The latest studio album from Judas Priest, those old-school British metal gods, contains some frightening music: Strings! Delicate piano! Orchestral interludes! Vocalist Rob Halford cooing so sweetly that you think he's singing a Disney flick lullaby! Halford doing his best Pavarotti imitation! All surface on "Nostradamus," Priest's 2008 double-CD concept album.
Of course, such music is frightening only if you are a fundamentalist metal-head who insists all guitars be turned up to 11 and all vocals sound like Satan howling with a toothache.
But don't despair, you fundie head-bangers. When Priest performs Aug. 15 at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre, they'll be returning to their leather-and-chains roots with lots of thunder lizard guitars amid Halford's muscular grunts and screams. In fact, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the band's classic "British Steel" album, Priest will perform that work (which includes "Living After Midnight" and "Breaking the Law") in its entirety.
And Priest should be able to get it right -- after all, the band still features four of its founding members: Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, and bassist Ian Hill.
From his home in the countryside of Worcestershire, England, Tipton spoke about concept albums and whether he believes Nostradamus, that 16th-century prophet, really could foresee the future.
What was the inspiration to create a concept album based on the life and prophecies of Nostradamus?
We were contemplating doing a concept album. The subject matter could be anything, like Holst's "The Planets" or Pink Floyd's "The Wall" or Jeff Lynne's "War of the Worlds." So it can be an event or a person. We were thinking what or who could this album be based around, and our manager suggested Nostradamus.
Once we looked into this guy's life, it was very inspirational really. Not just his alchemy and all the mystery surrounding his predictions. His life itself -- he had a lot of tragedy. He lost his wife and daughter in the plague. The church came after him and exiled him, kicked him out of France. Then he found a new life and put it all back together. It was very inspiring.
What's your opinion on him -- do you think he really was able to predict the future, or do people read too much into those mysterious quatrains he wrote?
I think if you make enough predictions, they can appear to come true, can't they? To be honest, for a guy from the 16th century to come up with so much information, to have the foresight and certainly a lot of vision anyway -- undoubtedly, he was a very, very special person and a very intellectual person who certainly left his mark in history.
He's still being talked about today and that takes some doing. Regardless of whether you believe his prophecies or not, the guy was very inspirational in many ways.
I've read the fan reviews on the album on Amazon.com, and the reaction truly is a love-it-or-hate-it thing. They either loved that Priest had delved into the progressive and melodic stuff, or they loathed it and accused you guys of becoming soft and selling out. How did you and others in Priest take that?
Well, I don't agree with the expression "selling out." In an age of downloading, where concepts albums are probably not that fashionable and it's a double album anyway, with people's attention spans supposed to being short, I think it's anything but a sell-out.
We've always done in Priest what we want to do, what we feel is right. We felt it was a great time for us to do a concept album. Very brave, very stupid, depending on which way you look at it. But it certainly, in this day and age, isn't a sure-fire way to sell albums.
A lot of people who initially criticized the album have come back and said, "You know what, we get it now. It was a bit of a shock to the system to start with, but stepping into the world of Nostradamus, listening to it in its entirety, we see what you are doing now." So some people have done a U-turn.
On the upcoming tour, is the plan to perform "British Steel" (their seventh album, originally issued in April 1980) in its entirety on every date?
Yep, that's what we want to do. I've been brushing a bit of dust out of my ears, you know, brushing the cobwebs out. Going back a few years and listening to a few tracks.
It's a celebration and tribute really to our fans for being with us for 30 years. There's some great songs on that album: "The Rage," "Steeler," "Rapid Fire," "Living After Midnight," "Grinder," "Metal Gods." I think everybody will have a good time.
You and K.K. Downing have been playing together for 35 years, far longer than most bands or marriages last. Do you two ever surprise each other musically these days?
I still think we both got bits and pieces up our sleeve. When we're doing trade-offs, we still have a healthy competition, you know. If I put something down, Ken will obviously try and better it. Then I go, "All right, I've got to try and better that," so forth and so on.
We've got a sort of a sixth sense after playing so long together. We've got very different styles and we're very fortunate they work together and blend it a special way.
Do you ever tick each other off musically or personally?
