As usual, as a non-native speaker I hereby apologise for any want of my English skill that makes me unable to express myself correctly and seeds confusion.
Your vocabulary is more expansive than 99% of native English speakers I’ve met. You don’t owe us any apologies there.
As to the question of what makes Iced Earth good, that’s really tough. I started out anyway thinking it was just big tough American beers with my bros music. Now they’re a Top 10 band for me. (If I had the incentive to make such a list anyway.) What I like specifically about
Burnt Offerings — and again, it was a pretty big grower for me; for a while I had a tough time connecting to it until I let it sit for a while and came back months later (outside of “Dante’s Inferno” which I loved right away) — is really just the dark and brooding and pretty much
evil sound it has. Couple that with a progressive mindset and it holds no punches and marks itself as the heavy and thrashiest of the band’s records. I really like the journeys the songs go through, they always take you someplace interesting, sometimes circling back to the chorus, sometimes avoid it again. And Barlow’s voice is young and raw. Rough around the edges, but still the powerhouse that is personally one of my biggest inspirations. His voice is just so unique. The fact that his high notes can strike the sun with their
power — which you won’t catch me saying about King Diamond’s falsetto since his voice is a lot whispier (which suits the music IMO but doesn’t make him a stronger singer, IMO) — blows my mind. The endings to “Burning Oasis” and “Creator Failure”, goddamn.
Also idk if you knew or not, but Schaffer and Barlow have a vocal “duet” in the title track’s verses. I agree Barlow doesn’t go the whole nine yards in that song, but it’s a brilliant set up to leave you wanting more... which you get in the next seven tracks, plentifully. And a shoutout to “The Pierced Spirit”, which is an amazing interlude. It doesn’t even deserve the interlude moniker cuz it’s just an overall awesome song. The acoustic with building atmospherics behind it, and possibly Barlow’s most emotional performance ever. Such a good set up to the monster that’s being assembled just behind it.
And a note on
Night of the Stormrider. I really wish Barlow was singing on this album, but that’s okay, we’ve got
Alive in Athens (and
Days of Purgatory). But its biggest draw is the sheer onslaught of riffage from Schaffer. My girlfriend in particular thought the album slapped, and it may even be her favorite guitar sound / riff style overall. Her enjoyment ended up making me like “Desert Rain” way more than I once did. (Though I must confess that “Angel’s Holocaust” is by far my favorite of its tracks, even more so than the heralded “Travel in Stygian”, so have at me lol.)
Anyway yeah, it’s one of those things where I guess it just has to click for you. For me it managed to and I’m happy it did. Schaffer isn’t gonna take that away from me.
(but don't. Not here. Enough thread diverging as is)
