Iced Earth's Reviews
Night of the Stormrider (Average Rating: 9.50 out of 10)
Classic, but... (Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by
Kcin
from the west
The material written for this album is truly some of their best, but listening to it from my perspective makes it a little bit disappointing. I had bought every Iced Earth album released after this album before I bought it, and I'd read enough to know that the singer of this album wouldn't be nearly as good, and that the sound quality wouldn't be very good either. The original versions of the songs on here aren't nearly as good as the versions on "Days of Purgatory" and "Alive In Athens". It's just sad to think about how good this album would be if it had been recorded with late 90's sound quality, and Barlow performing the vocals. Still, even if you already own the later IE albums I think this album would probably be worth your money. It certainly was worth mine. As stated before, the sound quality is really lousy. The guitars are very thin and weak, the vocals are too quiet, the bass guitar is hard to hear and the treble on the drums is out of control.(When listening to this cd on headphones, the snare drums and some of the cymbals feel like flaming needles being jammed into your brain via the ears. Even while not at that high of a volume.) I should state the sound quality is in fact only mediocre overall, but really lousy for being recorded in the 90's. Greely isn't nearly as good of a singer as Barlow, though he is good enough, for the most part. He occasionally shrieks a bit to high, as on "The Path I Choose", but he generally gets the job done. So, why, you might ask, would I recommend this album despite having the vast majority of the material being available in a superior form. There are a couple of reasons. First, and most significantly, is that these versions are different enough to be worth listening to even if you do have the others. Second, this is a concept album, and thus flows together very well as an album. Merely having most of the tracks available in the incorrect order, with other songs interspersed about the cd doesn't have nearly the same effect. But enough of that. Not many people own the later albums anyway, so I'll just get on to a real review. The basic style is fairly straight forward metal, injected with quite a bit of thrash, and some progressive song structures. (The songs are generally pretty long, with really only 6 total songs in the aprox. 42 minute playing time.(This number doesn't include the 2 segue tracks)) Song by song, this is arguably their most consistent album. The opening composition, "Angels Holocaust/Stormrider"(which are really one song, despite being 2 tracks) is excellent, one of the best they've ever written. Nearly ten minutes long, with many changes in speed and intensity, as well as from acoustic to electric."The Path I Choose" follows, with a merciless, thrashy intensity, which is sadly lost somewhat due to the production and vocals.(The version on Alive In Athens is incredible) "Before the Vision" is essentially a segue track, which pretty much just continues the plot.(Which, I forgot to mention, is about a regular guy, who's possessed by evil and is fated to fight for evil, despite it being against his will, who eventually accepts his fate and later dies and goes to hell.) "Mystic Ends" follows, with a brilliantly melodic opening riff, and somewhat bizarre lyrics. "Pure Evil" follows, another thrashier song, with an awesome instrumental section after the first chorus. "Reaching The End" is another segue, followed by the epic closer "Travel In Stygian". This is another one of IE best songs ever, with a brilliant chorus and a cool piano part at the end. (I don't use the term "outro". It is very, very wrong.) So, all in all, this album rules, as does everything I have from IE. You should buy this before you get the later versions of the songs, if you don't have them already, but still buy it even if you do.
Buy this album on Amazon at $14.99
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