Metal Storm logo
Iced Earth - Iced Earth review



Reviewer:
8.2

468 users:
7.94
Band: Iced Earth
Album: Iced Earth
Release date: November 1990


01. Iced Earth
02. Written On The Walls
03. Colors
04. Curse The Sky
05. Life And Death
06. Solitude
07. Funeral
08. When The Night Falls

I want to be clear, what I'm reviewing here is the 2001's re-mixed and re-mastered version of the original Iced Earth, part of the Dark Genesis box-set [well, yes, I'm cheating in fact], but since nobody has written something about the original till today, I can at least talk about the songs, seeing that I have no clue about the original sound. In fact, I already noticed a big difference between the original Night Of The Stormrider and the version included in the box-set. Have a look at that other review for more information. But still, this record has something very attractive: that's the first Iced Earth's full-length album, following their highly-praised demo.

So, at that time, Gene Adam was the lead singer and Mike McGill was behind the drum-kit. For the rest, the core of Iced Earth, old version was present: Dave Abell [bass], Randy Shawver [lead guitar] and, of course, Jon Schaffer [rhythm & lead guitars, vocals]. In a nutshell, a different singer but the same trademark for the music. The singer has is own style, even if I would have preferred Matt Barlow's voice to enhance this album as well.

Now that debut album is something else: 'Iced Earth', 'Written On The Walls', 'Colors', 'Curse The Sky', 'Life And Death' and 'When The Night Falls' are all necessary to the basic knowledge of any fan of Iced Earth while the other two tracks are fine instrumental pieces. My favorite is the epic [8:44] 'When The Night Falls', in which, you can notice the slightly different chorus from the version sung by Matt Barlow on the album Alive In Athens. Probably the best song written by Jon Schaffer along with 'Travel In Stygian' from the following album Night Of The Stormrider. I must say that I was surprised by the qualities of 'Curse The Sky' and even more by the power of 'Life And Death'. I don't know why that song has never been played again by the band since it's one of their best compositions in my opinion.

To sum things up, Iced Earth has a lot of more than fine tunes, whose qualities could drive you crazy to have missed the "birth" of the band in the early 90's. Despite the shortness of the record, what you're searching is on that album. This debut album makea a remarkable duo with Night Of The Stormrider, I'm sure you don't want to miss it!


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 8
Production: 7





Written on 18.09.2003 by Bringing you reviews of quality music and interesting questions such as:

"A picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a song worth?"

I have only got so much patience and skills, you do the math.


Comments

Comments: 6   Visited by: 133 users
05.11.2007 - 23:57
Rating: 9
Stalker
Lone wanderer
Good review, I agree with it, especially when you said that "Life and Death" is one of their best songs.
And album, well, its very good, and of course, Mat Barlow is more powerful vocalist, but I like Gene's vocals too. (especially if you compare him with Ripper in IE).
----
Loading...
06.11.2007 - 10:24
Lucas
Mr. Noise
'twas a pretty dissapointing release for me. Lacked awesome-ness.
----
SLUDGE. DOOM. DEATH. Wait, what?

"The reason I'm running for president is because I can't be Bruce Springsteen." - Barack Obama
Loading...
07.03.2008 - 11:39
MATBARLOW
Account deleted
Gene Adam is the worst singer I've ever hear!
Loading...
29.03.2008 - 03:12
Uirapuru
Liver Failure
well.. i really like Iced Earth.. but this album is very boring.. Heavy metal ''raw'' its not good at all.
----

----
member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
Loading...
22.04.2008 - 01:34
Rating: 7
IconMaiden

agreed gene adams sucked, and the fact that he refused to take singing lessons is just a disgrace. i would have done a better job with these vocals. all the songs redone on days of purgatory are excellent, but not nearly as good as the songs released on later albums. From Iced Earth to the excellent Night of the Stormrider is one of the best transitions any band has ever made in my opinion. I gave this a 5/6 and NOFTST a 10.
Loading...
19.01.2010 - 01:47
Rating: 10
thewall30

Good review man!

It really annoys me how everyone is always ripping on Gene Adam, yeah obviously he is no Matt Barlow, but I mean come on now he really isn't that bad, he has his own unique style that every lead singer should have.

This album is great, very underated in my opinion... When The Night Falls ftw!
----
Loading...

Hits total: 5829 | This month: 5