Metal Reviews

Tobi, webmaster of the long-running German ICED EARTH fan site Iced Realm, has decided to shut down the site for good, citing several reasons for his decision, including "the general atmosphere" of the site's discussion forum, money, and his less-than-favorable view of the band's recent musical output. An excerpt from his letter announcing his decision reads as follows:

"[ICED EARTH] aren't even close to being my favorite band anymore. I still love the first three albums, obviously, and still like the three albums that followed, but that's it. I don't remember the last time I listened to an ICED EARTH album all the way through.

"The ICED EARTH I loved doesn't exist anymore. Without Matt's [Barlow, ex-ICED EARTH singer] voice, they just aren't the same. I don't know whether he would've been able to save 'The Glorious Burden' [the band's latest studio album], but Tim [Owens, current ICED EARTH frontman] most certainly couldn't. The new DEMONS & WIZARDS album [featuring ICED EARTH mainman Jon Schaffer], on closer inspection, proved to be more of the same as well. Nowadays there are about 2 1/2 songs on there I can actually listen to all the way through. Schaffer, let's face it, has lost it. I don't even wanna know how the [upcoming ICED EARTH] 'Something Wicked' concept albums will sound.

"As I mentioned earlier, the boards were the only reason the site still exists...so now the site and the boards will go together. It simply doesn't make sense for me to continue running an ICED EARTH site when all I can do upon reading a new interview with Jon is laugh at his endless repetitions of how the next album will be the most killerest thing ever and that he slept in abandoned houses when he was 16.

"The time has come for someone else to run an ICED EARTH fanpage, someone who still is dedicated to the band the same way that I once was."

See, I can understand not liking something a band's releases. I can even understand wanting to shut down a fansite because of this, but this guy comes off as a whiny bitch who is upset HIS band has changed, even to the point of insulting the man behind the band. Ridiculous.

Someone give him his ba ba back :roll:

Come on give me a break.Matt's gone LIVE WITH IT.I like Matt Barlow just as much as the next guy but he's gone and I happen to like Tim Owens voice so I accept the change.

That's ok someone who is still an Iced Earth fan will probably start one up again.

Didn't that site shut down a long time ago? In any case, its a pretty dumb reason for shutting it down.

Don't cry, baby, let's kiss you up and make you all better.

Well if he doesnt like them anymore whats the point?

yep

agreed. I probably would have posted a similar thing by now if I started a soilwork fan site when A Predator's Portrait was released... Although he does act a little too much like the band was trying to personally offend him.

Hmm.... I guess those comments were released to answer anyone who asks "Why?". And I agree, if you are no longer a fan of the band, what's the point in running that site?

Heh. That reminds me of a Metallica fansite that was deliberately shut down after the whole Napster debacle. The site was called "Metallica - Metal Up Your Ass!!!" The webmaster, after that Napster thing, posted a news article on the front page saying, "Yeah right. Metallica sucks ass" and that "This site is being taken down right now because, quite frankly, I've had enough of what Metallica's been doing. I bought Load and ReLoad when they first came out and hated them but declared that I was still a fan, a diehard. Even made this little Metallica fansite. But their Napster suit was really immature. So this is now an Anti-Metallica site. If you like new Metallica, that's fine. But you should listen to bands like Cradle Of Filth, etc. New Metallica sucks." - This, of course, is paraphrased.

I agree. If he's just not into the band as much anymore, shut it down. But to whine and insult Jon seems childish.

It sucks, this was a great site with a lot of KILLER info on early Iced Earth/Purgatory songs. It's too bad. You'd think he'd just leave it up for "historical" purposes, you know?

I don't think he was all that whiny and bitchy, he clearly didn't like what the band had become (what Jon was doing), and clearly didn't like what his forum had become, so he closed the site down. I do think he could have let someone else take over the site though, someone who likes the new Iced Earth and is excited over news of the band.

100% uneccessary:

It simply doesn't make sense for me to continue running an ICED EARTH site when all I can do upon reading a new interview with Jon is laugh at his endless repetitions of how the next album will be the most killerest thing ever and that he slept in abandoned houses when he was 16.

That is childish and whiny.

He probably was a very big fan of Iced Earth (after all he has a fansite), and he's just expressing his disappointment on how low IE has gone down the drain. I wouldnt call that childish or whiny at all.

He's got the right to express his disappointment with the band just as much any one else does. And he doesnt blame Tim for the "Glorius Failure" since he doesnt think Matt could rescue it.

For being a thread that's supposed to be against whining and bitching, I'm seeing a lot of it here.

He might come across as whiny but I agree with him as far as Iced Earth is concerned.

When did this thread have anything to do with that? My point is that as a fan he has a choice to like the music or not. Jon has NO OBLIGATION to produce the type of music that this "fan" expects from Iced Earth.

He's clearly disappointed and that's fine, bands disappoint me all the goddamn time, but I don't then go on a tirade about the band, and verbally attack them. Why? Because they write music for themselves, not for me. I mean, this is probably the most popular Iced Earth site out there, far better than the official site, so now tons and tons of Iced Earth fans are exposed to his personal bitchfest all because he's not happy with Iced Earth's music now. That is childish and disrespectful.

Does Jon deserve that sort of blatant disrespect? Did Jon attack this idiot? Jon is probably extremely appreciative of this website, it is linked on the official page. But does this guy just gracefully bow out? Now he essentially goes, "Waaah! Jon isn't writing the songs I want to hear! Waaaah! And he keeps talking about his childhood! I hate him now!" Boo! If interviewers wouldn't stop asking the same fucking questions, Jon would not be giving the same fucking answers all the time! But that's Jon's fault?

So my point was that this is the worst kind of fan, a person who thinks he owns some sort of stock in the band and has a say in what they do, and when they don't do it, they throw a temper tantrum, in this case an e-version.

Trust me, if you'd read a Jon Schaffer interview, you'd see exactly what the guy who used to run this site means?

And the solution is right here:

If interviewers would stop asking the same fucking questions, Jon would not be giving the same fucking answers all the time!

Have you seen how boastful this guy tends to be?

"Americans are such uneducated pigs!!! I saved heavy metal!!! I'm totally awesome because I read history books!!!! If you do not like The Glorious Burden, you are an uncultured swine!!!"

These aren't actual Jon Schaffer quotes, mind you, but I think you see where I'm getting at here.

Jon is a very passionate musician, I really see no difference in what he says in interviews and what, say, Zakk Wylde says, or Rich Ward says.