Nostradameus - The_Prophet_of_Evil

*=Staff's pick	The Prophet of Evil (intro) Hymn to these Lands* Evil Prophecies* Murder Requiem (I Will Honour your Name) In Prison* The Escape* The Power's in Your Hand* Gathering Resistance The Final Battle Scream of Anger (Europe cover from Wings of Tomorrow)

Genre	Power Metal	Freddy Persson	Vocals
Tracks	11	Jake Fredén	Guitar
Runningtime	54 Min.	Michael Åberg	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Thomas Antonsson	Bass
Release	19 Feb. 2001	Jesse Lindskog	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Gamma Ray, Helloween

The Prophet of Evil is the second full length studio album released by my very talented countrymen in Nostradameus. The album is a concept one dealing with a prince who's trying to save his beloved kingdom from the evil prophet Hister. Hence, the melodic power metal adventure that began with The Words of Nostradameus continues with unabated force.

The Prophet of Evil is produced by Jake Fredén and Freddy Persson and mixed by Mikko Karmila at Finnvox Studios. The result of this is an album full of speed, power and melody. Strong influences can be found here but it's absolutely not the work of a copy cat but just similarities in general. This of course means that the guitars are truly awesome and the singing of Freddy gives the sound a very individual touch.

Songs that really stand out are the true metal opener A Hymn to these Lands and the successive and just as fast and melodic Evil Prophecies.
Other tracks worth mentioning is the trio In Prison, The Escape and The Power's in your Hand. These three have some outstanding guitarwork, choruses and tempo and that especially goes for the middle part of the latter. The grand finale- The Final Battle is a bombastic 12 minutes album closer and a better way to round up this story is hard to come up with. I will have to say that with the Prophet of Evil Nostradameus along with Nocturnal Rites and Lost Horizon is one of the absolute leading bands in Swedish power metal.

Great production, awesome guitars, adrenaline pumpin' tempo, very good vocals and a good concept story makes The Prophet of Evil a definite must to have in a true metal collection. Check it out and see them on tour with Edguy. "The Prophets of Metal are standing proud and tall…". Go Sweden!

See also review of: Pathway , Hellbound , The Third Prophecy

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	7,5	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Mat