The Official Iced Earth Thread v. "Tastes Like Treason!"

[MoraWintersoul]

I'm kind of on the fence about it; Matt sounds great and it's not bad by any means, but it doesn't do much besides that.

[TAC]

So Jon announced today that the tracking of Plagues Of Babylon is completed and mixing starts next week.
Cool. I am looking forward to this.

Also Brent Smedley is leaving AGAIN.

[Jaq]

He left a while ago, actually. Kind of shocked he lasted that long, to be honest.

And I find myself unable to care anymore about Iced Earth. That fucking godawful live album and Schaffer insisting on wasting the talents of Stu Block have finally wiped out my interest in this band.

[Zook]

So Jon announced today that the tracking of Plagues Of Babylon is completed and mixing starts next week.
Cool. I am looking forward to this.

Also Brent Smedley is leaving AGAIN.

He done left, son.

I'm going to give this a shot, but I'm fully aware of what I'll be getting myself into, so I have very low expectations.

[wolfking]

Yeah, I'll definitely pick it up.  We'll see how we go, but I have pretty low expectations too.

[TAC]

So Jon announced today that the tracking of Plagues Of Babylon is completed and mixing starts next week.
Cool. I am looking forward to this.

Also Brent Smedley is leaving AGAIN.

He done left, son.

I've always maintained that Alive In Athens is the Frampton Comes Alive of Heavy Metal.

Brent Smedley was incredible on it.

[Zook]

true dat yo.

[Mister Gold]

Stu Block's mother passed away sometime over the past two days.

[Zook]

That sucks.

[wolfking]

Yeah, that's shit.

[Zook]

Ashes of Ares streaming here:

https://www.terrorizer.com/news/streams/ashes-of-ares-stream-new-album-with-terrorizer/


I know it's a stream, but what's up with the mix?


Freddie is a better lead guitarist than Troy LOL

But then, so is Ardy Emgee of KrotchRaut.

[Mister Gold]

Ashes of Ares streaming here:

https://www.terrorizer.com/news/streams/ashes-of-ares-stream-new-album-with-terrorizer/

I know it's a stream, but what's up with the mix?

Freddie is a better lead guitarist than Troy LOL

But then, so is Ardy Emgee of KrotchRaut.

I like what I'm hearing so far. The mix does sound a bit weird, but hopefully the final product will sound better. If not, I'd recommend they pick a different producer next time around. However, as I said before, I like what I'm hearing so far, song-wise.

EDIT: Also, over halfway through the album right now, and I think it's safe to say that Freddie's also probably a better rhythm guitarist than Jon is nowadays too. Then again, musical variety does go a good way in that regard.

[adace]

Very good album. Matt still sounds awesome and the music is really solid.

My favorite tracks so far are Dead Man's Plight, The Answer and The One-Eyed King.

I need to give this more spins before I get a concrete opinion but right now I'm leaning towards a 4/5.

[Zook]

EDIT: Also, over halfway through the album right now, and I think it's safe to say that Freddie's also probably a better rhythm guitarist than Jon is nowadays too. Then again, musical variety does go a good way in that regard.

I agree. Schaffer's hard to match in the galloping department, but as far as metal riffs, he's been stale for far too long.

[seasonsinthesky]

Very good album. Matt still sounds awesome and the music is really solid.

I need to give this more spins before I get a concrete opinion but right now I'm leaning towards a 4/5.

totally agreed, this thing is killer. i'm glad the only sucky part is the production, although that really is unfortunate — could have been a serious IE-killer if they had matched the sound quality of a typical contemporary IE album.

the main problem, from some experience, seems to be the rhythm guitar sound. i get the impression that they only had SM57s on some amps either poorly placed (mic position, i mean) or without taking enough time to dial in the right rhythm sound. it's also entirely possible they used less-than-amazing amps altogether, or amps inappropriate for metal. regardless of specifics, i'd call that the main problem. the rest sounds pretty great!

[Zook]

To me, the guitars sound demo-ish. It's strange that they don't have better production. You'd think that with members of Nevermore and Iced Earth, they'd have the funds to have a nice crisp sound. Self produced nobodies like Lorenguard have way better production values (and have an amazing debut album, go check it out ).

[Jaq]

The guitar sound is, right now, about the only blemish on the album. Iced Earth had better guitar sound back in the 90s than this. Agree with the notion that Freddie's a better lead guitarist than Troy and the riffs here are better than anything Schaffer's written in a decade or so. Barlow's gold as always and Van Williams' drumming is pretty solid, though he is capable of a lot more. Good album, I'd go 8/10 on first listen.

