SPV
2008
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 (Part 3)
13. Divide And Devour
14. Come What May
15. Epilogue
First off lets mention two things... one that most people care about would be that this is the return of Matt Barlow to Iced Earth. Certainly, this did get me excited as he does happen to be my favorite metal vocalist of all time and Iced Earth is one of the bands that got me started on metal beyond the mainstream of Iron Maiden, Ozzy, and the like. The second thing I have to mention, which nobody I know of seems to care about but Jon Schaffer, is that this is the second part of the Something Wicked story. I for one have no idea what he sees as so special about this except perhaps that it's his own attempt at making something more of the lyrics. From what I've seen though I've gotta say... keep mining for stories in Spawn or something if that's the kind of album you want to make. Blackie Lawless you are not.
Well now that the return of Barlow is here I can safely say my predicted reaction is what it is. Yes the music sounds more like the Iced Earth that made them popular and Barlow brings that distinctive frontman presence back to the band that they needed to make them not sound like a bunch of generic halford worship screaming. The big But here would be that this, as predicted, does not mean the music has suddenly skyrocketed in quality back to their glory days. Or perhaps it's even more or less the same quality, but tired and we've heard it before. Let me say that this is by no means a bad album, but it's undeniable to me that there is just nothing surprising and in the end this will go down as a safe album.
I suppose this sort of formula album makes sense right now with Barlow just coming back to the fold and Schaffer wanting the second part of Something Wicked to be more what fans wanted/expect. This is the problem though as The Crucible Of Man doesn't really reach outside of the box at all to try to find that 'new classic'. Not many tracks here jump out at me and I'm sure none of these will find it's way to the top of the heap of Iced Earth songs in my mind. Besides being safe this album is often plodding with chuggy riffs too and it doesn't help in the feeling that this band is going through the motions. I just don't hear a lot of fire in this for the most part and the songs with a bit more of it tend to be the standouts. For instance, the number one song for me here would be the single, I Walk Alone. At first I was luke warm on this track because of the plodding nature of the guitar, but the venom in Matt's voice and the big memorable chorus I can't help singing along with wins me over in the end. The song just has a good feeling to it, if not a technical marvel of guitar wizardry. Other standouts include Behold The Wicked Child which manages to have quick paced energy, but also uses some dark atmosphere in the background and The Revealing which is somewhat typical, but screams along well with heaviness and doesn't overstay it's welcome. On the other side of the coin, I will say that this being the safe album that it is makes for no big valleys in the same way it makes for no big peaks. There are no real bad tracks to be found and it's a consistent listen if nothing else.
The Crucible Of Man is an album I will own and one I will listen to, but it will rank lowest among the Barlow albums for me and probably below Night of the Stormrider as well. I can accept this for now, but I do hope for more in the future. What happened to that big and different approach I started to hear in riffs and mood with Horror Show is what I would like to know. It's time for Iced Earth to try something not so familiar.
Highlights: I Walk Alone, Behold The Wicked, The Revealing
Rating - 3.5/5
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 (Part 3)
13. Divide And Devour
14. Come What May
15. Epilogue
First off lets mention two things... one that most people care about would be that this is the return of Matt Barlow to Iced Earth. Certainly, this did get me excited as he does happen to be my favorite metal vocalist of all time and Iced Earth is one of the bands that got me started on metal beyond the mainstream of Iron Maiden, Ozzy, and the like. The second thing I have to mention, which nobody I know of seems to care about but Jon Schaffer, is that this is the second part of the Something Wicked story. I for one have no idea what he sees as so special about this except perhaps that it's his own attempt at making something more of the lyrics. From what I've seen though I've gotta say... keep mining for stories in Spawn or something if that's the kind of album you want to make. Blackie Lawless you are not.
Well now that the return of Barlow is here I can safely say my predicted reaction is what it is. Yes the music sounds more like the Iced Earth that made them popular and Barlow brings that distinctive frontman presence back to the band that they needed to make them not sound like a bunch of generic halford worship screaming. The big But here would be that this, as predicted, does not mean the music has suddenly skyrocketed in quality back to their glory days. Or perhaps it's even more or less the same quality, but tired and we've heard it before. Let me say that this is by no means a bad album, but it's undeniable to me that there is just nothing surprising and in the end this will go down as a safe album.
I suppose this sort of formula album makes sense right now with Barlow just coming back to the fold and Schaffer wanting the second part of Something Wicked to be more what fans wanted/expect. This is the problem though as The Crucible Of Man doesn't really reach outside of the box at all to try to find that 'new classic'. Not many tracks here jump out at me and I'm sure none of these will find it's way to the top of the heap of Iced Earth songs in my mind. Besides being safe this album is often plodding with chuggy riffs too and it doesn't help in the feeling that this band is going through the motions. I just don't hear a lot of fire in this for the most part and the songs with a bit more of it tend to be the standouts. For instance, the number one song for me here would be the single, I Walk Alone. At first I was luke warm on this track because of the plodding nature of the guitar, but the venom in Matt's voice and the big memorable chorus I can't help singing along with wins me over in the end. The song just has a good feeling to it, if not a technical marvel of guitar wizardry. Other standouts include Behold The Wicked Child which manages to have quick paced energy, but also uses some dark atmosphere in the background and The Revealing which is somewhat typical, but screams along well with heaviness and doesn't overstay it's welcome. On the other side of the coin, I will say that this being the safe album that it is makes for no big valleys in the same way it makes for no big peaks. There are no real bad tracks to be found and it's a consistent listen if nothing else.
The Crucible Of Man is an album I will own and one I will listen to, but it will rank lowest among the Barlow albums for me and probably below Night of the Stormrider as well. I can accept this for now, but I do hope for more in the future. What happened to that big and different approach I started to hear in riffs and mood with Horror Show is what I would like to know. It's time for Iced Earth to try something not so familiar.
Highlights: I Walk Alone, Behold The Wicked, The Revealing
Rating - 3.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment