Idolator

Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. This time around, we look at the writeups for Judas Priest’s double album Nostradamus, which hits stores today.

• “This one kills me to write, but the great JUDAS PRIEST has flopped with Nostradamus. While I’m sure honor to the legacy of this great band will cause people to be kind to the band when reviewing it, calling it as it is you have to say that this album is simply unappealing to listen to. The sad thing is that with all the expectation on it and following such a great album with ‘Angel Of Retribution,’ Nostradamus is simply a bust. There’s no other way to say it.” [MetalEater]

• “I loved the album–I dare not compare it directly with another Priest album–as the songs on it never manage to cause the same amount of excitement–in the course of a single song’s duration–as with the bands previous mega hits, but taken as a whole–Nostradamus is just massive and impressive. Massively impressive!” [Metal Invader]

• “A few infectious melodies, such as ‘Pestilence and Plague,’ do survive the cod operatic structure and glutinous orchestration, but what gets lost in the portentous kerfuffle is the band’s three-minute-pop side. Without it, their meisterwerk marks a new extreme in self-indulgence.” [The Telegraph]

• “From simple soldier he will attain to Empire, from the short robe he will grow into the long. Brave in arms, much worse towards the Church, he vexes the priests as water fills a sponge.” [Nostradamus]