. Revelations
5. The Four Horsemen (Interlude)
6. War
7. Sands of Time (Interlude)
8. Pestilence and Plague
9. Death
10. Peace (Interlude)
11. Conquest
12. Lost Love
13. Persecution
Disc 2
14. Solitude (Intro)
15. Exiled
16. Alone
17. Shadows in the Flame (Interlude)
18. Visions
19. Hope
20. New Beginnings
21. Calm Before the Storm (Interlude)
22. Nostradamus
23. Future of Mankind
So Judas Priest think they can be an epic band with orchestra and concept albums now. Who isn't skeptical? This is a band who crossed over from straight up hard rock on Rocka Rolla and has always been more about rocking anthems for the bulk of their career. Well I guess it didn't work for them too well on Angel Of Retribution so maybe something more fresh was in order. The real question is... is adding orchestral elements or doing a concept album really that fresh? Certainly more than a few power metal bands and others have used the orchestral touch and concept albums? Got some classics to measure up to there.
I'll start on a positive note and say that the interludes, which I generally don't like, come off pretty seamlessly and aren't musically devoid bore pieces like on the last Iced Earth for instance. Also, they're not largely instrumental and do have some good little transitional passages by Rob Halford. Doesn't come off as fluff filler to me which is nice.
Now I'm just going to break this down disc by disc as I feel it necessary here. Disc 1 is largely heavier tracks (in relative terms), but don't expect a lot of speed. Most of the songs creep along trying to sound sinister with a largely mid-ranged vocal delivery by Rob Halford. I find the general problem with this disc both musically and vocally is that it lacks any kind of fire. There really isn't much force behind the riffs and certainly not out of Rob Halford who barely touches the higher end of his vocals. No real memorable screams here and for me that's a let down. Actually, I'll get to the point here and say this whole disc is pretty much a letdown. Pestilence And Plague is really the only one that has any energy behind it to me as the guitar doesn't just chug it's way along like most of the tracks. By far the worst example of this is Death which ranks up (or down) with Judas Priest's worst songs featuring Rob Halford. It's like Priest doing some of the worst doom metal imaginable. Dun.... Dun.... messenger of deaaaath.... dun.... dun. All I can say about this track really is it's a great cure for insomnia. Throughout the various tracks you do hear some good soloing but this boring lead work is a general problem.
Disc 2 starts off and largely stays in an entirely different vein. The first 3 songs (not including interludes and intros) all have a pretty soft and somber feel to them. Exiled and Alone give me a bit of a feel of Beyond The Realms Of Death with their depressed feel and Visions has a polished flow that reminds me more of a track like Blood Red Skies. All of these songs come at once and are the best things the whole package has to offer. These 3 tracks actually manage to have feeling and for the first time this feels like a big concept album with a purpose to me. The one nitpick I have with this part of the album is it does all come at once and all the way through track 7 you don't really hear Anything heavy. Starts to get a bit old with this one disc all being so mellow. Then when track 7, the title track of this whole nonsense, kicks in I start wishing for the mellow stuff again. I thought about trying to count the number of times this lame song says the word Nostradamus but got bored and gave up. Much like my first times trying to listen to this album and get through Disc 1 really. After that we get one more track which overstays it's welcome at 8:25 of nothing really interesting and that is the end.
So what's the verdict you ask? Pretty mediocre is all I can say. For such a long album there really aren't that many standout tracks and 3 out of 4 come from the more mellow side. Not exactly a solid metal album in my book. Stack this up against the ton of power metal bands who use orchestral elements or classic concept albums like the crimson idol, seventh son, or mindcrime and this one falls way short of the mark. Maybe that's a harsh bar to set, but when you're a classic metal band coming into the trend of concept albums about 20 years too late that's what is going to happen. This is nothing new, this is nothing original, and this is nothing interesting.
