Iced Earth – The Glorious Burden (SPV Records)
Metal. Duh. Iced Earth is back with a new CD. Matt Barlow is gone. Larry Tarnowski is gone. Steve DiGiorgio is gone. In their place we have Tim Owens, Ralph Santolla, and Jimmy MacDonough. Way to go, Jon. Dictatorship at its best. At least you can still write good songs. Actually, great songs. This is basically a step up from where Horror Show was going. Same direction, just more of it. More bombastic choruses, more layered vocals on top of layered vocals, more guitar triplets, more double bass. All songs are based on historical themes. Great stuff all around, even for non-metalheads.
Tracks:
1) Star Spangled Banner intro, metallized! Fairly cheesy, but it works ok, and segues right into the next song.
2) Declaration Day. Guess what this song is about? That’s right. Awesome song, great vocals, driving rhythm that never stops and a chorus that’s catchy as hell.
3) Ballad, about 9/11. Really effective and good.
4) Oh, yeah, this is what I’m talking about. The song starts out all nice and aggressive and stuff, but then gets all silent and quiet and slow and then there’s this long buildup and then the riff after it.... bring on the thrashification, baby! Kick-ass!
5) Ugh. Heavy music, really good playing, but the vocals kill this song. Owens puts on his best Halford impersonation and it doesn’t work well with Iced Earth music.
6) Epic start to an epic song, slow thundering drums and guitar squeals, choirs, all the works. This is one of my favorites on the album, the chorus is this long trade-ff between the Romans and the Huns, voices change, they go from power-metallish to gruff, almost death vox. Absolutely fantastic.
7) A song about the Red Baron. Kinda silly, cheesy, but the music saves it, really awesome riffs.
8) One of the best ballads Jon’s ever written. Owens’ voice really shines here, but I can’t help wondering what it would sound like with Matt on vocals.
9) Starts out acoustic, but then builds into a huge pompous chorus that’s nothing but pure metal. Great song.
10-12) The much-hyped Gettysburg trilogy. Three songs, 32 minutes, a full orchestra, badass! The most astonishing musical achievement of Jon’s career, period. This brings together so many different elements, it’s impossible to pick out one track. Play any of them, they all have numerous changes and shifts, and they go through many different sections, both quiet and completely thrashy. Choose one of the songs and be lost in the beauty.