ICED EARTH SURVIVOR 2018: Results -> A Question Of Heaven wins!

Are you satisfied with the results?

  • Total voters
    10
It's fake news. Gettysburg is great, but is hampered by weak-ish production job and not having Barlow. The other two trilogies are way better, as are most other Barlow era songs. I'm also not merging the trilogy, if the songs are good enough, they will survive till the end of the album rounds :P
 
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MrKnickerbocker said:
[The Gettysburg] trilogy might actually be Jon’s greatest achievement in songwriting.
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Forostar said:
If Gettysburg was seen as one song, it would beat everything else from the whole discography. It would beat every Matt Barlow era song.
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I completely agree with this, and I don't care that the trilogy doesn't have Barlow. The emotion captured in the vocals and music speaks to the subject matter. They're describing real events, which puts it above the other two trilogies' topics - a comic book character and a weird alien thing. I love cheesy Iced Earth (like Horror Show), but Gettysburg takes the cake.

As individual tracks, the second part is my least favorite - but even on its own it is stronger than anything else on the album. Declaration Day is great, and Red Baron is cheesy goodness, but the rest of the album is mediocre to flat-out bad.
 
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Declaration Day - Great song. Awesome chorus and some nice crunching riffs. If the rest of the album was up to the standard of this song it'd be among their greatest. It sounds like Iced Earth but they're also doing something different. It's a little more mid tempo and the chorus is more akin to something you'd hear in power metal. Not something you really heard much in the Barlow era. Ripper also makes a solid entrance with this song. I don't really care for his voice in general but he does a nice job here.

When the Eagle Cries - The lyrical content for this song tends to be the focal point of any criticism, but the lyrics really aren't among its biggest flaws. This song plods hard. The vocals are so annoying. Ripper doesn't do melodic very well. When he holds out notes he does this really whiny vibrato. Vote.

The Reckoning - This song is a bit of a mess. One thing that started with this album that still exists today is the choir vocals during verses in a heavy song. That never really worked and just makes the song seem overdone. Ripper is also doing those annoying long notes again.
There are some positives though. The "if it was up to me" bit toward the end is really good though. Ripper sounds great and the riffing isn't that far from classic IE. Otherwise there aren't many redeeming qualities. vote.

Greenface - A halfbaked thrasher that doesn't really go anywhere. Just seems like a random slab of riffs with vocal parts written as an after thought. Vote.

Atilla - One of the better songs on the album. Chorus is a little iffy but better than the last few songs. Ripper sounds good on the verses and there are some great riffs.

Red Baron/Blue Max - This song is a little goofy but the riffing is really strong. Some of the best riffs on the album here. Also another song with a decent Ripper performance and a surprisingly good guitar solo.

Hollow Man - I've seen arguments that this song is just as bad as Eagle, if not worse. I disagree for a few reasons. It's a bit more stripped down and a lot less whiny. On the other hand, it still plods quite a bit. The vocals also drag this down considerably. Again, Ripper really can't do ballads. Vote.

Valley Forge - This song is great. I actually really like the ballady section. It's a bit different from other softer IE parts and it builds into the heavier stuff fantastically. Ripper sounds surprisingly good on this.

Waterloo - This one isn't too bad but it goes on a little too long. I'll spare it this time but next round will probably vote for it (assuming it hasn't been killed).

Devil To Pay - This song is so awesome. I love the acoustic stuff at the beginning. It's really simple but super effective and really creates anticipation. Love when it finally gets heavy. Awesome riffs and harmonies. Some of IE's best melodies on this track. The chorus is fantastic and one of the few moments where the choir thing actually works. Ripper's wailing is also really effective here. The use of American folk songs is something that could've easily been screwed up, but they do a great job with it here. The little variations and expanded instrumentation is really nice. They also manage to do it while still sounding like Iced Earth. The folk stuff and the metal riffing blends really well. It's expertly arranged. Hard to believe Jon Schaffer was able to come up with something so intricate. The return to the initial verses with a more involved string section is epic. Ripper is also belting it out. Easily his best moment in IE. Masterful stuff.

Hold At All Costs - I really like the chorus in this song. It's a bit of an earworm. The rest of the song isn't quite as strong though. The verses are cool but the pummeling rhythm starts to get annoying by the instrumental section. I don't think this needed to be 7 minutes. It's better than a lot of the main album, but as long as the trilogy is being promoted separately I'm going to give it a vote.

