10 HYPED Albums That Didn't Live Up To Their High Expectations

No classic album gets to where it is today without a decent promotion behind it. Before a record is even released, you have the band (and especially the fanbase) hyping the latest project as the album that's going to become a modern classic, top the charts, and somehow end world hunger in the process. That's a lot to put on just a record of music, especially when the record actually sounds like this.

That being said, is every one of the albums on this list bad? No. In fact, there are many albums on this list that are actually pretty damn good for what they are. When you look at what the fanbase was expecting though, these are a lot messier than what you probably remember, promising something that would change the world and just making another record.

On every one of these records, you do at least get some ideas that work though, whether that's attempting to go in a new direction or making this the new and improved of the band that you've known and loved for decades. This is the business where the sales numbers matter, and sometimes the raw sales don't tell the full story. The hype may have paid off a little bit, but there's a steep price to be paid for the kind of music on here.

On paper, Judas Priest dipping their toes into power metal seems like the coolest thing in the world. The sound of Rob Halford's voice against the two guitar attack of the band always seemed to have the building blocks for something bombastic, and hearing them make a full on concept album around Nostradamus was any metal fan's dream. And when we finally got it, fans were a little more underwhelmed by what the metal gods gave us.

That's not to say that Nostradamus is inherently a terrible album. By the standards of power metal, this is still a pretty good time, with bombastic sounding production and great songs sprinkled in the mix like Pestilence and Plague. For the pedigree that we hold Judas Priest at though, this is a bit of a mixed bag, with some of the great tracks mixed in with tracks that feel too lofty and grandiose for their own good.

On a handful of these cuts, the inclusion of orchestras and choral parts seem to be just window dressing to some of these songs, maybe in an attempt to take away from the fact that the core of the song isn't fleshed out all that much. The band does play their ass off though, and the title track does act as a nice thesis statement of what the entire album was supposed to be, as they dissect the beliefs of one of the most contentious scientists in the world. Although it's a little bloated in its original form, if you cut this whole thing down to just a single record, we may be looking at one of the most solid efforts of later era Judas Priest.