ICED EARTH DELIVER SOMETHING WICKED WITH MATT BARLOW’S RETURN
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 3:20pm by Christopher Roddy
Allow me to begin by stating unequivocally that I am a Matt Barlow fan. I know there are plenty of Iced Earth devotees out there who were (rightfully) upset by Tim “Ripper” Owens’ unceremonious dismissal and felt he was a stronger vocalist for this act as they moved onward after Barlow, who struggling with his allegiances earlier this decade involving his love of Country, dropped out to take up law enforcement. But Barlow is family (he’s married to guitarist Jon Schaffer’s sister) and, I believe, he’s the more dynamic singer. His emotive wail often resembles Fates Warning’s Ray Alder. His subdued baritone comes close to Queensrÿche’s Geoff Tate. He can also reach the searing, Halfordesque heights Owens is known for though he tends to use them more sparingly. And then he has that snarling growl which is entirely his own. Beyond that he’s much more of a performer who falls into and maintains a character the way an actor might. I don’t dislike “Ripper” Owens but he doesn’t seem to embody the people about whom or situations about which he’s intoning quite as well as Barlow. Also, in a live setting he doesn’t really possess the energy one might want out of a frontman. He has an amazing voice that served the last couple Iced Earth releases well but I’m more a fan of the band’s earlier output, such as ’95’s Burnt Offerings and ’96’s The Dark Saga.
Enough with the diplomacy, though. You’re either going to dismiss this review based on my own stated preference or you’re going to hang in there with me for a spell. The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2 ends up a vital return for Barlow that, while it may fall short of Iced Earth’s classic material ends up more satisfying than its Part 1 predecessor.
The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2 is the conclusion of a storyline that began with the arc of the last three tracks on ’98’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. The saga of IE mascot Set Abominae was given the full length treatment on last year’s Framing Armageddon: Something Wicked Part 1 and now wraps up with a kind of “Part 3″ that’s actually labeled as “Part 2″ because the original song trio was just back-story for the two follow-up albums. And that original “trilogy” was re-recorded as an EP with Ripper on vocals because Schaffer thought he would be around for the completion of the story. Since this is not the case, Schaffer now wants to re-record Part 1 with Barlow on vocals and release everything in a box set.
Confused? If you haven’t been following along as everything has unfolded in real time I can’t say I blame you. Only in metal could something this convoluted come to fruition. Well, never mind all the nonsense. Is the music of Part 2 any good? Upon initial spins my reaction was generally negative. However, this review is late because I’ve discovered that the more you keep listening, the more the album grows on you and ultimately becomes more satisfying than its predecessor. It certainly doesn’t compare with the band’s classic material, as Scaffer’s rhythmic style is no longer as inventive and vital as it once was, but from a melodic standpoint there’s a helluva lot of memorable material here that sticks with you in an almost haunting way.
There’s a full choir on hand with this venture, and that adds a lot of dramatic weight to the music. Aside from a big, impressive chorus, the first proper track, “Behold The Wicked Birth,” doesn’t really make a striking album opener but the raw, mid-tempo “Minions Of The Wrath” has a middle-Eastern undercurrent and a great vocal performance by Barlow. Yet, we’re left waiting for the speedy and intense galloping rhythms we’ve come to appreciate from Iced Earth. Things pick up with “The Revealing” somewhat but then dissolve into the lush ballad “A Gift Or A Curse.”
“The Dimension Gauntlet” is one of the most impressive and concise moments on the album with its razor-sharp riffs and a rapid, percussive bite. Even more aggressive and unrelenting is “Divide And Devour,” an all-out thrash attack and a highlight of the second half. It leads into “Come What May,” an epic number along the lines of The Dark Saga’s “A Question Of Heaven” with its acoustic breaks and strings mixed with an emotionally dramatic melody that builds to a wailing climax as Barlow reaches for the very top of his range.
