Metal Reviews

I'm tempted to buy this Iced Earth compilation seeing as to how All Music and Metal-Reviews (not to be confused with MetalReviews) give it rave reviews - even though I don't usually buy those kinds of compilations. I have a few questions about it:

1. Are the entire songs re-recorded with Iced Earth's 1997 line-up or is it just the vocals that are redone with the remainder of the songs "cut and pasted" from the band's earlier albums (and on the Enter The Realm demo, wouldn't the sound quality be a problem then?)?

2. Is it any good? : 8)

Here's the answer to both your questions : Avoid, avoid, avoid and either get Night of the Stormrider, or if you want an Iced Earth best of get the live in athens album.

I have to agree. I have the two disc version of DoP, and overall I wasnt impressed. Still cant figure out why Jon felt it necessary to re-release some of the Burnt Offerings songs on the two disc DoP set. They sound better in the original release.

Get the 3-disc Alive in Athens. Matt sounds a hell of a lot better on AiA than on DoP, and it covers a great range of Iced Earth's back catalogue (only big miss is the lack of Colors, which is a live track on the Melancholy EP).

Don't listen to this retard! It's an excellent album, go for the 2CD version, though. The only problem is that the mix has a bit too much bass at times, if you can equalize your shit, then it's not a problem.

It's a great CD. Much better than anything on Iced Earth or Stormrider!

INFIDEL!!

Seriously though, better than anything on Stormrider?!? I won't even begin describing how Stormrider mops the floor with everything else Iced Earth, it takes but the opening 30 seconds of Angels Holocaust to do that! Although I do think there was the same discussion over at the classics section! So a few more dozen honorable metal reviews users agree with me

Here's the deal: the Enter the Realm tracks are entirely remixed and feature appart from the usual re-recorded vocals (all track originally recorded w/o Barlow are), newly recorded bass and drum tracks (by James McDonough and Brent Smedly respectively). These are probably the best versions of these songs there is to get, so for the IE die-hard this is very much recommended if only for these tracks. Colors and Iced Earth are both better than how they appear on the full-lenth debut album. Also features an Enter the Realm exclusive track (Nightmares), and another demo track I have no idea how to get elsewhere (Winter Nights), both remixed to sound decent.

The problem is that Barlow doesn't sound all that inspired on here - really the only re-done Stormrider track that improves on the original here is Desert Rain, because while I usually prefer Barlow to Greely, this is as I said a less inspired Barlow we're dealing with here. The non-demo tracks are the same recordings as the originals, with only a slightly remixed sound and re-recorded vocals). Some tracks have also undergone a few changes, for example, Burnt Offerings here has a alternate intro, but it's not all that much.

Alive in Athens is far more recommended, I agree. Also more recommended are the remixed/remastered versions found on the boxset Dark Genesis, also available seperately, but still, some of the best song versions are found on DoP, so it's still worth it for the die-hard IE fan, as I said. Admittedly I haven't heard the live version of Colors accidentally left out of AiA, now appearing as a bonus track on the unlimited version of the Melancholy EP.

:roll: I need to get a life...

INFIDEL!!

I can't begin to tell you that everything that Barlow and Owens did mops the floor with Stormrider

In terms of vocal skills, anything with Barlow beats out Night of the Storm Rider. I personally consider Owens and Greely on the same level as I really dont care for either. The music from Night of the Storm Rider, IMHO, destroys anything on The Glorius Burden. NotSR is the first IE album that I could really get in to (Gene Adam's work on the S/T almost made me NOT become an IE fan).

Asshole! I was going to say something similar! Hahaha. I've explained it before, I started listening to Iced Earth on the Dark Saga album. Thus I like the Barlow stuff better. Greely is not bad, but I prefer Barlow. Gene Adam sucks, though.

And Burnt Offerings. If Alive in Athens had those, it would be that much more incredible. As it is, it still is one of the best live albums of all time.

"Burnt Offerings" is an awesome song and its sad that it didnt make it on to the live set. Being a big fan of the Burnt Offerings album, it would have been great to hear. Burning Oasis would have been nice aswell. I will never understand what Jon has against the Burnt Offerings album.

DoP is crap. Night of the Stormrider and Burnt Offerings are the only IE albums you need.

Let me quote Shaffer himself "We don't need to make another stormrider anymore. Now that we've become better known we don't need to put 20 riffs and solo's in each song to impress people", I think I read it in the greek metal hamster...errr...sorry hammer (which I haven't bought for the past five years btw!). I believe that pretty much says it all. The sheer quantity of music in that album is unbelievable. Now if you prefer the same tuturuturututuru riff reprise in every Iced Earth release since, and the "buhuhu" vocals of Barlow in their recent releases I can't help you there! Ripper does rule, yes, but they sound totally uninspired to me nowadays, so in my oppinion he is being wasted in the same way he was in Priest (come to think of it his best era was when he still played with Winter's Bane!).

Oh, and Burnt Offerings does rule for it's -almost unique in power metal standards- dark atmosphere, as does Dark Saga for its more catchy but still damn enjoyable approach!

Hello? And the rest. Dark Saga, Something Wicked, Horror Show and the Glorious Burden....

DOP is good IMO. The first 2 singers of IE sucked big time. IE knew this, thus one of the reasons why they re-did most tracks with Barlow's vocals. Now they sound better.

Dont know why they re-did the Burnt Offerings stuff, but get it just to hear the Barlow versions of tracks from Stormrider and Iced Earth.

They did NOT re-do the Burnt Offerings stuff. Only remixed it a bit, as well as putting a different intro on the title track.

Re-mix, re-do, whatever. You know what i meant. It wasnt needed.

Plus they left out the best track on Burnt Offerings anyway.....

LAST DECEMBER

:shock:

"Dante's Inferno" is better than 90% of all Iced Earth songs, including "Last December."

We finally agree on something!