Iced Earth's Reviews
Burnt Offerings (Average Rating: 9.12 out of 10)
Great CD, by Great Band (Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by
Kcin
from the west
Burnt Offerings is my 3rd Iced Earth album, with the other 2 I own being The Dark Saga and Something Wicked This Way Comes, and though this isn't the best of them, it is still very good and distinctive, and certainly worth owning. This cd is in many ways their most Metallica-esque one, as it features longer, more complex song structures and has more fast, thrash guitar riffs. However, at the same time it manages to amplify their traits that are different from Metallica, which are presumably inherited from their primary influences Iron Maiden and the like, which are high drama, emphasis on mood and texture and somewhat distant, gothic-ish story-telling. All this comes together to be very distinctive and fairly dark, though not nearly as much as others seem to think.The individual performances are generally quite good. The drummer, who's name I can't think of, is not to flashy, but he provides a good base, and uses plenty of double-kick drum, like his slightly better replacement, Mark Prator. Abell's bass suffers the fate of most traditional metal bands basses, which is that it is essentially completely overwhelmed by the guitars, but what you can hear is pretty good. Shawver's lead guitar is somewhat mixed. His traditional solos are pure vanilla, but when he is being more ominous and unconventional he is pretty interesting. Of course, the focuses of all metal albums are the rhythm guitars and vocals, both of which are very good on this. Schaffer's riffs kick [rear], with most of them very fast and heavy and hard, with a lot of technicality in them and a good variety of them. Barlow's vocals always have a very wide range, which is even greater in this one, with genuine singing, distorted falsetto squealing and some more aggressive barking. Occasionally his vocals are overly dramatic, particularly when the songs are trying to be ominous, but this isn't too much of a problem, and is the only real notable flaw on this, or any of their albums that I have heard. Lyrically the album is a bit weird, with bizzarely gothic and supernatural feel, with it's discussions of hell, vampires, sacrifices and monsters. Some might think these subjects a bit silly, and in truth it is, but they do it all well, somehow. But anyway, all that really matter are the individual songs, and these are of course generally very good. 6 of the 8 would be considered progressive, thrashy epics. Though they generally aren't that long, an average of 6 minutes, excluding the 16 1/2 minute closer, Dante's Inferno, they all manage stray far from conventional song structures, and all contain numerous riff and tempo changes, and usually some softer, more moody sections. Thus it took a bit longer to get into than their other stuff, but it is definitely worth the repeated listens to take it all in They also manage not to retread the same unconventional structure over and over, as Metallica sometimes did. It's got a good variety, with the first half being the faster more intense music, and the second half being slower and more dramatic, occasionally almost operatic. The only notable weak spot is one of the 2 short, simple tracks, The Pierced Spirit, and it isn't too bad and only takes up 2 of the albums 52 minutes anyway. The standout tracks are Burnt Offerings, Diary and Brainwashed, with Burnt Offerings being likely the single best one on the album. The closer, Dante's Inferno is also of particular interest, primarily due to it's extreme length. It's very cool, though not as good as most of the others seem to think, and suffers from some parts that try too hard to be scary.
So, in short, go buy this cd now, cause it's really good, unless you don't own The Dark Saga, which is better, and provides a better introduction to the band.
Buy this album on Amazon at $14.99
|
