I really like the new album. I'm one of those people who really liked Dystopia for the individual song vibe, Plagues not so much.
Stu sounds excellent. Not sure if I ever want a different sound for him in Iced Earth either. Into Eternity-Stu, after all, isn't Natural Stu either, and Iced Earth does well with his lower range nowadays. Would love to hear him in an Ayreon-like project, though. He's been one of my favorite metal singers ever since I discovered him through Dystopia and my liking only grows stronger each day.
re: his range, most men are actually tenors, and I think Stu is no exception, he just sounds very persuasive in all points of his range nowadays. He's probably not working on his falsetto so much nowadays, and before now, even in Into Eternity it sounded almost Mickey Mouse thin in some moments, but I personally like how he pulls it into a sort of a... wailing ghost thing. It's definitely not one of the chesty sounding falsettos you hear a lot in metal.