Comments on: ICED EARTH DELIVER SOMETHING WICKED WITH MATT BARLOW’S RETURN

By: BARLOWS | Furniture Get

BARLOWS | Furniture Get — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:03:53 +0000

[...] barlows metalsucks.net [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:01:54 +0000

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.

By: Metaldoesntsuck!

Metaldoesntsuck! — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:48:50 +0000

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!

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:22:41 +0000

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.

By: Vlad

Vlad — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:36:35 +0000

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

By: iolanach

iolanach — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:40:10 +0000

Utterly and instantly forgettable album. But who could expect anything else? Iced Earth haven’t released an above average album since ’98.

By: hibernum

hibernum — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:49:46 +0000

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.

By: Sammy

Sammy — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:58:34 +0000

My biggest problem w/ IE has always been Barlow, who to my ears sounds way too much like Paul Stanley.

By: TJ

TJ — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:40:28 +0000

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.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:31:26 +0000

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.

By: jesse

jesse — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:25:36 +0000

Sounds good… I may have to check it out.

That’s some bad ass artwork by the way.

By: Alex Haskett

Alex Haskett — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:36:59 +0000

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