After listening to this band's version of "The Ripper" on the second Judas Priest tribute album, I wrote them off as yet another worthless Priest-clone band. But listening to several dozen MP3's quickly changed my mind, so I decided to keep a lookout for their CDs...

Guitarist Jon Schaffer also formed the side project Demons & Wizards.

"Enter the Realm" (demo bootleg CDR)

1. "Enter the Realm"--instrumental (0:54)
2. "Colors" (5:03)
3. "Nightmares" (3:38)
4. "To Curse the Sky" (4:41)
5. "Solitude"--instrumental (1:43)
6. "Iced Earth" (5:28)

This CDR was mastered and designed by Ralf Walter, who's become quite the expert at bootlegging rare demos from the original cassette tapes. The sound quality on this one is OUTSTANDING, and the packaging looks just as good as an official release! Most of these songs were rerecorded on Days of Purgatory.

"Iced Earth"

1. "Iced Earth" (5:23)
2. "Written on the Walls" (6:08)
3. "Colors" (4:50)
4. "Curse the Sky" (4:45)
5. "Life and Death" (6:08)
6. "Solitude"--instrumental (1:44)
7. "The Funeral" (6:16)
8. "When the Night Falls" (8:44)

The music on this one's okay, but...that singer!! Gene Adams has a decent enough clean voice, but mostly he sticks to this highly annoying screeeech that makes him sound like the long-lost evil twin of Wrath's original singer. This is the remastered version with crappy new artwork, but the booklet contains full-sized original art (from the domestic AND import versions!) which is really cool.

"Night of the Stormrider"

1. "Angels Holocaust" (4:52)
2. "Stormrider" (4:47)
3. "The Path I Choose" (5:52)
4. "Before the Vision" (1:35)
5. "Mystical End" (4:44)
6. "Desert Rain" (6:56)
7. "Pure Evil" (6:33)
8. "Reaching the End" (1:11)
9. "Travel in Stygian" (9:31)

The band's on their second lead singer, and while John Greely doesn't quite have the range and soul of Matt Barlow, he's a definite improvement over the throat-mangler from their debut! Lots of galloping, Iron Maiden-style guitar rhythms on this one, and mixed with the anthemic vocals of "Angels Holocaust" and "Desert Rain" help form the definitive Iced Earth sound. I think this is my favorite of their albums.

"Burnt Offerings"

1. "Burnt Offerings" (7:22)
2. "Last December" (3:24)
3. "Diary" (6:03)
4. "Brainwashed" (5:22)
5. "Burning Oasis" (5:59)
6. "Creator Failure" (6:02)
7. "The Pierced Spirit" (1:54)
8. "Dante's Inferno" (16:29)
   
   • I. Denial, Lust, Greed
   • II. The Prodigal, The Wrathful, Medusa
   • III. The False Witness, Angel of Light

My friend's first reaction to this CD was, "Gee, I wonder if these guys listen to Fates Warning, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, etc. etc...." But that's what's so cool about this band, their music is an amalgam of classic 80's metal, yet somehow managing to sound fresh and unique. (Or maybe I'm just nostalgic for the good old days...) "Dante's Inferno" is quite an epic tune, and "Last December" is one of the few thrash-metal LOVE SONGS I've ever heard! (I like calling that one their "pop hit single"...)

Oh yeah, this CD was scratched to *hell* when I found it used, in fact I wasn't going to buy it until I got an assurance from the store manager that I could return it if it skipped...but whaddaya know, it plays just fine. Go figure.

"The Dark Saga"

1. "Dark Saga" (3:42)
2. "I Died for You" (3:48)
3. "Violate" (3:38)
4. "The Hunter" (3:55)
5. "The Last Laugh" (3:46)
6. "Depths of Hell" (3:01)
7. "Vengeance is Mine" (4:22)
   The Suffering:
8. "Scarred" (5:54)
9. "Slave to the Dark" (4:03)
10. "A Question of Heaven" (7:40)

A bunch of songs based on the comic book series Spawn, predating that crappy movie by two years (Todd McFarlane even drew the artwork.) I love the way this one's paced, starting out mid-tempo and gradually building in intensity, right up to the mega-thrash "Suffering" suite. And did I mention how this band writes great love songs? "I Died for You" is another triumph.

Here's something interesting -- this copy was scuffed up pretty bad and at first I wasn't going to buy it, but changed my mind just before leaving the store. And upon getting home, what do I discover but the booklet for Days of Purgatory stuffed inside...which is WAY COOL, because my DOP digipack didn't have one!!! Sometimes you just gotta listen to your heart...

