Metal Reviews

wondering what you guys think of it

I think Matt Barlow just shit all over the two albums Owens did with Iced Earth. Matt fucking smokes on this one!

Overall it's a great album, better than Framing Armageddon simply because Matt fits with Iced Earth so much better and compliments Jon's writing style much more than Owens did. Stylistically, it's like Framing Armageddon in that it's more mid-paced than anything. But this one plays more like a regular album than a concept album, mainly because there's just two instrumentals, an intro and an outro. There's no interludes or any of that shit.

And listen to it more than once before shitting out your opinion. This isn't the kind of Iced Earth we're used to hearing Matt sing on. It took me about half of the album to get used to it, then on the second spin everything sounded very natural. It's a great album, though, better than both Framing Armaggedon and The Glorious Burden, I think.

But Matt shines here. Just listen to "Crucify The King." Owens could never pull that song off, no fucking way. Barlow is just mean on that tune, but he nails that high-pitched shit with ease. I actually think he tried to outdo Owens, to be honest, because this is easily Matt's best performance ever. Funny that Framing Armageddon was easily Owens's best performance ever. I think you gotta give Jon some credit for bringing that out of these guys.

I love metal and will refuse to download the music that I love . i will buy it when its released.

stepping off my soapbox....

Just pretend like you got the promo in the mail like every other downloader out there.

Oh fuck, I didn't know it was leaked. I need to download the shit out of this one. And then kill some puppies.

I will ONLY be happy if every other riff is dominated by triplets and it has some gay acoustic bits!

If only any Iced Earth song was dominated by triplets. I love that term because 99.9% of the people that use it have no idea what a triplet is. A gallop, right?

If Iron Maiden and Iced Earth replaced their gallop with triplets that would be so bloody crazy I can't even imagine how bad it would sound.

Oh my god, can't wait to hear this. The promo should be arriving in the post any day now! Of course I'll buy the spec. ed. digipack as well...

Looked in the mail and found it had just arrived today...

WTF where you getting the promos at?

+1. I already own the pre-release single, so I'll just hold off until the actual album's released.

I'll have to give it a listen. Honestly I haven't really been into Iced Earth for years but having Matt back on board interests me.

I'll check this album since Iced Earth really impressed me when i saw them live a month ago...

An early opinion is that the album is pretty solid but I'm missing some "hit songs" though that really get me going. All songs are good enough to keep me interested but no song great enough to fire me up.

Quick notes after a couple of listens:

The Good
* Better production than part 1, guitar sound is beefed up
* No interludes (except intro and outro but those are standard these days even for non-concept albums). Though I didn't hate the interludes on part 1, the album flows better without them.
* More guitar oriented songs like The Dimension Gauntlet
* No song makes me want to hit "skip".

The Bad
* I really don't like how everything Iced Earth does these days has huge choirs and multilayered vocals. I believe working with Hansi on Demons & Wizards definitely added a Blind Guardian flare to Iced Earth that I don't think is necessary for them. Anyone else think the chorus of Crown of the Fallen sound just like something from Pyramaze - Immortal?
* I don't feel like there's a "best song" on this album that is as good as any of the best songs on other albums.

Am I the only one to really like A Gift or a Curse? Schaffer really shines as a lead singer on that one, I wish he sang more. He's got a cool voice.

Anyway, as I said it's an early opinion. It's extremely hard for me to give definite opinions right away on one of my favorite bands when the album doesn't immediately blow me away. It took me almost a year before I felt comfortable enough with Framing Armageddon to form such an opinion. I will give The Crucible of Man a fair chance before I say Hit or Miss. I'll say that it's not what I hoped it to be but my hopes and expectations are always set very high for IE.

Regarding the Ripper/Barlow thing, I don't think one of them did so much better than the other that it became a huge factor. Ripper was great on Framing Armageddon and Barlow great on Crucible, I'll leave it at that.

After one listen, I'm a bit meh-y about it. It lacks that epic punch that Framing Armageddon had, and I've come to realise that I actually prefer Ripper's voice. In Iced Earth terms however, this is pretty darn good. Hopefully a few more listens will click it.

Didn't Schaffer also sing the verses in the song Burnt Offerings?

I know he did some of the vocal interplay in High Water Mark.

I pretty much agree, especially with the bold-type parts that I highlighted.

I use that term because I assume most of the people on here don't play guitar, plus the fact that when it's palm muted it might as well be called a triplet considering that it isn't far from the actual definition.

And he also sings Stormrider, even in concerts.



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