Steamhammer
2007
1. Overture
2. Something Wicked pt. 1
3. Invasion
4. Motivation of Man
5. Setian Massacre
6. A Charge to Keep
7. Reflections
8. Ten Thousand Strong
9. Execution
10. Order of the Rose
11. Cataclysm
12. The Clouding
13. Infiltrate and Assimilate
14. Retribution Through the Ages
15. Something Wicked pt. 2
16. The Domino Decree
17. Framing Armageddon
18. When Stars Collide (Born is He)
19. The Awakening
Iced Earth return now with the concept album Jon Schaffer has been jerking off to the idea of for some time now and Tim Owens' second effort with the band. The Glorious Burden was pretty much a love or hate album so I figured the same out of this one and I was personally on the 'hate' side of that coin. The one thing that gave me a bit of interest and hope in the album is that this album was specifically written for Owens where as on The Glorious Burden the music was already written and he was something of a last minute fill in.
The fact that this album was written with Owens' in mind ends up striking me as both it's strength and it's weakness. If you want the bottom line up front then yes I think this is better than The Glorious Burden. All in all, it seems less awkward and none of the songs offend my ears like Hollow Man and When The Eagle Cries where Owens tried incredibly unsuccessfully to mimic the emotive qualities of Matt Barlow. What this albums songs sound like are pretty much direct power metal in the vein of bands like Cage who worship at the altar of Priest.
The negatives come in the form of the fact the songs don't strike me as too inventive. Some would say this has always been a problem with Iced Earth, but really I'd say this album is their most straight forward sounding effort as most all of the songs are to the point and heavy 4 - 5 minute tracks. Also, none of the songs really try to capture any of the emotive qualities of past Iced Earth albums except the one epic length track, The Clouding, which is a bit more than half ballad oriented. This may be a good thing since Owens' isn't really capable in this regard, but it's still something I miss from old Iced Earth albums and where some of the track to track variation used to come from.
Another thing that seriously drags this album down is the poor execution of the conceptual side of things. Apparently Jon Schaffer's idea of epic is throwing in an occasional backing choir deal to compensate for Owens' inability to sound epic and packing the album full of interludes that are ownly partly musical. Some of the interludes are really just inserted sound effects like Cataclysm which is storm noises and Invasion which sounds like gun shots and shit. Yes... this is exactly what I want in the middle of a music experience. There are a total of 8 tracks which are intros, instrumental, and/or interludes and they basically serve as one big annoyance. Some seem like parts of songs that should have been finished and others are filler to the highest degree. I would have expected more than these half assed ideas of epic from a band that used to be so good at it and where this is Jon Schaffer's idea of the band's crown jewel. Really I'd say the best this album manages to be in terms of songwriting and epic qualities is Something Wicked Pt 1 which sounds like a reimaginging or another part of the original Something Wicked trilogy.
In the end I'd consider this passable if somewhat bland Priest metal which tries unsuccessfully to be bigger and more epic than the material itself really is. If you liked the last Iced Earth album with Owens' than it's probably worth a shot and those who were unsatisfied with The Glorious Burden will probably continue to remain so with this one.
Highlights: Something Wicked Pt 1
Rating - 2.0/5
2. Something Wicked pt. 1
3. Invasion
4. Motivation of Man
5. Setian Massacre
6. A Charge to Keep
7. Reflections
8. Ten Thousand Strong
9. Execution
10. Order of the Rose
11. Cataclysm
12. The Clouding
13. Infiltrate and Assimilate
14. Retribution Through the Ages
15. Something Wicked pt. 2
16. The Domino Decree
17. Framing Armageddon
18. When Stars Collide (Born is He)
19. The Awakening
Iced Earth return now with the concept album Jon Schaffer has been jerking off to the idea of for some time now and Tim Owens' second effort with the band. The Glorious Burden was pretty much a love or hate album so I figured the same out of this one and I was personally on the 'hate' side of that coin. The one thing that gave me a bit of interest and hope in the album is that this album was specifically written for Owens where as on The Glorious Burden the music was already written and he was something of a last minute fill in.
The fact that this album was written with Owens' in mind ends up striking me as both it's strength and it's weakness. If you want the bottom line up front then yes I think this is better than The Glorious Burden. All in all, it seems less awkward and none of the songs offend my ears like Hollow Man and When The Eagle Cries where Owens tried incredibly unsuccessfully to mimic the emotive qualities of Matt Barlow. What this albums songs sound like are pretty much direct power metal in the vein of bands like Cage who worship at the altar of Priest.
The negatives come in the form of the fact the songs don't strike me as too inventive. Some would say this has always been a problem with Iced Earth, but really I'd say this album is their most straight forward sounding effort as most all of the songs are to the point and heavy 4 - 5 minute tracks. Also, none of the songs really try to capture any of the emotive qualities of past Iced Earth albums except the one epic length track, The Clouding, which is a bit more than half ballad oriented. This may be a good thing since Owens' isn't really capable in this regard, but it's still something I miss from old Iced Earth albums and where some of the track to track variation used to come from.
Another thing that seriously drags this album down is the poor execution of the conceptual side of things. Apparently Jon Schaffer's idea of epic is throwing in an occasional backing choir deal to compensate for Owens' inability to sound epic and packing the album full of interludes that are ownly partly musical. Some of the interludes are really just inserted sound effects like Cataclysm which is storm noises and Invasion which sounds like gun shots and shit. Yes... this is exactly what I want in the middle of a music experience. There are a total of 8 tracks which are intros, instrumental, and/or interludes and they basically serve as one big annoyance. Some seem like parts of songs that should have been finished and others are filler to the highest degree. I would have expected more than these half assed ideas of epic from a band that used to be so good at it and where this is Jon Schaffer's idea of the band's crown jewel. Really I'd say the best this album manages to be in terms of songwriting and epic qualities is Something Wicked Pt 1 which sounds like a reimaginging or another part of the original Something Wicked trilogy.
In the end I'd consider this passable if somewhat bland Priest metal which tries unsuccessfully to be bigger and more epic than the material itself really is. If you liked the last Iced Earth album with Owens' than it's probably worth a shot and those who were unsatisfied with The Glorious Burden will probably continue to remain so with this one.
Highlights: Something Wicked Pt 1
Rating - 2.0/5
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