JUDAS PRIEST's IAN HILL Defends 'Nostradamus' Album: 'It Was Probably Something We Needed To Get Out Of Our System'

In a new interview with Chris Akin Presents, JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill was asked if there have been any albums that he and his bandmates have regretted making once they had been released and been out for a while, including PRIEST's controversial symphonic heavy metal concept double album about Nostradamus and the synth-heavy "Turbo". Hill responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, you do with hindsight… 'Point Of Entry' was probably the first time we took a sidestep. And we went a little bit more commercial. And we thought that maybe that's where we should be heading. And we went into it with all great intent, with all good intent, and, of course, we were met with mixed reviews. We came back, of course, after that with 'Screaming For Vengeance' and what have you. And then with 'Turbo'. It is funny because we got to 'Defenders Of The Faith', and we'd almost reached the end of the line. We could have done another 'Defenders Of The Faith' easily, but we wouldn't have been taking that step. And Roland came along with these great guitar synthesizers and they gave us first chance at them. We thought, 'Well, maybe this is it.' And, of course, we did that. And again, it lost us a lot of fans but it's also gained us a lot of new ones. So it evened itself out at the end of the day from a purely commercial point of view. And then, of course, after that, we went with a harder edge with 'Ram It Down' and then 'Painkiller', and that's the way it's been ever since."

Hill continued: "But, yeah, we've had a couple of sidesteps, and 'Nostradamus', it was probably something we needed to get out of our system. 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. 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. 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."

Released in 2008, "Nostradamus" was criticized by fans for not sounding like classic PRIEST and for consisting almost entirely of slow, doomy, operatic, keyboard-heavy anthems, apart from a token couple of mid-tempo songs.

The two-CD, 23-track journey through the life of the controversial, 16th-century prophet "Nostradamus" shifted 42,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at No. 11. At the time, this was the band's highest-ever chart position in the U.S. In Canada, the CD opened at position No. 9 after moving close to 4,000 units.

In a 2020 interview with The Flying V Documentary TV Channel, original PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing said about "Nostradamus": "A lot of people probably don't understand or quite get 'Nostradamus', but it was great for us — it was great for us to express and to exhibit what we could actually do as musicians. And also it was something original. And I love it.

"The downfall of 'Nostradamus' was probably the one thing that I actually thought, naively, was gonna be the best thing about 'Nostradamus', and that is the fact that I wanted to take people back to how it used to be," he continued.

"Years ago, when you had a big concept album, like when I first got [THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE's] 'Electric Ladyland', for example, we used to go in our bedroom, close the curtains, put the headphones on and just disappear into our world for however long it took to get through the album and just absorb it and just be at one with it. And I wanted people to experience 'Nostradamus' like that."

Back in 2018, Downing described "Nostradamus" as "our chance to create something different in the music place that we don't always go to. We have lots of great musicals, and we go into great, prestigious venues, like the Royal Albert Hall or Carnegie Hall — great theaters around the place," he said. "To create something and not let everyone else have all of the spoils — 'Phantom Of The Opera' and 'Cats' and all of these musicals and stuff like that. Why can't we, JUDAS PRIEST, put something that's rock and metal into that musical and entertainment place?

"Okay, we might have been going off on a tangent, getting on the wrong track as far as everybody wanting a [classic-sounding] JUDAS PRIEST record, but looking at the bigger picture of broadening the scope and the horizons of what a rock and metal band can do, it's an opportunity kind of missed through no fault of anyone's except our own record company and management, or whatever, decisions," he continued. "It wasn't to be, and probably it was a good decision. But it's a dream — it's a dream for me. I often think about it."

In a 2009 interview with PyroMusic.net, PRIEST singer Rob Halford also defended "Nostradamus", saying: "For us in the band, it was just a wonderful opportunity to complete an idea that we'd had and we'd talked about for many, many years. Growing up as we did, there were a lot of those types of concept records around in the '70s and we always wondered how we would tackle that kind of endeavor. So 'Nostradamus' turned out to be a real satisfying experience for us all."