Reviews of "Nostradamus" NIKOLO KOTZEV’S NOSTRADAMUS (Steamhammer/SPV) What a star parade!! The poli-instrumentist N.Kotzev sorrounded himself with a bunch of historical names of the hard rock scene of all times to realize this rock opera about Nostradamus. In fact, supported by a 35 elements orchestra, the lineup that played in this cd is made up by 3 people that should be quite well known to all of you: I'm speaking about Mic Mihaeli (kb), John Leven (bs) and Ian Haugland (ds) - 3/5 of the original Europe lineup. And that's not all: do you know Joe Lynn Turner (Malmsteen, Rainbow), Jorn Lande (Ark, Millennium) and the superstar Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze, Black Sabbath)? Well, they all take a part as singers in this album (together with some others, great but less famous). But let's slide to the music itself. Musically, this "opera", articulated through 2 cd and 21 tracks, is suspended among progressive, hard rock and classical music, with some bluesy traits in some passages (like in the 12th track, "I don't Believe, in which the spirit of Deep Purple of the Coverdale era is brought back to life!). There could be so much to say about this cd that's better telling as little as possible: the quality is obviously excellent, both on the composition side and the performance side; the singers are all fairly in shape (except Hughes, that alternates not so good parts with stunning passages, take as an example the difference between the 2nd and the 7th track), and the presence of the orchestra enriches it all: it's enough to listen to the splendid violin arrangement of the 6th track. And finally, although the lenght is a little bit excessive in my opinion, this album won't bore you, thanks to its continuous changes of atmosphere and music. The only thing that's not so good is the fact that the music doesn't always fit the story like it is supposed to do: I mean, there's a little gap between the lyrics and the plot on one side, and the musical progression on the other - to talk about Nostradamus I expected something more classical oriented, and here, apart of the orchestral parts, the mood is far from being classical. COMMENT: the names say it all…But there's also much more. Thumbs up! 8.5/10 Heavy Metal Portal (http://www.hmportal.com/)