afeigel wrote:
This debate generally gets pretty heated. I voted hit. Its definitely not their best, and it gets overly pretentious at times (When the Eagle Cries), but Greenface and the Reckoning are kickass songs. And I second that the Gettysburg trilogy is f'n cool.
Yeah right on the money there. I'm certainly not one of those rejecting everything after Burnt Offerings as crap for being too non-thrashy or anything (seeing as Dark Saga is in my top three for Iced Earth and quite possibly above BO), meaning this one is another cool release in my book, but it's certainly not without its flaws. Specifically, Schaffer's songwriting has turned more than a little dull lately (the new D&W is supposedly a new low in uncreativity), the vocals aren't quite as well fitting and unique as with Barlow and the ballads blow ass as usual. But there are enough highlight songs on there to rank it somewhere in the middle of their catalogue.
I remember back in autumn of 2002, what an Iced Earth fanboy I was there for a while...downloaded one mp3 from each full-length album and became so hooked. Fallen a bit out of them lately, I must admit, though - could be due to Schaffer's rhythm work becoming repetitive with repeated listens, but I dunno. Iced Earth's strength lies mostly in great songs rather than great riffs anyway.