Iced Earth

Not bad at all, I like it a lot better than Whore, it's very listenable. Enjoyed the solo, which was unexpected. It's not anything new or different, but as with visiting Burger King, I'm fine with that.
 
Night Prowler said:
It's not a ballad.
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Detective Beauregard said:
Their ballads outside of A Question of Heaven (which is amazing) are literally the same song every time - the format never changes. If you played me the beginnings of Ghost of Freedom, Melancholy, I Died for You, Watching Over Me, etc. I would be unable to tell them apart. However, Raven Wing is more reminiscent of Cthulhu from the previous album (except slower and not nearly as good).
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Well I listened to the rest of it and the non-ballad parts are pretty cool. Kinda generic but still enjoyable.

I don't dislike their ballads BTW. In fact, I actually really enjoyed two of the three ballads on Dystopia (Anthem being the one I disliked). The problem is that many of them sound the same. I have the same problem with a lot of recent Dream Theater ballads. In the album's context they usually work fine but I'm never going to go out of my way to listen to most of them. The best ballads were on SWTWC, nothing has lived up to those since.

Controversial IE opinion: AQOH is one of their lesser ballads. I much prefer Melancholy and I Died For You.
 
I Died For You is great and I agree that it's IE's best ballad. I also love Consequences although Melancholy has dropped a bit since I first heard it.
 
Iced Earth run such a gamut lyrically. One minute they're emoting about a guy who died in a motorcycle accident and the next they're screeching about whatever the hell that thing was that John Leguizamo played in Spawn.

I need to listen to Consequences again, as I recall it being solid and kinda unique for them. Last night I listened to the first two discs of Alive in Athens and I can say without hesitation that it is one of the best-sounding live albums I've ever heard. It almost makes me wonder if there were overdubs.
 
Night Prowler said:
Don't understand the production criticism, the last two were definitely dry and bland but this one finally brought back some punch.

Lead guitarist is ex-White Wizzard guitarist Jake Dreyer. He plays live for Kobra & The Lotus (think you posted that band before, @MrKnickerbocker) and was also supposed to replace Christian Lasegue in Jag Panzer (@Mosh) but the band split up instead. I just discovered he founded a prog metal band with other members kicked out of White Wizzard. Listening to it now:

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I just made a Witherfall thread, but I really wanted to pop in here and throw in my support for Jake Dreyer. Dude's by far and away the best lead guitarist Iced Earth's ever had. I highly recommend Iced Earth fans checking Witherfall out, especially if they're fans of early IE albums like Night of the Stormrider or Burnt Offerings.
 
Good to hear Stu exploring his voice more and getting out of Barlow mode on this track.

I wrote a paper in university on the Irish Brigade.
 
2017 is shaping up to be a weird year so far. Donald Trump is president, Wonder Woman was awesome, and I like the new Iced Earth album.
 
So I finally got around to listening to Clear the Way, and I have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised. I have no reservations with calling this a great song, very original by IE standards, and quite engaging.
 
Just listened to the whole album for the first time. First impressions: Black Flag is solid, Clear the Way is awesome. Everything else, though not bad at all, sounds like something I've heard 100 times.
 
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