Metal Reviews

If there are alot of galloping riffs (his trademark is the gallop, not "triplets" - that misused musical term just drives me nuts), Jon sucks.

If he slows the pace down for the sake of having the right music for the tone of the new album, Jon sucks.

Essentially, he sucks if he sounds the same, and he sucks he he does anything different?

It's obvious Jon can do not right anymore in haters' eyes. When I listened to this new album, it struck me that Jon has not mixed his different styles like this in a long time. There are also songs that don't sound much like any past IE. Jon haters, who will never actually admit it, just won't hear that side of things.

And Owens has never sounded better.

Well said. This album is easily better than Glorius Burden and I prefer this over Horror Show too, which had some of Iced Earths best songs, but Framing Armageddon is better overall in my opinion. And Jon certainly shows this band from a new angle on this cd, for example The Clouding sounds different than aything the band has ever done before. The more I listen to this the more it becomes obvious to me how much work Jon has put into making this flow like a true concept album. I'm impressed and can't wait for part 2.

Homey's got the right of it.

Yeah, The Clouding really shocked me. I loved it. The eastern sounds are integrated well on the album too.

I also like the overall flow of the album. For Example: Ten-Thousand Strong became even better when it was lead into by the slower song.

EDIT:

After reading some reviews on the net, it seems obvious who Jon haters are. Most reviews have been positive, but many of the negative ones can't even remotely agree on what is wrong with Jon on this album. Some say there's too much of his old gallop. some say there isn't any gallop. Some say the songwriting is nothing like the "better" albums of old, some say it's too much like them.

I've seen some idiots claim the album is just the same old, same old, then go one to complain about all the "new" things Jon is doing.

Haven't heard the album yet, but am I the only person who loves Iced Earth but wasn't impressed by the original Something Wicked? It just feels uninspired. Boring chorus, repetitive chuggy riffs, and no real attitude or personality to it. The rest of their stuff is usually great though.

Well, I stopped off and picked up a copy of "Framing Armageddon" yesterday afternoon. I listened to about half of it in the car on the way home. I'm going to give it a few more listens today while painting my house. I'm looking forward to hearing it. Please don't lump me in with habitual Jon Schaffer haters. My comments were really directed toward TGB and the last Demons and Wizards CD. I like Iced Earth a lot. So, I'm anxious to get listening and painting. I'll weigh in later on the CD.

Up 'Em

Nah I agree, that's by far the most overrated Iced Earth and their worst outside of Glorious Burden. Actually, this band has strangely outgrown me a bit over the years, they used to be one of my favorite bands and now I barely play their stuff at all. However, Something Wicked I've found dull since day one and I heard it at the height of my Iced Earth fandom.

Great cd 19 tracks and another cd coming Ripper sounds great as usual. Brent Smedley does a really good job Iced Earth would be a pretty demanding gig for a drummer.

Listened to most of this this morning, and it's pretty good. Got all excited at one point early on when there was a cool drum fill and for a second - a second! - they sounded like Rush. Suppose we'll have to wait another five albums before they really go prog, this is a great album in the meantime.

And call me thick, but I never realised the whole story of the original songs. Silly old mankind, trying to take over the universe...

Purchased the album just yestarday and listened to it thereafter. Overall, excellent. The Queensryche-like storyline definitely adds depth to the album. The songwriting is more atmospheric and musically interesting than The Glorious Burden. Tim Owens sounds much more confident than on the previous album. And, seriously, IE does the dark fantasy thing much better than they do the American History thing.

Looking forward to Part 2, which is coming out this March I believe.

Concept's great, artwork's great, only problem is this is one of the most boring albums I've ever heard. After 3 consecutive listening sessions, the only song I can remember is "Ten thousand strong". The rest is just a bunch of uninteresting, overproduced pompous orchestrations and multi vocal choir refrains.
Good thing John Greely is back in action and about to produce an album right out of the Stormrider era.

Orchestrations? I can't hear anything orchestral apart from the choirs. I was actually surprised how epic and grandiose the album sounds with such a "simple" set of instruments.

The album is still growing slightly on me. Surely the highlight of 2007 for me, now waiting for part two.

After many weeks of listening to this album, I can finally say with certainty that this my most enjoyable Iced Earth album. It might not be as heavy or thrasy as some older ones but it's full of melody, passion and atmosphere. I love Tim Ripper's vocals on this album much better than anything else I've heard from Iced Earth. Also, the prog elements make this a very interesting listening experience from start to finish.

Ok, I'm a huge IE fan
Got the cd after about a week it got out - so i've been listening to it for 2 months. I can say that I love it, and i feel sorry for the Jon and the crew, cause they made a fantastic album, but still people complain and have too many expectations. It is almost impossible to expect for someone to make 2 classic albums (to repeat sth wicked).

I can't see what more do they need? Tim's vocals are perfect, the guitars are strong, arrangements original and the story... oh the story. Anyway, this one is my top 5 this year.