Metal Reviews

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The riffs on this album are great, unlike Iced Earth's later albums. I think it definitely would have helped to get more into other aspects of the album other than the vocals, which indeed suck btw.

I would say that's a good score if you weigh the vocals against everything else, but in my opinion there's something great underneath the hideousness. While it's not as good as Night of the Stormrider for example, IMO it's definitely better than the last three Iced Earth albums (which had great vocals and bad riffs, one can say), which got way better scores than this one....

The only reason I'm saying all this is because if someone wanted to know what the album is about (that isn't based off a quote), the review content is just about how the vocals suck and to go to Days of Purgatory instead. I do agree with that btw. "Curse the Sky" isn't on DoP though, which is a great track in itself.

Anyway, ignoring the vocals, great album

You are absolutely right: Gene Adams' vocal are completely awful. So bad, that I can't listen to this album without either laughing or covering my ears. There is some good songwriting (particularly on Iced Earth and Colors, and the instrumentals are rather decent) but too many of the songs are interrupted by completely pointless slow sections- even the title track's slow section sucks in this version, as opposed to on Alive in Athens).

And did I mention the vocals completely suck? There's no reason to get this album. You can hear the good songs, done well, on both Days of Purgatory or Alive in Athens, so its really best to just get those.

45/100

I don't get it. Everybody hates on the singing on this album, but I don't mind it at all. I like this album a lot, not my favourite Iced Earth album. But I like it better than say The Dark Saga of The Glorious Burden. Call me crazy but I give this album at least a 75/100.

I agree about the singing. It's not Barlow, but it's good. Although I don't agree about it being better than Dark Saga, A Question of Heaven alone is better than this whole album.

The Dark Saga never really "clicked" with me. I like it, it's just one of the IE albums I don't really listen to.

Yeah the vocals doesnt really bother me either, i mus say this is an average album its full of great ideas if somehow poorly executed, 70/100 for me.

At least many of these songs were re-recorded with Barlowe on the "Live In Anthens" album as well as "Days of Purgatory".

I'm also of the opinion that the songs are very good, but the vocals stink.

But if the review is going to be "go get Days Of Purgatory" then you should probably review that.

And I will

With the exception of the title track (and the band's eponymous song), I don't mind Adams' vocals on this album at all. In fact, one of the things I prefer on this album vs. the Barlow versions is on "When The Night Falls" the way Adam says the song title... it just doesn't sound right when Barlow sings the title and drags it out. Not really sure why they changed it either, since Barlow's shown he can do harsh vocals pretty well.

Not to say Schaffer wasn't right in switching vocalists, of course, but I'm not going to ignore this one

Dude, you're a nutbag.

Barlow's singing specifically lifts that chorus to a whole nother level. Its the difference between it being a good song and one of their very best.