Nostradameus - The Third Prophecy

*=Staff's pick	Far Too Strong Randall Flagg Listen Those Things You Did* The Future Will Show If We Believe Revenge Is Mine* 1986 H.M.S - Ulysses* In Harmony Towards The Sleep One For All, All For One (live)

Genre	Power Metal	Freddy Persson	Vocals
Tracks	11	Jake Fredén	Guitar
Runningtime	56 Min.	Michael Åberg	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Thomas Antonsson	Bass
Release	27 Jan. 2003	Esko Salow	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	The Storyteller

I had looked a bit forward to the new album from Nostradameus, since they have been one of the most promising bands in the power metal genre from Sweden, but I have to say that this is a disappointment.

During the first two songs, which is one midtempo song and one that is a bit faster but hard to classify, it doesn´t seem to want to take off at anytime even though you are waiting for it. In the third song, kind of Gamma Ray-ish in the way the verse is composed, it is more like the Nostradameus we know since before, but it just doesn´t want to grab a hold of you and it too easy-forgotten and a bit weak and lame, actually. The rest of the album goes on like that and I can´t really point out any real highlights, simply because there aren´t any. There are of course some really good riffs and leads to be found, but they don´t do much good when the rest of the package is too thin.

It sounds like Nostradameus is suffering from the famous "third album syndrome", and have felt the need to change something in their musical approach, but havent known exactly waht and haven´t dared to do it to the full and the result is a halfready, halfmade hollow mess. I also think that singer Persson's vocals are not powerful enough, and doesn´t fit to what the band probably try to accomplish here.

Sometimes it even get embarrasing, in form of pure "De bar' å åk"-refrains (« unexplainable to non-swedish people), but mostly those moments are in clear minority, and they manage to at least keep on the right side of the road. I just can´t seem to see much inspiring about this release, and I strongly doubt this is a cd I will be thinking about when I feel like I want to listen to some real good metal.

I believe this was a big step back for Nostradameus, but - I still have hope for this band, though.

See also reviews of: Pathway , Hellbound , The Prophet of Evil

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	5	4

Summary
4,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy