Wednesday 15 June 2011

Iced Earth - Overture Of The Wicked

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Iced Earth are a metal band who have been around for years.  Led by guitarist Jon Schaffer, the band have been plagued by frequent changes of lead singer.  Their albums can be quite heavy going, so what better way to sample them than by this wonderful 4-track EP or Mini-album (depending on your point of view).  This features the fantastically heavy single "Ten Thousand Strong" - check out the video link.  Singer on this release and the video is Tim "Ripper" Owens, sometime Judas Priest stand-in, and with the untimely death of Dio, probably the best metal singer around.  I saw this band supporting the Heaven and Hell tour (Dio's penultimate UK show, I think).  Two weeks later Tim had been dumped from the band in favour of returning vocalist Matt Barlow.  A bad mistake in my opinion.

All four tracks on this release are strong - the others are "Prophecy", "Birth Of The Wicked" and "The Coming Curse".  If you look around you can easily find recordings of these songs featuring Matt Barlow singing.  He has now left the band (again).  As with all Iced Earth releases, it's great fun to count how many credits "Jon Schaffer" gets in the blurb.  I recommend this release highly.  As the band have left SPV/Steamhammer for old home Century this particular release may become hard to find.  Snap it up now if you like the video!

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