[Mister Gold]

To me, the guitars sound demo-ish. It's strange that they don't have better production. You'd think that with members of Nevermore and Iced Earth, they'd have the funds to have a nice crisp sound. Self produced nobodies like Lorenguard have way better production values (and have an amazing debut album, go check it out ).

I read in one of the recent interviews Matt did that the band had to partially pay for the album's production out of their own wallets. I'm guessing Nuclear Blast will give them more money to work with on the next album if this one does relatively well.

[Zook]

Freddie told me that Troy taught him everything he knows.

Anyway, I edited the spoken word part out of Damien just for shits and giggles.

https://soundcloud.com/krotchraut/damien-edit

[obscure]

He left a while ago, actually. Kind of shocked he lasted that long, to be honest.

And I find myself unable to care anymore about Iced Earth. That fucking godawful live album and Schaffer insisting on wasting the talents of Stu Block have finally wiped out my interest in this band.

Well Brent's departure had nothing to do with his competence.. performance or talent.... nothing music related...

So Jon announced today that the tracking of Plagues Of Babylon is completed and mixing starts next week.
Cool. I am looking forward to this.

Also Brent Smedley is leaving AGAIN.

He done left, son.

I've always maintained that Alive In Athens is the Frampton Comes Alive of Heavy Metal.

Brent Smedley was incredible on it.

This....

[Zook]

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/iced-earth-plagues-of-babylon-cover-artwork-track-listing-revealed/
North American metallers ICED EARTH will release their new album, "Plagues Of Babylon", for a January 2014 via Century Media Records. The cover artwork was created and illustrated by Eliran Kantor (TESTAMENT, ATHEIST, SIGH, ANACRUSIS, GWAR).
Says ICED EARTH vocalist/guitarist Jon Schaffer: "This is a seriously heavy album with a seriously brutal album cover. I'm sure it will go down as a classic in the epic ICED EARTH catalog."

"Plagues Of Babylon" track listing:
01. Plagues Of Babylon
02. Democide
03. The Culling
04. Among The Living Dead
05. Resistance
06. The End?
07. If I Could See You
08. Cthulhu
09. Peacemaker
10. Parasite
11. Spirit Of The Times
12. Highwayman



Awesome cover.

[jjrock88]

Looks like Iced Earth meets Cannibal Corpse album cover

[Mosh]

 

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Might be good. I'll wait until I hear it.

[Zook]

Might be good. I'll wait until I hear it.

Isn't that the... only way?

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

No, I could decide right now that it's horrible.

[Zook]

Yeah but who does that?
 

 

[Mosh]

I'll check it out, but I feel like I already know what it's going to sound like. So I'm not very enthusiastic about it.

[wolfking]

I just received my copy of Ashes of Ares.  Man, this shit sucks big time.  No decent melodies, crap production and these are some of the worst guitar solos I have ever heard.  (Besides the song with Loomis, which is still nothing special cause the song is so bland.) When was this Freddie asshole even in Iced Earth anyway?

[Zook]

I just received my copy of Ashes of Ares.  Man, this shit sucks big time.  No decent melodies, crap production and these are some of the worst guitar solos I have ever heard.  (Besides the song with Loomis, which is still nothing special cause the song is so bland.) When was this Freddie asshole even in Iced Earth anyway?

That totally wasn't the opinion I was expecting from you. I'll give you that the melodies aren't that strong, but for someone who was taught to play guitar by Troy Seele, he absolutely slays his abilities. I thought the guitar playing and especially the solos were great. Production was kinda bad, but Matt sounds amazing.

Freddie was the bassist in Iced Earth by the way.

[Lowdz]

If the music sounds like the cover, they may well be using Stu Block properly...

[wolfking]

I just received my copy of Ashes of Ares.  Man, this shit sucks big time.  No decent melodies, crap production and these are some of the worst guitar solos I have ever heard.  (Besides the song with Loomis, which is still nothing special cause the song is so bland.) When was this Freddie asshole even in Iced Earth anyway?

That totally wasn't the opinion I was expecting from you. I'll give you that the melodies aren't that strong, but for someone who was taught to play guitar by Troy Seele, he absolutely slays his abilities. I thought the guitar playing and especially the solos were great. Production was kinda bad, but Matt sounds amazing.

Freddie was the bassist in Iced Earth by the way.

Yeah, I just found the whole thing bland and unoriginal.  I will try it again though.  The solos just didn't work for me, and really, you can hear he was taught by Troy.

If the music sounds like the cover, they may well be using Stu Block properly...

This is a very valid comment.  Let's hope so.

[Mister Gold]

The band just posted a lyric video for the title track, Plagues of Babylon. I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I like it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yLBNRyGvG8

[Jaq]

Still doing the Barlow voice. Sigh.

[Zook]

Here we go. Wish me luck...