Iced Earth's Reviews

Burnt Offerings

An excellent album

Iced Earth had been around as early as the late eighties, but didn't release their first full-length album (self-titled) until 1991, and even then, the band continued to have problems. Following the recording of their first album, the band was forced to part ways with singer Gene Adams - his vocal stylings weren't what band leader/rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer had in mind for the band. He was replaced by the much better Jon Greely for 1992's Night Of The Stormrider, but proved to be tough to get along with, so he too was expelled from the band. The band was about to disband, but fortunately, that didn't happen. Schaffer found new vocalist Matt Barlow, and the band recorded a third album - Burnt Offerings. How does the band's third album measure up? Read on and find out.

One of the most interesting things about Iced Earth's first three albums is that each one has a different vocalist - this makes the three albums similar, yet different - and this only adds to their overall quality as a whole, in my opinion. With Matt Barlow at the helm, the band shifts itself in a considerably more death metal-styled sound. The vast majority of this album sounds like a cross between Metallica (eighties and nineties alike) combined with death metal. This makes for a rather interesting listening experience. The title track opens the album. Here melodic and heavy stylings alike are fused together for roughly seven minutes of pure excellence. Night Of The Stormrider proved that the band could combine the styles very well, and this track only backs up that claim. For the vast majority of the album, we get a series of death metal rockers that, while mostly alike, manage to maintain a sense of individuality. After these tracks comes the acoustic interlude, The Pierced Spirit, which provides an nice break from the stylings of the previous tracks. And, of course, it's immediately followed by the lengthy epic, Dante's Inferno. This track is one of Iced Earth's masterpieces, and it's not surprising that you'll see many fans of the band praising it. Through and through, Burnt Offerings is a solid album, and while not the band's finest effort, it is excellent nonetheless.

The band's self-titled debut, Night Of The Stormrider, and this album, Burnt Offerings, were recently remastered, remixed, and rereleases. Normally remixing harms the quality of an album (just look at the 2002 Ozzy Osbourne reissues to see what I mean by that), but these are GOOD remixes, believe it or not. The sound quality is better than ever. These are great albums, and it's great to finally have versions that sound this great.

To put it simply, Burnt Offerings is a solid album, but not Iced Earth's finest (it's hard to pick a favorite with these guys!) The reason I only gave this album four stars is because, for the most part, the songs all sound alike, and there isn't a lot of variety. Fortunately the awesome title track, The Pierced Spirit, and the masterpiece of a track Dante's Inferno make up for this redundancy. If you're new to Iced Earth, this really isn't the best place to start - the band's 1992 sophomore effort, Night Of The Stormrider, would be a better bet for Iced Earth newbies. This IS a good album - it's just not the best starting place.

Buy this album on Amazon at $14.99