I've been a Priest fan forever, even when Rob spilt, I held out hope that they would continue on and they did after about a 7 year break with Ripper up front.

This recent release will be a mixed bag for most Priest fans. The reason I say that is simply because it's not what you would expect to hear from this band. If you're looking for 80's style Priest?, it ain't here! If you're looking for 70's style Priest?, well their are elements of it on here as it does somewhat hearken back to the early stuff from albums like Sad Wings Of Destiny and Sin After Sin etc. One things for sure, It'll surprise you in many ways.

To be honest, it took me about 20 listens to really start to appreciate what we have here. I guess it comes down to how you perceived this band to be. If you like the 80's stuff, you more than likely wont get into this. If you liked the really early stuff, you'll love this release.

Nostradamus is a masterpiece in my books. It's symphonic, overblown, slow and probably far to long, but man does it kick ass. For those of you who say it's not heavy, either you're simply not giving it a chance for the reasons I've stated above, or you're just not listening!

Priest has definitely departed from the signature sound we've become used to over the last two decades or so. This release is a different animal here all together and it's back to the old school Priest. Like the headline states, "what's old is new again!" Rob Halford's voice will always be powerful, after all, he is the Metal God and you do have to give them props for not resting on their laurels and really branching out with this effort.

Hell, you get nearly two hours of music here and it is really one tune in 23 parts which provides you the listener with a very cohesive sounding cd.

To rap it up, although maybe have flamed them for this cd, I think that it really is their best effort thus far. What, did I say that? Absolutely, to me this is a fantastic release that brings back to the good ol' days before they kind of became a cookie cutter metal band in the 80's (not that's theirs anything wrong with that!). I absolutely love what they've done here as they have taken this band back to it's roots.

If you've liked Priest past and present?, you owe it to yourself to check out this latest release. It's truly something special from a band that is as relevant today as it was some 30 years ago.

Well done gentlemen!!