Highlights: Exiled, Alone, Visions, Pestilence And Plague
Rating - 2.0/5
1. Dawn of Creation (Intro)
2. Prophecy
3. Awakening (Interlude)
4. Revelations
5. The Four Horsemen (Interlude)
6. War
7. Sands of Time (Interlude)
8. Pestilence and Plague
9. Death
10. Peace (Interlude)
11. Conquest
12. Lost Love
13. Persecution
Disc 2
14. Solitude (Intro)
15. Exiled
16. Alone
17. Shadows in the Flame (Interlude)
18. Visions
19. Hope
20. New Beginnings
21. Calm Before the Storm (Interlude)
22. Nostradamus
23. Future of Mankind
So Judas Priest think they can be an epic band with orchestra and concept albums now. Who isn't skeptical? This is a band who crossed over from straight up hard rock on Rocka Rolla and has always been more about rocking anthems for the bulk of their career. Well I guess it didn't work for them too well on Angel Of Retribution so maybe something more fresh was in order. The real question is... is adding orchestral elements or doing a concept album really that fresh? Certainly more than a few power metal bands and others have used the orchestral touch and concept albums? Got some classics to measure up to there.
I'll start on a positive note and say that the interludes, which I generally don't like, come off pretty seamlessly and aren't musically devoid bore pieces like on the last Iced Earth for instance. Also, they're not largely instrumental and do have some good little transitional passages by Rob Halford. Doesn't come off as fluff filler to me which is nice.
Now I'm just going to break this down disc by disc as I feel it necessary here. Disc 1 is largely heavier tracks (in relative terms), but don't expect a lot of speed. Most of the songs creep along trying to sound sinister with a largely mid-ranged vocal delivery by Rob Halford. I find the general problem with this disc both musically and vocally is that it lacks any kind of fire. There really isn't much force behind the riffs and certainly not out of Rob Halford who barely touches the higher end of his vocals. No real memorable screams here and for me that's a let down. Actually, I'll get to the point here and say this whole disc is pretty much a letdown. Pestilence And Plague is really the only one that has any energy behind it to me as the guitar doesn't just chug it's way along like most of the tracks. By far the worst example of this is Death which ranks up (or down) with Judas Priest's worst songs featuring Rob Halford. It's like Priest doing some of the worst doom metal imaginable. Dun.... Dun.... messenger of deaaaath.... dun.... dun. All I can say about this track really is it's a great cure for insomnia. Throughout the various tracks you do hear some good soloing but this boring lead work is a general problem.
Disc 2 starts off and largely stays in an entirely different vein. The first 3 songs (not including interludes and intros) all have a pretty soft and somber feel to them. Exiled and Alone give me a bit of a feel of Beyond The Realms Of Death with their depressed feel and Visions has a polished flow that reminds me more of a track like Blood Red Skies. All of these songs come at once and are the best things the whole package has to offer. These 3 tracks actually manage to have feeling and for the first time this feels like a big concept album with a purpose to me. The one nitpick I have with this part of the album is it does all come at once and all the way through track 7 you don't really hear Anything heavy. Starts to get a bit old with this one disc all being so mellow. Then when track 7, the title track of this whole nonsense, kicks in I start wishing for the mellow stuff again. I thought about trying to count the number of times this lame song says the word Nostradamus but got bored and gave up. Much like my first times trying to listen to this album and get through Disc 1 really. After that we get one more track which overstays it's welcome at 8:25 of nothing really interesting and that is the end.
So what's the verdict you ask? Pretty mediocre is all I can say. For such a long album there really aren't that many standout tracks and 3 out of 4 come from the more mellow side. Not exactly a solid metal album in my book. Stack this up against the ton of power metal bands who use orchestral elements or classic concept albums like the crimson idol, seventh son, or mindcrime and this one falls way short of the mark. Maybe that's a harsh bar to set, but when you're a classic metal band coming into the trend of concept albums about 20 years too late that's what is going to happen. This is nothing new, this is nothing original, and this is nothing interesting.
Highlights: Exiled, Alone, Visions, Pestilence And Plague
Rating - 2.0/5
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