Iced Earth

[BlutAusNerd]

Re: Best Iced Earth Albums? Their debut is better than Dark Saga and everything that came after, you just have to get past the terrible vocals.

[RelentlessOblivion]

actually the Something Wicked trilogy have grown on me a little as has Horror Show, they aren't great albums but they are decent enough

[The Strategos]

Am I the only one to think Iced Earth sounds like a Baking Metal pioneer?

[H34VYM3T4LD4V3]

Re: Best Iced Earth Albums? Haha thats a funny one

[Janga666]

My favorite Iced Earth album is their live album "Alive in Athens". The songs sound better on there than the studio versions!

[forge]

Am I the only one to think Iced Earth sounds like a Baking Metal pioneer?

Does that have anything to do with chocolate cookies? Because now I want some.

[BlutAusNerd]

My vote has always gone to (and probably will always go to) Night of the Stormrider, with Burnt Offerings taking 2nd place.

[ReturntoCarthage]

Night of the stormrider sucked ass. Schaeffer cannot write a riff to save his life, all you hear is constant galloping its beyond irritating, though Angels Holocaust and Travel in Stygian are amazing songs. The band would be amazing if Schaeffer wasn't in it and they managed to keep a good vocalist, my vote goes to the debut and Burnt offerings.

[RelentlessOblivion]

well I see you've slightly changed your position RtC until now you've always maintained that Burnt Offerings was their only album to even be decent

[General Dicer]

First off, I personally consider Iced Earth more of a thrash band than power metal. Just because some of the songs have high vocals doesn't make them power metal. But, that's just my opinion. Regarding their best albums, I can sum it up in 2 words; Matt Barlow. Not only is the guy one of the best singers ever, but the albums he's on are the best musically too. My personal favorites are Burnt Offerings, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Dark Saga. Horror Show is great too and their newest album with singer Stu Block is pretty good. In my book, Ripper Owens doesn't compare to Barlow or Block, so personally I would avoid those albums.

[BlutAusNerd]

Re: Best Iced Earth Albums? Really? I think Barlow's vocals are terrible, but their early albums with him have good enough music on them for me to disregard them. There was a bit of thrash in their sound early on, but it was mostly phased out by Something Wicked This Way Comes. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

[RelentlessOblivion]

+1 Barlow may not be the worst vocalist associated with the band but he is still quite poor, musically the Owens albums were bad, a shame considering how talented Ripper is

[General Dicer]

+1 Barlow may not be the worst vocalist associated with the band but he is still quite poor, musically the Owens albums were bad, a shame considering how talented Ripper is

We agree to diagree there. Ripper is good at what he does, but he was a very poor choice for Iced Earth. Barlow outdoes him in every way. If you like Ripper's style but want Barlow, listen to the song 'Dracula' off Horror Show. It's Barlow singing high like Ripper, but much clearer and cleaner. Nothing against Ripper, but Barlow just has so much more attitude to his vocals. Given the choice, it's Barlow for me every time.

[H34VYM3T4LD4V3]

Re: Best Iced Earth Albums? ripper is an AWESOME vocalist

[NTNR]

The best Iced Earth albums are: The Dark Saga (mostly ruined by Barlow's super shitty vocals) Night of the Storm Rider Burnt Offerings (when Barlow could actually kinda sing) The Glorious Burden (mostly because Tim is an animal!)

[General Dicer]

The best Iced Earth albums are: The Dark Saga (mostly ruined by Barlow's super shitty vocals) Night of the Storm Rider Burnt Offerings (when Barlow could actually kinda sing) The Glorious Burden (mostly because Tim is an animal!)

Uh, yeah. The Dark Saga is one of the best vocal albums ever recorded, if anything an improvement over Burnt Offerings vocally. As for Glorious Burden, yep Tim is an animal. An animal that can shriek at the top of his lungs and not much else. Sorry dude, but Ripper just isn't in the same weight class as Barlow.

[RelentlessOblivion]

it seems we have our first Matt Barlow fanboy General remember how you said if I wanted to hear Iced Earth with Ripper style vocals to check out Dracula (a song I am quite familiar with by the way) may I suggest if you want to hear Iced Earth with good singing check out Demons & Wizards, particularly the self titled album

[NTNR]

Uh' date=' yeah. The Dark Saga is one of the best vocal albums ever recorded, if anything an improvement over Burnt Offerings vocally. As for Glorious Burden, yep Tim is an animal. An animal that can shriek at the top of his lungs and not much else. Sorry dude, but Ripper just isn't in the same weight class as Barlow.[/quote'] The Dark Saga was a joke vocally. He's constantly grunting, groaning and sighing after each word that is shouted. That' detracts from the music, it's incredibly stupid and shows a lack of control. Funny because he supposedly took singing lessons after Burnt Offerings came out. Hardly in improvement over the utter lack of that on Burnt Offerings. You're right about them being in a different weight class. Ripper is a heavy weight that sang Barlow's songs better than he ever could've. Not just screaming either but in range and over all emotional delivery. Barlow is the lightest of the classes. Regardless, Schaffer's been writing the same song for 20 + years now. He has no variation in his writing or style. He is stagnation incarnate, hence why I first stopped listening to them years ago (right after TDS). When Ripper joined I was happy that they might release something decent both from a writing standpoint as well as vocal standpoint. The music was more or less predictable but tolerable since Ripper, the bands only good vocalist, gave each song a powerful breath of fresh air. When I was forced to see them on that tour he made songs I didn't care for awesome. I hate Barlow so much I'd rather have their first singer on all their albums. After hearing that clowns vocals on their first album I couldn't stop laughing for a month.

[Idlewilde]

Oh I had the chance to see their last concert with Matt Barlow on Wacken. It was really a gig to remember even if on Wacken you see so many...it was definetely one that you can't forget ...

[deathstorm]

i like them my favorite track is when the eagle cries it hits home on 9/11 a real good song also star spangled banner and indepentce day i blast them on the 4 of july

[RelentlessOblivion]

note to self: never post about a new band immediately after listening to their best album, average band at best and they totally failed to make good use of the only talented vocalist the band has ever had in Tim "Ripper" Owens.

[H34VYM3T4LD4V3]

Re: Iced Earth

note to self: never post about a new band immediately after listening to their best album' date=' average band at best and they totally failed to make good use of the only talented vocalist the band has ever had in Tim "Ripper" Owens.[/quote'] Ripper is a legend, only heard him with Judas though.

[RelentlessOblivion]

his solo work is poor, his time in Iced Earth was abyssmal and with Yngwie Malmsteen he is forever doomed to be the least important part of the package, for a vocalist with such talent he sure gets screwed over by the metal gods.

[NTNR]

I agree, IE didn't use him to his full potential. He did a good job with the crappy material Schaffer gave him to work with however. I haven't bothered with Yngwie as he's better seen live then heard on album. Sadly the intensity just doesn't translate. Rippers solo work (as I've said countless times) sucks and it sucks because it's bland, generic and took him too long to bring it to the public's attention. Maybe that's why he sings in the Dio Disciples and is opening a rock themed restaurant instead of working on original material. Dude's a gifted vocalist but a crappy writer.

[RelentlessOblivion]

much like Dio was the difference being that Dio actually had good music behind him which distracted you from the rubbish lyrics