In a new video shared by The Flying V Documentary TV Channel, former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing discussed the band’s controversial conceptual 2008 double album Nostradamus.
Released in 2008, the two-CD, 23-track journey through the life of the controversial, 16th-century prophet 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.
“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,” Downing said.
“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 added: “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.”
