ICED EARTH Week on Maidenfans (9/10 - 9/17)

Favorite Iced Earth albums? (Pick up to 3)

  • Iced Earth

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Night of the Stormrider

    Votes: 5 55.6%

  • Burnt Offerings

    Votes: 4 44.4%

  • Dark Saga

    Votes: 4 44.4%

  • Something Wicked This Way Comes

    Votes: 7 77.8%

  • Horror Show

    Votes: 5 55.6%

  • The Glorious Burden

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Framing Armageddon

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Crucible of Man

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Dystopia

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Plagues of Babylon

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    9
Mosh

Mosh

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Staff member
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Previous threads (feel free to continue discussion):
Opeth
Black Sabbath
Metallica

This week we focus on Iced Earth! Discuss anything related to the band, y'all know the drill.

Talking Points:
  • Favorite/least favorite IE songs?
  • Who will be the next member to leave??
  • If you had to give someone one album to get them into IE, which would it be? (AiA doesn't count! :p)
  • What do you think of the Something Wicked plotline that runs through the recent albums?
  • What are your opinions on Stu Block?
  • Are IE's glory days behind them or do they have another "classic" album in them? Or are they better than ever now?
 
  • Stygian is a clear #1, ever since I first started listening to IE. Desert Rain has worked it's way up to the #2 spot overtaking Pure Evil in recent times (what can I say? I'm a Stormrider fanboy). For the non-Stormrider songs, Burnt Offerings, Damien, Prophecy, When the Night Falls and Come What May are the picks for me.
  • Least favourite songs would definitely include When the Eagle Cries and Anthem, I hugely dislike both songs with a passion.
  • For a first time IE listener, I'd probably have to give them Horror Show. It's got a nice mix of styles showcasing what IE are about, is very good and even a couple of unique tracks on the album.
  • Because Schaffer is batshit insane, I wouldn't be surprised if all the other members left within the next 5 years. Although the next likely to leave is probably Troy Seele.
  • The Something Wicked story would be good if the albums themselves were any good. Combine the 2 albums together and then it might be half decent compared to what they are now.
  • Stu Block is fine, although overall he's a little too close to Barlow's style. Of course that's probably why Schaffer pick him in the first place (and likely forgot he's Canadian too)
  • I think IE's glory days are behind them, especially since the last couple of albums have alright but are very inside the box and no experimentation at all. I'd respect them more if they actually tried something new even if it wasn't good.
 
in b4 pampam :nana:

Haven't liked their stuff much since Glorious Burden. I'm not sure to what extent this is Iced Earth getting worse vs. my changing taste in music. Later albums sound OK when I hear them, but they aren't memorable to me. They probably deserve another chance, but I kinda dread that...

Burnt Offerings thru Horror Show (including AiA and Tribute to the Gods), they were great. Some stinkers on each album, but so many great tracks that I easily forgive. Something Wicked is easily my favorite of the studio albums.

Favorite song: "Pure Evil", and of course AiA version if you can get it.
 
I have no idea if Iced Earth's glory days are truly behind them, but I am almost sure that Jon Schaffer's best days are behind him. Even reuniting with Barlow couldn't bring out the magic that started with Night of the Stormrider and ended with Horror Show. Though I do like Stu Block, I just feel like he is going to be sacrificed at some point in time.

Favourite song is hard to pick, but Stygian is up there. A Question of Heaven is another, as is The Phantom Opera Ghost and all three parts of Gettysburg. Pure Evil, Jack, and The Hunter are up there as well. I could probably list a dozen more. The worst songs? Where the Eagle Pukes, The Ghost of Fuckface, and other such U-S-A! songs. And a special hate-face to Red Baron/Blue Max. In this song, Iced Earth does everything wrong that Sabaton does right.

I would give a new IE fan a copy of Horror Show. Not only is it my favourite album (or tied with The Dark Saga) it hits a lot of Iced Earth essentials. The fast, the heavy, the hard, the operatic, and whatever the hell Ghost of Freedom is.
 
I wonder if anything besides the 5 that have already been voted for will be selected in the poll up there.

Also by looking at the list of albums, I've just realized that with Plagues of Babylon, IE has more average or worse albums than good or better ones.
 
I love Iced Earth with Barlow to a fault. Days of Purgatory is what the early days of IE sound like, I just can't stand the singer on the first album and Stormrider is much better, but no Barlow.

Schaffer has definitely lost it, though. He is the American AC/DC of power metal.
 
I guess you could say I'm a fairweather IE fan. When they're good, they're awesome. When they're bad, it's pretty much some of the dullest music imaginable. They have a style which was pretty exciting at first, but after being regurgitated so many times it has turned lifeless and predictable.

