In a new chat with Chris Akin Presents, Ian Hill reflected on what he thinks about Judas Priest’s 2008 album ‘Nostradamus.’
“But, yeah, we’ve had a couple of sidesteps, and ‘Nostradamus’, it was probably something we needed to get out of our system,” the bassist explained. “But it’s one of those albums — it’s very long, very complicated as well, and it is designed to be listened to in one sitting, which is one of the reasons that we don’t play any songs from that record.”
Hill continued, “It’s great — I mean, it is, at heart, a great heavy metal record; it really is — but it’s picking out the songs that would fit into the set at the moment. And there’s not anything there that would enhance the set. But for the sake of it, we could do that — [play a song] from ‘Nostradamus’ — but it wouldn’t have helped the set in any other way.”
“And it is difficult to do, when you’re getting a setlist together, because you have to find that blend of new material, obviously old favorites that you’d get lynched if you didn’t play, and then you’ve got a whole melting pot there of stuff that we can pick out of,” the musician said of deciding on setlist before the shows.
He added, “And it gets more difficult with each album, because every time you put a new song in, you’ve got to drop someone’s potential favorite. But we do our best, and I think we’ve got it pretty much right up until now anyway.”
‘Nostradamus’ was the last album featuring guitarists KK Downing and Glenn Tipton. In a 2018 interview, Downing discussed the album and his work with Tipton. He explained, “…I will say that myself and Glenn worked together particularly great on the ‘Nostradamus’ album. I’m extraordinarily proud of the musical composition on that album.”
Downing also shared, “It came together very quickly, too, because we weren’t scratching around trying to write another ‘Breaking the Law’ or another ‘Painkiller’ or something. It was completely fresh. So it happened really quickly. It had sort of an alternative feel. It was a fantastic thing to do, I think. I still love to play it and listen to it and enjoy it.”
The album reached the band’s highest chart position in the US until it was topped by ‘Redeemer of Souls’ in 2014. ‘Nostradamus’ was different from the usual Judas Priest sound. It was a concept album with string sections, ballads, and acoustic guitars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4h_Lysrm5Y
