Iced Earth's Reviews

Burnt Offerings

Iced Earth at their fiercest and most lethal

In the early 90s, true heavy metal music was falling to the wayside in favor of the alternative grunge rock scene. Though heavy metal became an underground phenomenon once again with newer genres such as doom, death, black, progressive, and power metal, one band picked up the banner and continued on in the scorching thrash stylings of Metallica and melodic songwriting style of Iron Maiden. This band was known to be Iced Earth. Expert rhythm guitar god Jon Schaffer founded the band in the 80s and had a vision much like Steve Harris did for Iron Maiden: to carve a place in heavy metal history with his newfound band. They started off in the early 90s with two great albums: Iced Earth(1990) and Night Of The Stormrider(1992). Each album showed the band following their heroes Metallica and Iron Maiden fairly closely in style, and both featured different vocalists. The first was Gene Adams, who simply couldn't do the rest of the band justice with his cheezy, immature wailings. The next vocalist, Jon Greely, served much better, but due to his inability to cooperate with the rest of the band, he was dismissed after NOTSR. IE managed to achieve success, but thanks to their record label Century Media, they began a huge money dispute which sent the band into a bitter angry era which would greatly influence the sound of the next album they would release in a few years...

Out of nowhere, Schaffer finds vocalist Matt Barlow, and in 1995 they unleashed Burnt Offerings, the band's darkest and heaviest release to date. In many ways, one could say that BO was considered to be the first real IE album. Beforehand, the band was adopting their influences' styles, but now the band managed to make IE its own identity. They are more focused on delivering melodically memorable sound and songstructures in addition to the old-school thrash stylings. Upon listening to this, you can tell that BO reflected the dark times of the band. This album is to IE what Painkiller was to Judas Priest: a heavier than normal release which was fueled by traumatic events. Schaffer even states that this album brings back such horrible times for him that it's considered his least favorite IE album. Ironically though, a large percentage of IE's fanbase consider BO to actually be the best album. As a big fan now, I can certainly see why. The songs tend to employ fairly progressive songstructures with numerous time changes and creative songwriting. It's one of my favorites as well. Schaffer's riffing is at its most talented here too due to the speed played at and the heavier guitar tones used. Barlow immediately showed a GREAT improvement for IE, giving off a convincingly talented vocal performance. In addition to the melodic singing, fierce growling, and Halford-esque screaming, Barlow adds much-needed passion and emotion to the music, which the two other vocalists tended to lack. He served as a great heavy metal vocalist, and he was easy to work with in the band, so he stayed as IE's official singer for many years. To date, he is considered IE's finest vocalist, and I would have to agree. Lead guitarist Randy Shawver is back again and still delivers some amazing solos.

The album starts off calmly in the title track much like Metallica's Master Of Puppets, but then suddenly EXPLODES into a frenzy of fast and heavy guitar riffing. This title track is definitely the most memorable and one of my all-time favorite IE tracks, so it shames me to find out that it never showed up in the live performances. An underrated masterpiece which grabs your attention. Next is the midpaced and melodic heavy hitters 'Last December' and 'Diary', both of which are equally excellent. The heavy metal assault continues with 'Brainwashed' and 'Burning Oasis'. These tracks don't stick out in my mind as much as the first three, but there are some shining moments found between the two. The slow paced 'Creator Failure' deserves a mention because of the guest female vocals and the part where Barlow manages to perform perfect Halford-style vocals. 'The Pierced Spirit' is just a short accoustic interlude much like the interludes found in the previous album. It makes for a good break from the rest of the album's pace, but it is easily eclipsed by the mega-monster epic that immediately follows it. Schaffer's creative songwriting culminates to its fullest in the massive 16-minute juggernaut 'Dante's Inferno'. This track takes the listener all over the place, continuously displaying the band performing at their all-time best. It also includes an orchestra during several sections. The intro starts out accoustically the same as the track 'Reaching The End' on the previous album, but then erupts into an otherworldly thrash rocker which never fails to please. Considered to be IE's magnum opus, the band would not top 'Dante's Inferno' for many years until the 20-minute 'Something Wicked Trilogy' and the 32-minute 'Gettysburg' epics were made, both found in later albums.

In the end, BO stands tall as one of IE's crowning achievements, and it certainly holds the title as IE's most angriest, energetic, and progressive album to date. Even if the album didn't fare well, it proved that IE was a force to be reckoned with in the world of heavy metal. Five stars overall. The production here was much better than the first two albums, though it still wasn't quite on top. Plus, the original album is out of print and very difficult to find, so if you get any version of BO, make it the newly remastered version with improved sound quality and album artwork. Though the other two remastered albums sound great, BO has the best sound, enabling for perfect production to one of heavy metal's finest releases of the 90s. Even though BO is an outstanding album, it may not be the best place for a new fan to start, so go with NOTSR, Something Wicked This Way Comes(1998), or the new release The Glorius Burden(2004) before picking this album up. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO ANY FAN OF GOOD HEAVY METAL.

Other albums which sound like Burnt Offerings:
-'Something Wicked This Way Comes' by Iced Earth
-'Painkiller' by Judas Priest
-'Master Of Puppets' by Metallica
-'Reign In Blood' by Slayer
-'Powerslave' by Iron Maiden

Buy this album on Amazon at $14.99