  • My favorites include The Phantom Opera Ghost, Burning Times, Burnt Offerings, Damien, Pure Evil, Angel's Holocaust, Gettysburg, Declaration Day, Disciples of the Lie, and Last December. My least favorites are pretty much anything from Glorious Burden (not counting the songs I mentioned as favorites) and beyond. Plus Ghost of Freedom from Horror show. God I hate that song.
  • I'm not sure but hopefully it's Troy. It's also pretty obvioius that Stu can't handle their touring schedule, so he probably won't last long either.
  • Probably Something Wicked This Way Comes. It really covers the gamut and shows the band at their best. Not a fan of the heavy/ballad/heavy/ballad format though.
  • I don't care for the Something Wicked stuff. It was cool for the one trilogy but it got quickly played out. The two albums sucked and it seems really shoehorned in the last two albums. Also Set Abominae isn't even fit to clean Eddie's boots.
  • Stu is fine. He's a really good singer but I wish he'd turn off the Barlow impression for 2 minutes. It's lame. Otherwise he'd be the best singer since Barlow and a great replacement. At least in studio. He still has some hurdles live.
  • I think IE is a spent force. Their albums keep getting worse and even if Barlow came back the end result would still suck (see Crucible of Man).
 
Mosh said:
  • I don't care for the Something Wicked stuff. It was cool for the one trilogy but it got quickly played out. The two albums sucked and it seems really shoehorned in the last two albums. Also Set Abominae isn't even fit to clean Eddie's boots.
  • Stu is fine. He's a really good singer but I wish he'd turn off the Barlow impression for 2 minutes. It's lame. Otherwise he'd be the best singer since Barlow and a great replacement. At least in studio. He still has some hurdles live.
  • I think IE is a spent force. Their albums keep getting worse and even if Barlow came back the end result would still suck (see Crucible of Man).
Click to expand...

  • Framing Armageddon has some really good songs on it, but Ripper ruins everything. Crucible is incredibly bland and boring. FA is far and away the better album, but the vocals and incredibly flat, auto-synced production steal all soul from the performances.
  • I think Stu is the best thing for Iced Earth if they can't have Barlow. He's capable of doing the old stuff, even if he's not great at the low notes.
  • I agree, except I far prefer Dystopia to Plagues of Babylon.
 
Oh I prefer Dystopia too. Hence their albums getting worse. :D I will say though that for better or worse, Plagues is much more consistent. Dystopia has sudden bursts of quality; you'll get an ok song then a really awful song then a really good song then just an ok song and so on and so forth. So it's more of a mixed bag. There are also more ballads and varied tempo songs. It's a lot like SWTWC in terms of variety really. It still sounds really dull though. Plagues is just consistently bad. And it's more or less the same song over and over again.
 
Dystopia was awful. I can't see how anybody can think it's a good album. It's like a caricature of everything that was classic Iced Earth. Plagues of Babylon however, I am ashamed to say, is damn good.
 
I don't think Dystopia is a good album either. It had one or two songs I liked and that was it really.

Plagues was just really bland. It never reached the low points of Dystopia but it hardly had anything that made it particularly better.

But picking between the two is a lot like deciding between eating dirt or rocks anyway. :p
 
I disagree. I would even say that Plagues is the best thing they did since their 90's heyday.
 
- So my favorites are the Gettysburg Trilogy, Phantom Opera Ghost, Travel in Stygian, Pure Evil, Disciples of the Lie, Vengeance is Mine and Red Baron. Least favorites would be everything from Framing Armageddon, and The Crucible of Man.
- The next member to leave will be anyone who isn't John Schaffer.

- Definitely Something Wicked This Way Comes, but Night of the Stormrider wouldn't be to bad either.

- It's a good idea, but it was poorly executed. Framing Armageddon and The Crucible of Man are just plain terrible. The last two albums have been just mediocre.

- Stu Block is kind of a boring front man. When I saw them live I got kind of bored, as opposed to the Joakim from Sabaton who was very entertaining to watch.

- Yeah their glory days are definitely behind them, I didn't like the last 4 albums and I probably wont like the next. Of course there is still a possibility that they make another great album but I'm kind of doubting it.
 
Favourites? Question of Heaven, The Hunter, Stygian, Burning Times, also have a soft spot for Plagues of Babylon. Can't think offhand of anything much I actually dislike, but there are a good many I gloss over completely, the more generic ones that don't stand out.

Who leaves next? No idea, I don't pay any attention to band politics.

One album? Dark Saga any day. Classic IE, solid album throughout, and easy to get into.

Something Wicked plot? Trippy. Interesting idea to begin with, but I think it's been worn out now.

Stu Block?
:wub:
One a more serious note, he can sing in a Barlow style, which can't be easy. That said, I've now seen a few videos of Stu performing live and he didn't sound too good at times. Unless his voice has changed a lot since he joined IE, that's not the only style he's capable of, though, his 'natural' singing style is good, although maybe a bit nondescript.

Glory days? Behind them, that was the Barlow era. I do like Plagues, but I'd be very surprised if IE managed to pull off a truly iconic album in future, they'd need to both provide quality and come up with something original.
 
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