High Water Mark - This song almost goes back to the level of Devil To Pay but it also meanders a lot. The best moments are awesome but, like Hold At All Costs, it seems bloated and a little forced. It's another great chorus but again not enough to carry the whole song. The orchestral stuff in the middle is pretty cool. The instrumental section in general is pretty good. There are a lot of nice parts but it isn't arranged quite as well. The difference between this and Devil To Pay is pretty staggering. I do really dig the ending. Overall there are things about this song that I really do like but it doesn't come together quite as well. I'm not going to vote for it because it is better than a lot of the rest of the album, but I don't think it's worthy of promotion or continuing into the finals.

I'm kinda with NP on Gettysburg. I don't think it necessarily suffers because it doesn't have Barlow, Ripper does a good job, but I don't think it's any better than their other trilogies. If anything it is way more lopsided than the others because Devil To Pay sets the bar really high and the rest of the trilogy never reaches that level again. So with that in mind, I'm fine with just Devil To Pay continuing to the finals and like NP said, if the rest of the trilogy was really strong enough it wouldn't need to be promoted as one track. If anything that would drag it down, for me at least.

I also don't think it being based on a true story makes it any better. I mean they do a really good job at retelling the events of Gettysburg and doing so in a way that doesn't turn the events into a farce or going the Maiden route of simply retelling the story without any drama or tension (you know, the things that make a story exciting). But if they were able to do the same thing with a fictional story, that's just as good. The problem is that the fictional stories they come up with are kinda convoluted.

I don't think the album is all that bad. It's a cool concept that isn't especially well executed but it is one of their more coherent albums thematically, which I can appreciate. It also felt like with Barlow out of the band they took the opportunity to try out some different things with arrangement, the way they wrote vocal parts, and just the songwriting in general. The songs themselves are a bit uneven but the strong stuff is fine. I would take a lot of this album over most of what has come since. It feels fresh and, most importantly, it feels like Schaffer actually had something to prove. I would say that, until Incorruptible, this was the last Iced Earth album where it felt like they were trying. That goes a long way for me.

BTW is it true that this album was recorded with Barlow on vocals first. Was that version ever released/leaked?
 
Mosh said:
BTW is it true that this album was recorded with Barlow on vocals first. Was that version ever released/leaked?
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It was recorded with Barlow at first. If you recall, few years ago, there was this Brazilian fan club dude who said he'll post a demo of the album with Barlow online if he gets enough likes on Facebook, but Schaffer forbade it :(

Actually, found the post.
 
Star-Spangled Banner: Boring performance, nothing remarkable in the arrangement.
Declaration Day: Almost a good song, if it weren't for Owens' shrieking.
When the Eagle Cries: Even if it were about a rabbi and an imam making out, it would still be a disgustingly soppy song. It's unfortunate that the one thing that Schaffer took away from the collaboration with Hansi Kürsch is that he started thinking that the more layers of vocals you have, the more emotional you get. Just listen to this piece of sugar next to something truly heartfelt such as Watching Over Me. Shitty song all around.
The Reckoning (Don't Tread On Me): I'm not even sure what this song is supposed to be. It goes all over the place without actually striking any chord.
Attila: Decent song, save for the lyrics. Would have been a lot better with Barlow, but I'll give it a pass.
Red Baron/Blue Max: The worst song on a shitty album. This is really bottom-of-the-barrel and probably the worst thing IE ever recorded. It's got a tacky riff, a goofy vocal melody (if that's what you want to call it, each line has a different amount of syllables), a shitty solo, numb shredding in the instrumental section and you kind of have the feeling that they recorded this song in little segments which they pasted together with no idea of what "flow" means. Owens sounds like he had a few too many before recording this too, talk about slurred vocals! Absolute shit with no redeeming quality whatsoever.
Hollow Man: I think I once described this song and its position on the album as a sudden moment of clarity in a demented mind. It's like Schaffer was ranting and raving for hours, and then, for one brief moment he realises nobody is listening to him and he understands that he's a lunatic. Unfortunately, this only applies to the lyrics. The rest of the song is a soppy ballad that is completely forgettable and useless.
Waterloo: It's an OK song, marred by many little flaws (such as the complete lack of a vocal melody in the verses), but nothing seriously major. Although I think that once you reach the point where you write the line "Prussian, Russian and Austrian", you should reconsider your approach to the lyrics.
Valley Forge: This is the best song on the album. It's actually the only one that manages to actually capture me, even though the multi-layered vocals in the chorus are a touch too much. No need to hammer your point down all this much. I also enjoy Owen's singing for once, on this album (I enjoyed it a lot more on Framing Armageddon).
Greenface: A nice opening riff is spoiled almost immediately by an awful singer and a wholly uninspired composition.
Gettysburg Trilogy: I still pretty much stand by what I wrote here. Essentially, it's Schaffer showing you his admittedly impressive tin soldier diorama to exhausting and pointless detail. Let's just say he got it right with Clear the Way, thankfully.

