19/01/04

ICED EARTH / THE GLORIOUS BURDON

The history of humanity can be defined by conflict of either political or religious convictions and it’s always the innocent that suffer during the struggle for dominance and power. During these times there are people who change and influence the course of history and it’s these caricatures and events that inspire the songs on this CD. From Atilla the hun in the 4th Century to the recent events of 911 and as such the music is inspired, dark, heavy but very listenable.

Even though they have a new vocalist in the form of "Ripper Owens" who was in Judas Priest until Rob Halford patched up the differences and a fine job he does as well. Luckily for Iced Earth he vocal style is similar to the guy he replaced and thus there is not too much of an upheaval. This CD has a lot to do to match up to the 2001 "Horror Show" that made it into my best of 2001 but it is very good and with new label SPV behind them they will do very well.

Other tracks to listen out for are; "When The Eagle Cries" (a power ballad), "Declaration Day", "Atilla", "Valley Forge" and "Red Baron/ Blue Max". If you like Power Metal like Judas Priest, Primal Fear and Iron Maiden you will lap this up like a kitten starved of milk. This comes as a limited edition double pack with a couple of extra tracks but could have easily have fit onto one CD the second CD has the 30 minute epic 3 part "Gettysburg (1863) on it. The European bonus tracks are "Greenface" and an acoustic version of "When Eagles Cry" which is on "The Reckoning" single.

TOTAL PLAYING TIME DISC 1 = 43 mins + 11 TRACKS, DISC 2 = 31 mins + 3 TRACKS