Random Song - Iced Earth - Dracula

Rate this song:

  • 10

    Votes: 6 60.0%

  • 9

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • 8

    Votes: 1 10.0%

  • 7

    Votes: 1 10.0%

  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 1

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    10
Night Prowler

Night Prowler

Customer Deathcycle Manager
Staff member
This is my favorite Iced Earth song and my second favorite song ever, but it took a long time for me to like it. A few months ago, I downloaded pro-shot footage from Graspop 2008, and played the video just to see the quality of the footage. And then I stumbled upon this song... As Matt said: "Love story, Iced Earth style".

Matt gives his best performance ever, and the song gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. Everything is so perfect in this song - from the calm intro, to the explosion of riffs, screaming vocals and choirs. Lead guitar is kinda buried under multiple layers of rhythm guitar, so the song is kinda different when played live, but still awesome.

Also I think that this song is kinda similar to The Talisman. I wrote about it a while ago:
Night Prowler said:
P.S. This song somehow reminds of Iced Earth's Dracula. Both songs start with acoustic introduction, then speed up and are fast paced until the solos, then speed up again. Both Bruce and Matt sing very high notes during verses. Also, in both songs, chorus appears only twice. But... Dracula > The Talisman.
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10/10!
 
Great tune. Definately one of the best songs off Horror Show. The slow emotional intro, the riffing of the guitars, the vocals during the chorus... love it.

This song will accept no less than a 10/10 from me. A stellar piece indeed.


The next person below me can open a new random song thread.
 
Really, really good song.  Not my favorite Iced Earth song, but it's up there.  What keeps it from being a 10 is that Barlow is SO emotive at the beginning that it runs the risk of sounding like an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical at times.  (I think Jason Segal must have been aware of this song when he scripted the "Dracula's Lament" scene from Forgetting Sarah Marshall.)  8/10
 
Awesome song!!

Barlow's fantastic in the intro, and great in the rest of the song - I do however prefer Ripper on the high note stuff.

9.
 
One of my favourite Iced Earth songs. Probably the last great one they ever made. That is not to say there haven't been some good ones since, but none that were great. So in a way, you could almost say this is their epitaph. 10/10.


Yax said:
I do however prefer Ripper on the high note stuff.
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Funny, I think Ripper butchers this one Idi Amin-style.
 
Perun said:
That is not to say there haven't been some good ones since, but none that were great. So in a way, you could almost say this is their epitaph. 10/10.
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Not even Gettysburg??

Perun said:
Funny, I think Ripper butchers this one Idi Amin-style.
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Sounds like we didn't go to the same show.  :ninja:
 
I would definitely say Gettysburg is the last great Iced Earth song.

Dracula? It is fantastic, yes, though it took me a very long time to get to know and love it. Now, it emotes a little within me, but I don't think it compares to the rest of this utterly fantastic album. The Dark Saga - Something Wicked This Way Comes - Horror Show are one of the best three-album runs in metal history. Pretty much each one of them is perfect.

I give Dracula a 9/10, but I would give Jack a 9/10 and Damien and The Phantom Opera Ghost 10/10. The whole album is stellar and is really working towards my favourite Iced Earth album there is.
 
Yax said:
Not even Gettysburg??
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Gettysburg has moments of greatness, and it certainly isn't boring, but for the most part, I can't see what's so exceptional about it. It definitely is good, no doubt about it, and remains the only listenable part of the album seven years on. But I have to say that I used to be a lot more excited about it, and it hasn't entirely passed the test of time. Interestingly, it's mostly the instrumental passages that I think still stand out. Some parts, such as the vocal harmonies and Ripper's wailings during The Devil to Pay sound outright annoying to me now.

Sounds like we didn't go to the same show.  :ninja:
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Please, listen to this and tell me you think it's good. What Ripper does to the song is absolutely painful. The soft parts aren't just off-key, but also sung atrociously, and later his shrieking completely ruins the song's atmosphere. I had to stop it after two and a half minutes because I couldn't take it anymore.