"Days of Purgatory" (digipack)

1. "Enter the Realm"--instrumental (0:54)
2. "Colors" (5:04)
3. "Angels Holocaust" (5:45)
4. "Stormrider" (3:55)
5. "Winter Nights" (3:55)
6. "Nightmares" (3:28)
7. "Pure Evil" (6:18)
8. "Solitude"--instrumental (1:44)
9. "When the Night Falls" (7:49)
10. "Desert Rain" (6:37)
11. "The Funeral" (6:16)
12. "Cast in Stone" (5:59)
13. "Reaching the End" (1:10)
14. "Travel in Stygian" (9:28)
15. "Iced Earth" (5:30)

A compilation of their first four albums, plus a few unreleased tunes, and tracks from their debut & Night of the Stormrider completely re-recorded with Matt Barlow on vocals. ("Iced Earth" appears on the Eponymous + More collection, which I got days before finding this CD.) I'm not familiar enough with the band to know what songs come from where, plus I know there's a 2CD import also available, but haven't decided if that one's worth getting or not...

"The Melancholy EP"

1. "Melancholy (Holy Martyr)" (4:46)
2. "Shooting Star" (5:16)
3. "Watching Over Me" (4:27)
4. "Electric Funeral" (4:53)
5. "I Died for You" (3:49)

HAHAHA!! YEAH!!! Talk about LUCK!! Here's what happened: I was on Century Media's website where I saw them advertising this limited edition 5-song EP, and since it was only five bucks, decided to place an order for the hell of it...well, that very day, I called CM about another order, and found out they were NO LONGER TAKING ORDERS for this CD, and that it was most likely SOLD OUT! Already, there were copies on eBay selling for $50+!! Well, I spent all week thinking about what I should use my credit slip for, when all of a sudden, guess what shows up in my mail box...#1197 of 1500, in fact. Which means either they still have 300 copies left, or they were shipped out of numerical order (most likely.)

The EP features 3 previously released songs, plus 2 exclusive tracks: cover versions of Bad Company's "Shooting Star" (nice!!) and Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" -- you see why this was an essential item? Of course, the question remains...would I have paid $50 for a copy of this? We shall never know. :)

"Horror Show" (limited edition 2CD version)

disc one:
1. "Wolf" (5:19)
2. "Damien" (9:11)
3. "Jack" (4:14)
4. "Ghost of Freedom" (5:11)
5. "Im-Ho-Tep (Pharaoh's Curse)" (4:45)
6. "Jeckyl & Hyde" (4:39)
7. "Dragon's Child" (4:21)
8. "Frankenstein" (3:50)
9. "Dracula" (5:53)
10. "The Phantom Opera Ghost" (8:41)

disc two:
1. "Transylvania"--instrumental (4:29)
2. "Interview with Jon Schaffer" (69:25)

As Star One's Space Metal was a collection of songs based on science fiction movies, this one's a collection of songs based on horror films (or the stories the films were based on, anyway.) Good music overall, but man, I can never keep an Iced Earth tune in my head more than a few seconds, they all sound so much the same...

This "special edition" is something of a pisser, as the bonus disc only contains ONE song, but it's a cover -- Iron Maiden's "Transylvania", to be exact! So I had to hunt up a copy of it, and not a CDR either! The bulk of the CD is taken up with an enormously long interview with Jon Schaffer, which delves deeply into the history of the band and Jon's attitude on such weighty topics as motorcycles and...Napster. I find it ironic, how Jon complains about Century Media totally ripping off their royalties during the early years, and then when asked about Napster he says, "I don't trust any system where the artist doesn't get paid." Oh, you mean like HOW THE RECORD INDUSTRY ALREADY WORKS, something like that?? And then he says, "If you're the type of person who feels you deserve to download our music for free, well, fuck you!" Ya know, that's the sort of thing that makes me look at all the CD's I've spent my money on, and wonder why I even fucking bother...especially for some puny band like Iced Earth that's been milking the market dry with box sets & special releases for years, and let's face it, if it weren't for file-sharing services like Napster, I NEVER WOULD HAVE HEARD OF THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! But that's okay, Jon, I'll let your comments slide for now...after all, bike exhaust does cause brain damage and impotence, doesn't it?

"Tribute to the Gods"

1. "Creatures of the Night" (4:01)
2. "The Number of the Beast" (4:33)
3. "Highway to Hell" (3:23)
4. "Burnin' for You" (4:26)
5. "God of Thunder" (3:56)
6. "Screaming for Vengeance" (4:37)
7. "Dead Babies" (5:40)
8. "Cities on Flame" (3:59)
9. "It's a Long Way to the Top" (4:42)
10. "Black Sabbath" (5:30)
11. "Hallowed Be Thy Name" (7:08)

This collection of cover songs (by KISS, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Blue Öyster Cult, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath -- I'll let you figure out which are which) was originally released exclusively Dark Genesis box set, which I was still in the process of raising money for, when it was finally issued separately. Sucks that they used a cheap, easily crushed digipack (grrr...) The songs overall are fairly decent, my only complaint being that they seem to stick a little too close to the originals, instead of remaking them in their own "style". The booklet contains copious liner notes by that idiot Jon Schaffer, babbling nonsensically about how the band was inspired by all these groups, yada yada. At the end there's a note that says, "Interview coordination and transcription by Loana d' Valencia." HA!! Knew he couldn't write. :)

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