Nostradameus - Hellbound

*=Staff's pick	Never Turning Back* Your Betrayal The Reapers Image* Hellbound One Step Away Fight* Cuts Like Blade Seven* One World To Live In I Am Free*

Genre	Power Metal	Freddy Persson	Vocals
Tracks	10	Jake Fredén	Guitar
Runningtime	43 Min.	Michael Åberg	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Thomas Antonsson	Bass
Release	25 Oct. 2004	Esko Salow	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Sonata Arctica, Lost Horizon, Falconer

It is mature and highly professional power metal with an aggressive edge the Gothenburg based band Nostradameus deliver on their fourth album. Even if they move around in the power genre they base their music more on heavy riffing, rather than on the otherwise typical merry melodies. But there is no lack of melodic parts, though. They are mixing fast paced metal with some mid-tempo tracks but they never leave out either melodies nor power with their metal. And the music is filled with great melodic hooks as in the track Seven, but they are also to be found in many other places throughout the album.

The singing is outstanding from Freddy Persson, who has a wide range in his voice. Many times he is reminding of Daniel Heiman from Lost Horizon with the high-pitches, but not nearly as high-pitch as Daniel, though. He has a melodic voice filled with power and that is something that is necessary in order to stand out as a band in this genre. That, along with strong song material, which is something that Nostradameus also has.

I would like to compare Nostradameus to some extend with Sonata Arctica and Lost Horizon. Nostradameus shows almost the same skill of creating great melodies as the Finns, and even if the Swedes are harder and have a more aggressive edge, they are not that far from each other. The comparisons with Lost Horizon, apart from the vocals, comes with many of the breaks and the shifts in tempo leading on to an anthem-like part. A delicate touch that brings out an extra needed dimension to their music.

On Hellbound there are no weak tracks at all to find, it is a solid work of art from beginning to end. Well performed and well produced in combination with strong songs that all have a driving force in them, makes this album worth your money. It is hard to say whether they have their own sound or not, I find stuff all over the place that reminds me of something else. But Nostradameus does not feel like followers or copy-cats, they have been taking the best of many influences and made their own brand of power metal, and it works.

See also review of: Pathway , The Third Prophecy , The Prophet Of Evil

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	8	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Thomas