ICED EARTH: The Glorious Burden

Produced by Jim Morris and Jon Schaffer

Released: 2004

A friend of mine told me they were disappointed with this album, and being the die-hard Iced Earth fan they are, I can understand why. The Glorious Burden was built up to be a complete triumph, introducing a new singer and a new beginning, utilising orchestral arrangements and featuring an epic track the reflects band leader Jon Schaffer's passion for American history. Of couse, Schaffer builds up all Iced Earth albums as being the greatest recordings ever, so that's nothing unusual. Unfortunately this album doesn't even come close to being Iced Earth's best, never mind the world-changing masterpiece it was claimed to be. Most of the tracks aren’t up to the standard that Schaffer has set for himself over the years and most of the lyrics are worse than some of the worst stuff Steve Harris comes up with from time to time.

The enormous three-part US Civil War epic “Gettysburg (1863)” is the real reason to get hold of The Glorious Burden, where the band is joined by an orchestra that really helps to set the mood for a musical saga that stands so far above the rest of the album it could well have been released on its own without all the filler like the horrible “When the Eagle Cries”, perhaps one of the worst songs in the history of American metal. “Hollow Man” is merely a reworking of previous Iced Earth ballads like “Melancholy”, with different lyrics, but the likes of “Attila” and “Red Baron/Blue Max” do stand out nicely despite that typical repetitive three-part riff that Schaffer has used on every song he’s ever written.

Ex-Judas Priest vocalist Tim Owens does a fantastic job with the material he’s been given, but as gifted a singer as he is, even he has trouble making something like “There were 45,000 wounded or dead when the fight was finally through/On a three-mile square battlefield near a town named Waterloo” sound like lyrics instead of a paragraph from a modern history textbook. Far too often also, The Glorious Burden wavers perilously close to German power metal territory, with Blind Guardian-style multiple vocal harmonies in the choruses as well as being less heavier overall than previous efforts. Ultimately, The Glorious Burden is rather a flawed album that didn’t stand up to the hype that preceded it in the wake of Matt Barlow’s departure and Schaffer’s long-held dissatisfaction with his previous label.

This isn’t a terrible album by any means, but with the exception of the “Gettysburg” trilogy, it is a significant step down from most of their previous releases.

1. The Star-Spangled Banner
2. Declaration Day
3. When the Eagle Cries
4. The Reckoning (Don't Tread on Me)
5. Greenface
6. Attila
7. Red Baron/Blue Max
8. Hollow Man
9. Valley Forge
10. Gettysburg (1863) Pt 1. -- The Devil to Pay
11. Gettysburg (1863) Pt 2. -- Hold at All Costs
12. Gettysburg (1863) Pt 3. -- High Water Mark

Rating: 68%

ICED EARTH: The Crucible of Man (Something Wicked Part 2)

Released: September 9, 2008

When Jon Schaffer sacked Ripper Owens from Iced Earth just as the singer was preparing to go in and start working on this album because Matt Barlow had suddenly made himself available again, I swore that I would never give Schaffer another cent of my money. Later I had to begrudgingly admit that Jon Schaffer has every right to do whatever he thinks is in the best interests of his band, and Matt Barlow has really been the highlight of Iced Earth's sound over the years. Still, I'm reluctant to go back on my word. Fortunately for me, The Crucible of Man hasn't made it that difficult.

Part Two of Iced Earth's Something Wicked chronicle of albums that promised so much (as all such things do) is so far on par with Nostradamus by Judas Priest as the most overblown, boring, overwrought, over-long and tedious album released so far this year. Or ever. At almost exactly an hour in length, The Crucible of Man is at least 15 minutes too long, being too samey-sounding and too bogged down in mid-paced "epic" chuggers to hold most people's attention for that long. The good songs, none of which are as good as anything on Something Wicked This Way Comes or Night of the Storm Rider -- two of the best pure metal albums of the 1990s -- are spread too far apart and Schaffer's notorious three-riff repertoire has now worn as thin as it can get.

"I Walk Alone" and "Come What May" are perhaps the best songs, with Barlow really letting loose on some high-register stuff that Owens (or few others) would have been able to match. "Divide and Devour" isn't bad either, being heavy and savage like something off Horror Show, even if it is again driven by that ever-present, conspicuous descending riff. Troy Seele even peels off the occasional guitar solo, but they, like other highlights, are few and far between. Ignoring the pointless intro piece, "Behold the Wicked Child" tells you right away that you are hearing an Iced Earth album, with that tell-tale guitar tone and that three-part riff that's been in almost every one of this band's songs. Barlow shares the vocals with a female singer here and the vibe of the track is rather like "Birth of the Wicked" from SWTWC. But the next couple of tracks are completely indistinguishable from each other although the first has some nice low-range singing that I can only think must be by Schaffer as there's nothing to suggest otherwise from promo copy I have. "A Gift or a Curse" is the first balladic song and lacks any sparkle, making it seem even longer than it is. With a third of the album done, there's yet to be any real stand-outs. Barlow's singing is formidable, but the material is flat and the rest of the band, this time made up of Brent Smedley on drums, Freddie Vidales on bass and lead guitarist Seele, gives a workmanlike but unspectacular performance. None of them are given much opportunity to shine, hardly surprising given the complete control Schaffer has over everything Iced Earth does.