What's funny is that I really used to like the Ripper, and there are numerous posts on this forum that attest to that. I still think Framing Armageddon is a good album, and Ripper does a good job on it, but other than that... he has really dropped in my ratings over time.
 
Perun said:
Gettysburg has moments of greatness, and it certainly isn't boring, but for the most part, I can't see what's so exceptional about it. It definitely is good, no doubt about it, and remains the only listenable part of the album seven years on. But I have to say that I used to be a lot more excited about it, and it hasn't entirely passed the test of time. Interestingly, it's mostly the instrumental passages that I think still stand out. Some parts, such as the vocal harmonies and Ripper's wailings during The Devil to Pay sound outright annoying to me now.

Please, listen to this and tell me you think it's good. .
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Actually  :ninja:... I love the shrieking - I'm very partial to Ripper and think Barlow's weak on the high notes (not just in this song) so I don't see anything wrong with it. I may sound like a Ripper zealot, but I can't help it, I love his shrieking.  :P

As you said, some notes in the intro were a bit flat and what was in pitch wasn't well exectued anyway. He just doesn't have the low end to pull it off. Barlow's far superior in this aspect.
But still, I like it apart from the intro.
 
I've held off commenting on this one because I had to digest it a little more... I'm barely familiar with the band and their material. After listening to this tune a half dozen times, I'm giving it a 9. It's an amazing song! I'm going to research these guys a little more, as I'm really impressed with the little bit I've checked out so far.

I've been a musical curmudgeon for many years, not even bothering to check out unfamiliar bands. When I hear awesomely performed music such as this, I feel like kicking myself in the ass.

Witness ye my vow... I will explore the music of artists I'm not familiar with!
 
One of the lesser Iced Earth songs for me. I admit it's intense and it has a suspenseful intro but there's way too much repetition and not enough variation for my taste to call this one of the better songs. I also feel that the bombast (and ridiculous amount of vocal layers) kills the chorus.

It doesn't fit the subject even... in a good Dracula story, the dude with the teeth strikes alone, silently, and doesn't come in hordes of bats, screaming -almost happily- for attention.

I can mention dozens of IE songs with better riffs, rhythms, choruses, melodies, you name it.

Taker64, good luck, because this isn't exactly a representative Iced Earth song.
 
Forostar said:
It doesn't fit the subject even... in a good Dracula story, the dude with the teeth strikes alone, silently, and doesn't come in hordes of bats, screaming -almost happily- for attention.
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Hehehe :D

taker64 said:
I'm going to research these guys a little more, as I'm really impressed with the little bit I've checked out so far.
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Just don't start with their first or their last album :cheers:
 
taker64 said:
I've been a musical curmudgeon for many years, not even bothering to check out unfamiliar bands. When I hear awesomely performed music such as this, I feel like kicking myself in the ass.

Witness ye my vow... I will explore the music of artists I'm not familiar with!
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Well, at least explore the music of Iced Earth.  You owe it to yourself to have Alive in Athens in your possession.  Elsewhere on this forum, people have taken the position that it is the greatest live metal album ever made -- and that position is TOTALLY defensible. I may stop short of calling it the best ever, but it is truly exceptional.  And Dracula isn't even on it.

On that note, I think one of the best things about this forum is that it is a good way to learn about great music, not just metal, you might not have heard before.  I learned about Blind Guardian and Iced Earth in this forum, and they are now two of my favorite bands -- Perun, I think, encouraged me to see an Iced Earth show in my city, saying something like, "enjoy the best American metal band.". (Take that, Lars!)  And it was good advice. 
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Perun, I think, encouraged me to see an Iced Earth show in my city, saying something like, "enjoy the best American metal band.". (Take that, Lars!)  And it was good advice.  
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Not very important, but I did say that. ;)
 
Sorry Foro, you're right.  :ok:  Perun's quote is instructive too: 
In my opinion, Iced Earth is the third best metal band in the world, after Iron Maiden and Blaze.
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The point being, people who haven't checked out Iced Earth, should. 
 
This forum turned me on to Gettysburg, which is stunning even if the album it's on is just OK.
First taste of this song. Sounds like a great tune.
 
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