We Predict A New Album And Tour In Judas Priest's Future

04/21/08 5:30pm

It's been almost two years since ChartAttack revealed Rob Halford's plan to make an over-the-top, operatic Judas Priest concept record. The long-awaited Nostradamus double album will finally be released by Epic on June 17, but the full-blown stage show that the flamboyant frontman promised will have to wait.

Instead, the band will headline a couple of tour packages that will see them play a few Nostradamus tracks but focus primarily on their metallic catalogue. Priest and thrash metallers Testament have six western Canada shows scheduled for late July. The Masters Of Metal Tour will see the two groups pull into Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre along with Motorhead and Ronnie James Dio's version of Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, and on Aug. 13. Tickets for that show go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday.

Nostradamus' title track can be downloaded here. The album will be available in three versions: a regular jewel case double CD; a deluxe double CD housed in a 48-page hardbound book; and a super-deluxe boxed set version with the two CDs, three vinyl LPs, an expanded booklet and a poster.

"Nostradamus contains new frontiers explored and defined," says Halford. "The sense of adventure and the journey we undertook bringing the man's life alive with metal was a real labour of love."

Testament's The Formation Of Damnation will be in stores on April 29. Heaven & Hell's five-CD boxed set The Rules Of Hell, featuring remastered versions of the four Dio-era Sabbath albums, will be released by Rhino on July 22. Motorhead's 20th studio album is being recorded at Dave Grohl's studio and is expected in August.

Here are Judas Priest and Testament's Canadian dates:

July 23 Victoria, BC @ Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre
July 24 Vancouver, BC @ General Motors Place
July 26 Calgary, AB @ McMahon Stadium (Monsters Of Rock)
July 27 Edmonton, AB @ Shaw Conference Centre
July 29 Saskatoon, SK @ Credit Union Centre
July 30 Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
Aug. 13 Toronto, ON @ Molson Amphitheatre (Masters Of Metal Tour w/Motorhead and Heaven & Hell)

Here are the tracks on Nostradamus:

"Dawn Of Creation: Prophecy"
"Awakening: Revelations"
"The Four Horsemen: War"
"Sands Of Time: Pestilence And Plague"
"Death"
"Peace: Conquest"
"Lost Love"
"Persecution"
"Solitude: Exiled"
"Alone"
"Shadows In The Flame: Visions"
"Hope: New Beginnings"
"Calm Before The Storm: Nostradamus"
"Future Of Mankind"