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Iced Earth |
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Something Wicked This Way Comes |
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Line up:
John Shaffer - Guitars, Backing Vocals
Matthew Barlow - Lead Vocals
James MacDonough - Bass Guitar
Larry Tarnowski - Guitar Solos
Mark Prater - Drums
Howard Helm - Piano on "The Coming Curse"
Susan McQuinn - Flute on "1776"
Tracy Marie LaBarbera - Backing Vocals on "My Own Saviour" "Melancholy" and "Watching Over Me"
Jim Morris - Keyboards
Roger Hughes - Mandolin on "Blessed Are You" |
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Track Listing:
Burning Times
Melancholy (Holy Martyr)
Disciples of the Lie
Watching Over Me
Stand Alone
Consequences
My Own Saviour
The Reaping Stone
1776
Blessed Are You
Prophecy
Birth of the Wicked
The Coming Curse |
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Iced Earth came out with a killer album when they released their 5th studio album, Something Wicked This Way Comes. It opens up with the fist pumping Burning Times and goes right into the softer, forlorn Melancholy (Holy Martyr) which is one of the most beautiful songs on the album. Watching Over Me, is a ballad about a close friend of Shaeffer's who passed away. Barlow's vocals really soar on that opus. Disciples of the Lie and Stand Alone are thrashy songs that will tear your face off if you are not careful. The double bass drums pound through them and the guitars tear the flesh of your ear drums. At the end of the album there is a trilogy about the rise and reign of the Anti-Christ. Opening up with a piano, The Coming Curse, soon tears into a thrashy, yet still majestic song, with double bass work that is fantastic for power/thrash. The climax of the song, and the entire album as well, is when the song slows down into an arpeggio and Barlow is starts singing "Forged in the sacred flames... On the sixth day... Of the sixth month... In the sixth hour" and you start to hear monks chanting and then he screams out "I am the Anti-Christ, I have destroyed mankind!" and the song goes back into its thrashiness soon after. The song and album finishes off with the monks chanting. Grade: A- |
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Iced Earth |
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Horror Show |
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Line up:
John Shaffer - Rhythm, Lead, Acoustic Guitars, Vocals, Mandolin, Keys
Matt Barlow - Lead Vocals
Larry Tarnowski - Lead Guitar
Richard Christy - Drums
Steve DiGiorgio - Bass Guitar
Yunhui Percifield - Lead Vocals on Phantom Opera Ghost as "Christine," backing vocals
Howard Helm - Keys (Pipe Organ) on Phantom Opera Ghost
Jim Morris - Backing Vocals, Keys, Guitar Solo in Ghost of Freedom |
Track Listing:
Disc 1
Wolf
Damien
Jack
Ghost of Freedom
Im-Ho-Tep (The Pharoah's Curse)
Jeckyll & Hyde
Dragon's Child
Frankenstein
Dracula
Phantom Opera Ghost
Disc 2
Transylvania (Iron Maiden Cover)
Interview with John Shaeffer |
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Iced Earth's sixth studio album, Horror Show, is a masterpiece. This is the first Iced Earth album I ever heard and when I put it in my CD player it blew me away. The drumming is something I had never heard in this style of metal before. The thrashy and crunchy guitars, pounding drums, and soaring vocals are a perfect example of true, 100% American metal. All of the songs, except one, are based on different horror stories (hence the album title) from books, movies, and real life. The epic opus, Damien is about the Beast from Revelation and features an intro and outro of a choir to fill in the atmosphere of Revelation. Dracula opens in a peaceful and beautiful guitar arpeggio and Barlow shows the beauty and emotion of his voice and when he screams out the lines (especially live) "The blood is the life..." the song explodes into an angst driven, yet still romantic opus. My personal favorite track, Phantom Opera Ghost, features female vocals, along with Barlow's, and organ throughout the song, a very nice epic summarizing the infamous musical well. Ghost of Freedom is a ballad dedicated to all those who gave their lives for the freedom of the USA, a very powerful and moving song. The album is beautiful, haunting, and thrashy at the same time. Superb album by "The American Iron Maiden." I highly recommend, go out and get it. Grade: A |
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