“What we’ve done is to move beyond metal. There are so many ideas here that expand our horizons”: how Judas Priest reached for the sky with divisive double album Nostradamus

Judas Priest backstage in 2009.

When Judas Priest reunited with errant singer Rob Halford and released 2005’s album Angel Of Retribution, it opened up a new chapter for the metal icons. But nobody could have predicted their next move would be to make a sprawling, ambitious double album about 16th century prophet Nostradamus. But when Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and then-guitarist KK Downing sat down with Metal Hammer in 2008, they couldn’t have predicted that the album would divide critics and fans alike.

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