Glorious Burden is just a bad album, there's nothing more to it. I like to put it on every once in a while when I want to have a laugh, like an old Chuck Norris rescue movie, but there's no way I can take it seriously as a work of art.
 
I find that mind-boggling, since I think Hollow Man is the worst Iced Earth song. I respect your opinion, though :P
 
I think 'The Glorious Burden' is just bland overall. The Gettysburg trilogy is fantastic and 'Declaration Day' is another highlight, but the rest is mostly uninteresting. I agree with Perun that 'Red Baron/Blue Max' is one of Iced Earth's worst songs and I'd rather climb like a monkey while listening to 'Death or Glory' instead. Matt leaving the band after recording the album probably messed things around a bit as Jon had already written and arranged the songs with Matt's style in mind. There are better songs on 'Framing Armageddon' though, despite also being a poor Iced Earth album. I hope Jon lets us hear 'The Glorious Burden' as recorded by Matt sometime. It's a better thing to do than re-record the early Iced Earth albums.
 
1. Musically, this is a very interesting and strong album. It has way more diversity and substance than most -if not all- subsequent albums (I still didn't bother to order the latest).
2. Very strong production. Better than anything that came after this. Better sounding drums, better mix, better sounding guitars.
3. Lyrically, I don't give a shit. It sure isn't that bad as his st00pid right winged paranoia on later work.
4. Vocally: I like Ripper. Man, am I glad I do not suffer from Barlow bias. This album has Ripper, and I do not need to hear anyone else on this album, just like I do not need to hear Bruce when I play The X-Factor.
 
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Nah, I just don't want to do administrative work when buying Iced Earth, or rather: any metal band, unless I'm very much looking forward to it. Good for the wallet too. I spent quite some money on them in the past, before Schaffer went nuts.
 
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The Star-Spangled Banner - If Indiana had an MLB team, you know that Schaffer would be out there before every home game playing this. Nice rendition, but it gets a vote since it's not a full song.

Declaration Day - Best non-Gettysburg song on the album. Great chorus, and that third verse gives me chills. This song doesn't sound much like Iced Earth, which may be why I like it.

When the Eagle Cries - It can't get cheesier than this, folks. Lyrics are usually the least important part of music to me, but when they're this bad and at third grade-level, they stand out. Musically it's nothing special, either. Like 95% of Iced Earth ballads, this has me jumping for the skip button within the first minute. I get that it's about a rough topic, but surely Schaffer could have written something stronger and less cliche than this. Vote.

The Reckoning - Weird song with some interesting ideas (like the tense middle part), but the obnoxious vocals kill it for me. Vote.

Greenface - Rah rah rah I'm a bad ass cuz 'Murica rah rah rah vote.

Attila - Third-best non-Gettysburg song on the album. Catchy music with arguably the strongest chorus on the album proper. Maybe it's good because the subject matter in this is pre-US?

Red Baron/Blue Max - Second-best non-Gettysburg song on the album. I don't understand the hate for this one. Yes, the lyrics are cheesy, but this is Iced Earth we're talking about. This song is all about the music, and those guitars make me feel like I'm in a dogfight. There's a part in the solo where it sounds like a plane is crashing. Love it. The band loves it, too, as they played it with Stu on the Plagues of Babylon tour.

Hollow Man - This may be among the worst songs Schaffer has ever penned. More third grade lyrics and music that is boring and goes nowhere. Easy vote.

Waterloo - Fifth-best non-Gettysburg song on the album. The music has this fun, light air to it (that is obviously not reflected in the lyrics). It's catchy.

Valley Forge - Fourth-best non-Gettysburg song on the album. There's a tension throughout the song that most of the album proper is missing. The lyrics are a bit cringe worthy at times, but then again, lyrics.

I'm not going to review the Gettysburg trilogy because I could write an essay on how near-perfect it is. As for the rest of the album, it's a mixed bag for sure. I've always loved Declaration Day and Red Baron, but I forgot how good a few of the other tracks were. Unfortunately, the album also contains some of the band's weakest works, such as Hollow Man and Greenface. Still, this album is one of the band's stronger post-Barlow efforts.
 
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