Iced Earth

For anyone interested:


The tracklisting has been altered btw:


Looks awesome, wish I had the money for it.
Anybody here who bought it? I'd love a copy, but I want to know how it sounds. The shitty rip found on youtube with IGD distortion everywhere isn't something I'd want to judge it by. If it sounds remotely like that, distortion aside, I think I prefer the original release anyway and save my money. Far too little low end meat on the youtube rip. Especially for the low end chug.
 
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I'm glad someone else said it. When I'm in the mood for him, he's great, and Burnt Offerings will always be there top album, but a lot of the time he sounds really whiny and cringy and it bugs me.
Wiz was parodying my thoughts on Barlow from last year.
 
Bought Alive in Athens at 20% discount. The vinyl hoarder in me was left defenseless. Also bought Framing Armageddon 2x LP and I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of these two great pieces of music. I hope AiA turns out well and not like the shitty rip posted on youtube.
 
I'm listening through the AiA now. It's a very subtle upgrade in terms of audio over the original release in my opinion. The CD version released initially was already extremely good, but this new mastering sounds a bit better, but it's only a matter of taste in this instance. The new version could do with a very small boost in the bottom, but otherwise sounds great, slightly better balanced. A bit less bus compression as well, so the mix breathes and isn't as tightly packaged. This is the main advantage over the original release, but it's also again a matter of taste. Nothing you'd want to spend money on though unless you like collecting vinyl or you don't have the CD already. The box the LP sleeves is packaged in is disappointing. Very thin paper, in contrast to Bruce's hardback collection, or the Ghost Prequelle box, which was an actual box with a lid on. The AiA box comes off as a letdown in comparison
 
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The crazy world of Jon Schaffer has just got a bit crazier. :D

He was planning to work with Jake Dreyer on production for the next Witherfall album during Spring and then start working on new Iced Earth material after some time off. Instead, Jon will use the lockdown time to work on a book based on the Something Wicked trilogy, apparently with some new characters, and will be launching a Kickstarter campaign to set it up. He says this is "completely unique" and that he's "never seen anything like it before".

What a madman. :lol:

He said this on some Facebook Live thing which is embedded in the Blabbermouth article: https://blabbermouth.net/news/iced-earths-jon-schaffer-to-release-his-first-book/
 
I thought you were going to say he was starting an armed insurgency to overthrow the establishment or something.

The book sounds right up his street.
 
This certainly seems more up his alley. A book comes pretty much out of left field.
I don't think John does anything that could be considered "left". He would probably be very unhappy about such a suggestion!
I thought you were going to say he was starting an armed insurgency to overthrow the establishment or something.

The book sounds right up his street.
Well maybe Jon can go join the dumbasses protesting lockdown across the US. I imagine his conspiracy theory-laden mind is spinning right now.


The book (which I think is going to be a graphic novel) might actually be OK. It's probably a better way to tell the Something Wicked story than through those two messy albums with different singers and filled with interludes. Jon could have made one fairly decent album by taking the highlights from each and omitting all the pointless interludes. That said, they are concept albums and all Metal concept albums must have interludes or intros to convey the storyline.

I will see what more Jon has to say about the book and I might consider getting it if the price isn't crazy or if he offers some cool stuff with his Kickstarter campaign. It may turn out to be a fun piece of Iced Earth-related merchandise even if it's hard to take the Something Wicked storyline seriously after those silly albums.
 
This is now on Iced Earth's Facetube page:

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Jon's latest project is getting closer then. When it comes online I'll have a look at what he's offering.
 
Jon Schaffer is releasing a really cool looking book with...printed lyrics. :blink: It also comes with a CD of Jon...reading the lyics? Over new "sonic soundscape" versions of each song. So...orchestral versions with Jon's reading on top of them? I don't know. It sounds absolutely ridiculous.

Anyway, he already reached his goal in less than half a day, so good on him.

 
I saw that. It's pretty rubbish. I will just stick with the lyrics that come with the CD booklets.

A few weeks ago Jon was talking about doing a graphic novel or comic book about his Something Wicked story, which I was curious about. This looks like a load of nonsense though, so I won't be parting with my money.
 
Any Iced Earth fans wanna support Barlow in this game?

 
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