You can't be together for 35 years and not have differences of opinion, you know. We're both temperamental, we're both artistic, we're both volatile. But you learn to get over that, to control your ego and your temperament.
It's not always easy because music is a very personal thing and you sometimes have very different opinions. But the thing to do is either compromise or go someplace else in a completely different direction.
If You Go
WHO: Judas Priest, Whitesnake and PopEvil
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Aug. 15
WHERE: St. Augustine Amphitheatre, 1340C A1A South, St. Augustine
TICKETS: $41.50, $51.50 and $64.50, available at Ticketmaster
INFORMATION: 904-471-1965
We were contemplating doing a concept album. The subject matter could be anything, like Holst's "The Planets" or Pink Floyd's "The Wall" or Jeff Lynne's "War of the Worlds." So it can be an event or a person. We were thinking what or who could this album be based around, and our manager suggested Nostradamus.
Once we looked into this guy's life, it was very inspirational really. Not just his alchemy and all the mystery surrounding his predictions. His life itself -- he had a lot of tragedy. He lost his wife and daughter in the plague. The church came after him and exiled him, kicked him out of France. Then he found a new life and put it all back together. It was very inspiring.
What's your opinion on him -- do you think he really was able to predict the future, or do people read too much into those mysterious quatrains he wrote?
I think if you make enough predictions, they can appear to come true, can't they? To be honest, for a guy from the 16th century to come up with so much information, to have the foresight and certainly a lot of vision anyway -- undoubtedly, he was a very, very special person and a very intellectual person who certainly left his mark in history.
He's still being talked about today and that takes some doing. Regardless of whether you believe his prophecies or not, the guy was very inspirational in many ways.
I've read the fan reviews on the album on Amazon.com, and the reaction truly is a love-it-or-hate-it thing. They either loved that Priest had delved into the progressive and melodic stuff, or they loathed it and accused you guys of becoming soft and selling out. How did you and others in Priest take that?
Well, I don't agree with the expression "selling out." In an age of downloading, where concepts albums are probably not that fashionable and it's a double album anyway, with people's attention spans supposed to being short, I think it's anything but a sell-out.
We've always done in Priest what we want to do, what we feel is right. We felt it was a great time for us to do a concept album. Very brave, very stupid, depending on which way you look at it. But it certainly, in this day and age, isn't a sure-fire way to sell albums.
A lot of people who initially criticized the album have come back and said, "You know what, we get it now. It was a bit of a shock to the system to start with, but stepping into the world of Nostradamus, listening to it in its entirety, we see what you are doing now." So some people have done a U-turn.
On the upcoming tour, is the plan to perform "British Steel" (their seventh album, originally issued in April 1980) in its entirety on every date?
Yep, that's what we want to do. I've been brushing a bit of dust out of my ears, you know, brushing the cobwebs out. Going back a few years and listening to a few tracks.
It's a celebration and tribute really to our fans for being with us for 30 years. There's some great songs on that album: "The Rage," "Steeler," "Rapid Fire," "Living After Midnight," "Grinder," "Metal Gods." I think everybody will have a good time.
You and K.K. Downing have been playing together for 35 years, far longer than most bands or marriages last. Do you two ever surprise each other musically these days?
I still think we both got bits and pieces up our sleeve. When we're doing trade-offs, we still have a healthy competition, you know. If I put something down, Ken will obviously try and better it. Then I go, "All right, I've got to try and better that," so forth and so on.
We've got a sort of a sixth sense after playing so long together. We've got very different styles and we're very fortunate they work together and blend it a special way.
Do you ever tick each other off musically or personally?
You can't be together for 35 years and not have differences of opinion, you know. We're both temperamental, we're both artistic, we're both volatile. But you learn to get over that, to control your ego and your temperament.
It's not always easy because music is a very personal thing and you sometimes have very different opinions. But the thing to do is either compromise or go someplace else in a completely different direction.
If You Go
WHO: Judas Priest, Whitesnake and PopEvil
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Aug. 15
WHERE: St. Augustine Amphitheatre, 1340C A1A South, St. Augustine
TICKETS: $41.50, $51.50 and $64.50, available at Ticketmaster
INFORMATION: 904-471-1965
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