Iced Earth's Reviews

Night of the Stormrider

Ride On! Grab On! STORMRIDER!!

Ever since the 90s emerged, many of the great 80s heavy metal bands who managed to put out a perfect streak of flawless albums began to grow tired and started waning into obscurity. I'm talking about Metallica and Iron Maiden specifically (though it could be said about most any heavy metal band of the era), the former selling out quality music to corporate greed and MTV exposure, and the latter growing tired as a band while key members quit on them. But around this time, a little known band called Iced Earth emerged out of the USA and began tearing up the heavy metal scene. General interest in heavy metal music was dying in the early 90s in favor of the alternative grunge rock scene, but IE pressed on combining a sound which was reminiscent of both Metallica's sheer thrash heaviness and Iron Maiden's melodious song structures. IE merged both qualities into their own fresh sound. The key band members of the original lineup included rhythm guitarist/band creator Jon Schaffer, lead guitarist Randy Shawver, and vocalist Gene Adams. The five young IE musicians spent a short time re-recording songs from their earlier demos and created their self titled 1990 debut album. While it was a great album from an instrumental standpoint, singer Gene Adams sported poor vocals and could not realize Schaffer's vision for IE, so he was dismissed. However, the album did get the band noticed, so the future was looking bright.

Now we arrive at IE's sophomore effort, Night Of The Stormrider, a concept album about a warrior who turns toward the dark side and goes on a crusade to fight for evil and then gets sent to hell in the end. This album was a great milestone for them, managing to become a HUGE hit over in Japan and Europe at the time. In fact, NOTSR was the best selling IE album until the masterpiece Something Wicked This Way Comes(1997) dwarfed it later on. Overall, this second album improves upon the debut's style in most every way, with a new drummer and vocalist onboard, resulting in a more consistent and refined musicianship. Enter the second IE vocalist Jon Greely, a MUCH BETTER vocalist than his predecessor. Though he's not as good as the later Matt Barlow (or even the new Time Owens), his vocals do get the job done well and are thankfully more refined for this style of heavy metal, eliminating all the distasteful cheeziness that Gene Adams previously demonstrated. He doesn't really stand out in my mind, though at times he can sing melodically like Bruce Dickinson or belt out shouts and screams like Rob Halford. Drummer Richey Secchiari also joins for a short time. Of course Randy Shawver delivers some amazing solos once again, and Schaffer earns his rightful title in NOTSR as "heavy metal's most talented rhythm guitar shredder". Why? Let's face it, the guy plays with the most precise riffing that manages to beat out the likes of Metallica and Anthrax. Plus given the fact that he's still playing flawlessly today, Schaffer definitely deserves the title.

Since NOTSR is a full-fledged concept album, each track smoothly segues right into the next, keeping the album's flow intact. The album starts off with an orchestral BANG in the incredible opener 'Angels Holocaust' and continuing right into the fierce 'Stormrider'. The band took the melodic orchestra overtones used sparsely in the debut album and brought them more into the full here. 'The Path I Chose' starts off much like the previous tracks, but indicates the direction taken later on in the album, coinciding with the warrior's path to evil in the story. 'Before The Vision' and 'Reaching The End' are both simply short acoustic guitar/dialogue sequences that progress the story along. While the first track is excellent, to me 'Mystical End' and 'Desert Rain' are the album's high points because each of them display a successful fusion of melody and heaviness, something the band concentrated on with its later albums. Schaffer controls his dexteritous shredding in 'Mystical End' so that his guitar can serve as more of a background texture, as opposed to his "up front" rhythm presence that dominates most every other song. 'Desert Rain' starts off light and moody with some awesome guitar effects, then developing into a steady rocker. Afterwards, it ends in an incredible melodic chorus which brings Iron Maiden to mind in its sound. 'Pure Evil' continues to push the melody and riffing, and builds the story towards its conclusion in the album closer 'Travel In Stygian'.

With NOTSR, IE turned out their first five-star album. The band was sure to rule the world of heavy metal in the early 90s, but their record company decided to cheat IE out of the money they earned, and so a major label dispute prevented the band from touring and making more albums for another three years. Also, vocalist Jon Greely, while much more talented than Gene Adams, ended up getting kicked out of the band because he was very difficult to work with. IE was going to disband, but thankfully they reemerged in 1995 with vocalist Matt Barlow in their third album Burnt Offerings. Unfortunately, NOTSR's production quality was poor, and after a while the album became out of print, but thankfully IE remastered, remixed, and re-released their first three albums recently. Honestly, I think it sounds MUCH better than it originally did. Only the drums and rhythm guitar parts were remixed, enabling for maximum guitar crunch and clear drumming. If you're a fan of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, or any good heavy metal band for that matter, I HIGHLY recommend picking up NOTSR. It belongs in any true metalhead's collection.

Other albums which sound like Night Of The Stormrider:
-'Burnt Offerings' by Iced Earth
-'Something Wicked This Way Comes' by Iced Earth
-'The Glorious Burden' by Iced Earth
-'Master Of Puppets' by Metallica
-'Powerslave' by Iron Maiden

Buy this album on Amazon at $14.99