Reviews of "Nostradamus" NIKOLO KOTZEV’S NOSTRADAMUS (Steamhammer/ SPV) You may have notice lately a great number of musicians such as Tobias Sammet's with Avantasia Metal Opera, Ayreon with The Dream Sequencer & Flight Of The Migrator, Ian Parry with Consortium Project that have tried to use various vocalists in one album to have a variety and offer something new to the listener. Well, add one more guy to this. We have Nikolo Kotzev from Brazen Abbot with the story of the famous prophet of the 15th Century called Nostradamus. The whole outcome is very impressive. He gathered legendary singers such as Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze), Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Deep Purple), Allanah Myles, Sass Jordan, Doogie White (Rainbow) and a few others, he added a symphonic orchestra of 35 people playing violins, cellos and all the rest and the necessary rock instruments (guitars, bass, drums) and created an extraordinary rock opera. The 2 CD album with an almost 2 hours long story is a feast of melodies. The singers are all of high quality. Male singers have the main role in the album while female like Myles and Jordan are rarely stand on their own. The cool thing is the dialogue between Nostradamus & the Inquisitor where two male voices are fighting in a way. It's just brilliant. The vocal lines most of the time are very good and of high quality. Now about the music. The 1st CD is a bit 'light'. Although the music is hard rock it tends to be "easy listening" in a few cases. The 2nd CD is heavier. Hard rock at it's best. Generally imagine something like a mix of Deep Purple with Kansas with lots of classical music on the background and you'll get the meaning. The lyrics show the whole story of Nostradamus during his life. The concept is divided into 3 Acts. The third act is referring to his main visions such as World War 2 and World War 3 and the End of the World. The lyrics are well suited and they have diversity reminding metal, rock or even gospel melodies showing maybe the genius of Nikolo Kotzev. The book inside has 40 pages of lyrics and explanations of the story, which is something amazing. According to my opinion is a great album. The job done is very detailed and creations like these propel the music we love even further. I bet that this is one of the albums that will stick in the mind of hard rockers in years to come. Give it a try... P.S. There is a mistake in the book of the 1st CD saying that song number 5 is an instrumental instead of number 4 which is in reality. 8/10 Pazuzu Metal Disorder (http://www.metaldisorder.com/)