Dropping the excess of the interludes from Framing Armageddon in favor of straight-ahead storytelling and concise songwriting, The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2 actually makes for an impressive late-in-their-career stand and a triumphant return for Barlow whose performance at times surpasses some of his finest periods with the band. They’re not the youthful and vibrant bunch they used to be but Schaffer’s progression as band-leader/control freak and his songwriting maturity hasn’t yet evolved to the point of growing stale and obsolete. While you may at first find this album to be a little too subdued I would recommend not writing it off altogether as subsequent listens reveal great rewards.
-CR
(Three and a half out of five horns)
i got it on the day of its release…its good but if im honest i prefer FA.
then again thats probably because im a massive tim owens fan and on the whole im not really a big fan of barlow…talented vocalist no doubt but i dunno…his vocals just dont do it for me on the whole
Sounds good… I may have to check it out.
That’s some bad ass artwork by the way.
Good review. I’ve heard generally great things about this album, so I’ll get it at some point (though I still haven’t heard Framing Armageddon). As far as Tim Owens vs. Matt Barlow, I think Barlow is better, but I can’t imagine anyone else singing the Gettysburg Trilogy other than Owens. Hands down some of Iced Earth’s best material right there.
Spot on review about the album being one to grow on you. I didn’t like it a lot upon my first listen, but after listening to the album a few more times, it’s definitely grown on me.
I’m a Barlow fan. He’s the voice of Iced Earth. As good as Ripper was on FA, Barlow is still the guy I want to hear singing for IE.
I can’t friggin wait to see these guys in 2 weeks with Into Eternity.
My biggest problem w/ IE has always been Barlow, who to my ears sounds way too much like Paul Stanley.
Barlow aside, how is the songwriting? Because Schafer is very one dimensional, most times. As predictable as the tides. I mean the ballads are always the same couple of jangly acoustic chords and then harmonized guitars in the middle, with really high pitched vocals. His riffs tend to use the same set of notes in the same rythm but in a slightly different order. It is almost like he is a computer program, which would make sense if we were in the Metal Matrix.
And Barlow sings like a whiny bitch, or as Sammy puts it Paul Stanley.
Utterly and instantly forgettable album. But who could expect anything else? Iced Earth haven’t released an above average album since ‘98.
Not quite sure Barlow’s a baritone… sounds to me more like a tenor (that’s also for Tate)
As for the album, it’s good but just that. Maybe the weakest with Matt.. even when I prefer Barlow all over Owens, FA is better, and re-recorded it seems to me like an insult to Owen’s brilliant work
After listening to this album repeatedly, I’ve grown to enjoy it tremendously. While not insanely fast, or even that heavy, I think it’s better than their attempts at heavy/speedy material found on pt. 1 (Framing Armageddon). I think John Schaffer has sort of resigned himself into the singer/songwriter role, and is no longer awesome 50-riffs-in-a-song writer that he had been in the past (the first 3 are insanely chock full of riffs), but he can still write a heck of a tune, and Barlow just fits better into that mold than Ripper did. Ripper can sing his ass off on some of the riffy, technical stuff (“Red Baron/Blue Max” from The Glorious Burden, for example), but I think Barlow carries more of an emotional weight in the Something Wicked saga. I’d give this album a 7.5 overall, and I’d give pt. a 6.5.
This album isnt as good as i thought it would be, the catchy riffs just..werent there like on horror show or anything like that, early iced earth is a little better but ive never taken to kindly to the fact that they DONT HAVE GUITAR SOLOS!
Yes they do, you moron. Iced Earth and Night Of The Stormrider are loaded with guitar solos. I think from Something Wicked onwards they stopped writing blackened power thrash songs and started writing thrash influenced metal songs, which is what stopped them from achieving as legendary status as they deserve. A lot of people getting into them through their later albums write them off as a Maiden/Metallica rip off act and it’s a shame but not unheard of that a lot of people will only judge you by your last album, and often people get stale when they’ve released this many albums.
I hear that the Something Wicked box set is coming out September 28th but i only have one source (Record Collector). Really though, the last great album IE released was The Dark Saga. Something Wicked is ok but has too many ballads and not enough of the mystical darkness that made their early stuff indispensable.