Tag: Concept Album

My Sunday Song – “Nostradamus” by Judas Priest

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic12 Comments

For My Sunday Song #293, we are going to discuss the title track, “Nostradamus”, from the Judas Priest 2008 concept album ‘Nostradamus’. The album focuses on the life and times of the great 16th Century writer and prophecy maker which I think is brilliant. The album went to #11 on the Billboard Charts but I think fell flat after that as people just didn’t get it. They were wrong in my book. The title track did get nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance but lost.

The song is an homage to the man himself. It celebrates everything about the man, the myth, the legend. It vindicates the man that was persecuted for his beliefs. He lived in the 16th Century so I am sure they thought he was a witch or evil with all his visions.

“Nostradamus” has some brilliance to it. Rob is full on operatic in his vocals and he really hits some great notes at the beginning and then the band comes in and slams it home with a massive Halford scream. It does actually have a little of the speed metal and has some classic Priest sounds and that Halford SCREAM!!!! What more could you want. I really love the epic, grandness feel to the song. It takes you on a journey and one you will want to travel again and again. The band went for it on this song and album I personally love it.

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Shinedown – “Devil” – Single Review

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With Shinedown, when they release a song or an album you know what you are going to get.  They have a sound and a style that works and they don’t stray far from that formula.  With the new album coming on May 4th, ‘Attention, Attention’, Shinedown is trying to do just that…get your attention.

The album is basically a concept album  The songs will take you on a journey of a person who is starting in a very dark, ominous place and take you all the way through to the other side where this person is done battling his mind and his issues and coming out a changed person.  I love concept albums so I can’t wait to get ahold of this an take this journey.

The first single is “Devil”, which is the first song on this story through the mind.  According to Brent Smith in an interview with Billboard, he states the following:

“‘DEVIL’ is about being afraid, ‘DEVIL’ is about being terrified of not only yourself, in some respects, but the world around you, and understanding that there are so many things and so many different situations and people and places and atmospheres and exposure that human beings are put in front of on a daily basis, [and] the world can be a really difficult place to navigate. So that’s where the story starts.”

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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – ‘Murder of the Universe’ – Album Review

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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are on ambitious trek to release 5 albums in one year. ‘Murder of the Universe’ is the second one so far.  Their first, which I reviewed, was “Flying Microtonal Banana” and I found it to be a sensational record.  Go check out the review.  I also review their album “Nonagon Infinity” which was another great album.

This, their tenth album, is a concept album and the concept is so far out there, that I can’t eloquently explain it.  I will have to let someone else’s words do the work for me.  I do know the album is broken out into three separate chapters.  The first two chapters are narrated by Leah Senior and she has an almost godlike personae.  The final chapter is narrated by a Free Text to Speech at NaturalReaders.com.  It sounds like the typed the story into the website and it did the narration.  Very interesting.

Outside of that I can’t describe this album’s story.  I will leave it to Wikipedia to do that for me…

The first (chapter), The Tale of the Altered Beast explores themes of temptation, and tells a tale of a human who stumbles upon a mystical human/beast hybrid, dubbed the Altered Beast. The story starts from the perspective of the human being pursued, who slowly takes interest in the idea of being altered – as it is considered taboo in their society. The perspective then changes to the Altered Beast’s itself, who is filled with murderous intent to kill. The human encountered by the beast slowly gives into temptation into becoming altered once the beast confronts them, as they crave power. Accepting of their fate, the beast and human merge, creating a newly altered beast, who now craves even more for flesh. However, the beast suffers greatly from absorbing another conscience – it loses track of its identity and eventually dies of insanity, decaying into the earth.

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