The last half of the album (after "I Walk Alone") does pick up with, as previously mentioned, some stunning vocal histrionics and some more engaging songs, but overall it still sounds like ideas left over from previous releases and the stagnant repetition of familiar riffs really helps to kill it off.

I thought Framing Armageddon was excellent and like so many others held out hope that Schaffer would succeed where so many others had failed with this follow up. That hope was forlorn. Iced Earth tragics will eat this up regardless, but The Crucible of Man is a poor sequel.

1. In Sacred Flames
2. Behold the Wicked Child
3. Minions of the Watch
4. The Revealing
5. A Gift or a Curse
6. Crown of the Fallen
7. The Dimensional Gauntlet
8. I Walk Alone
9. Harbinger of Fate
10. Crucify the King
11. Sacrificial Kingdoms
12. Something Wicked (Pt. 3)
13. Divide and Devour
14. Come What May
15. Epilogue

Rating: 54%

ICED EARTH: Alive in Athens: The DVD

Released: 2006

Iced Earth's 1999 double-live album Alive in Athens is this generation's Live After Death, one of the best live heavy metal albums of all time. The accompanying DVD statement, finally issued seven years after the triple CD and multi-LP box set, is a disappointingly flat and amateurish concert film. I'm pretty sure it's not what Jon Schaffer would have wanted to give to his fans, which is probably why Century Media waited until the band had moved to another label before they released it. And considering how much effort Schaffer puts into everything his band releases, it's pretty obvious that he had no say in Alive in Athens: The DVD. The booklet is just a reprise of the one from the CD and the footage is decidedly ordinary.

On the plus side, the audio is excellent, but if you've already got the CD or quintuple-vinyl version of this you'd already know that. As such, the DVD doesn't add much to the experience. If anything, it probably detracts from it, because when you watch a concert as long as this on TV, you really want something more than static camera angles, poor framing and unimaginative editing. Many criticised Iron Maiden's Rock in Rio DVD because of the myriad of quick edits, and while it's true that at times it was a bit of a headspin, their two and a half hour set never got boring.

By halfway through Alive in Athens, you'd swear you were watching the single most boring live band in history. Sure, 80% of Iced Earth's songs are based around the same riff, but I've never been bored by their albums. So either they are incredibly tedious live, or this DVD makes them out to be that way through amateurish production. Maybe it's a bit of both, as I've never been to an Iced Earth gig, but snappier editing would have made this far more enjoyable regardless.

I stuck with this for about two-thirds of the way, because I wanted to write a decent review, because I like Iced Earth and because I wanted this to get better. But it never did. By the end of "Dante's Inferno" I was considerably underwhelmed and by the end of "My Own Savior" I was stifling yawns. Live DVD albums aren't supposed to put people to sleep.

Alive in Athens: The DVD is doomed almost right from the start. The static camera angles cut off part of the stage so that even in the long shots, you rarely see Larry Tarnowski. The close-ups focus on Matt Barlow and Schaffer even when Tarnowski is soloing his tits off, as if whoever was directing didn't know which guy was the lead guitarist and the whole production is presented with virtually no inspiration whatsoever. When a band like Dungeon can make a lively and entertaining live concert DVD with virtually no budget at all, it's staggering to think how awful Alive in Athens turned out considering the budget a the band like Iced Earth probably had to work with. Even if you are a rabid fan (and IE has plenty of those), you should avoid this.

1. Intro
2. Burning Times
3. Vengeance is Mine
4. Dark Saga
5. Last Laugh
6. Cast in Stone
7. Last December
8. Pure Evil
9. Desert Rain
10. Dante's Inferno
11. The Hunter
12. Melancholy (Holy Martyr)
13. Angel's Holocaust
14. Stormrider
15. The Path I Choose
16. Watching Over Me
17. Diary
18. Blessed Are You
19. When the Night Falls
20. My Own Savior
21. Travel in Stygian
22. Violate
23. Stand Alone
24. Brainwashed
25. Disciples of the Lie
26. I Died For You
27. Prophecy
28. Birth of the Wicked
29. The Coming Curse
30. Epilog

Rating: 54%