Iced Earth's Reviews

Something Wicked This Way Comes

(Average Rating: 8.94 out of 10)

Iced Earth's best

(Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by Dirk Zielasko from Wellington, NZ

This album is a must-have for every Power-Metal fan. With "Something Wicked This Way Comes" IE successfully proved that they are one of the best (if not THE best) Power-Metal bands in America.
Here Jon Schaffer's excellent songwriting merges perfectly with Matthew Barlow's killer-voice.

The disk is packed with highlights: "Burning Times", the opener, is a straight rocker and immediately caught my attention when I first listened to it. It is followed by "Melancholy", IE's arguably most famous track to date. "Watching Over Me" is a heartfelt song about a deceased friend of Schaffer's, and features a great sing-along-chorus. The next top-track is "My Own Savior", note the powerful bass and rhythm-guitar work (this song being pure HEAVY-METAL).
IE's most recent effort ("The Glorious Burden") features 2 songs about the American War of Independence. On "SWTWC" there's an instrumental dealing with the same topic: "1776". Schaffer said he didn't dare trying to explore this historical setting on a lyrical level, so he concentrated fully on the music, with success.
"Blessed Are You" is another "Power-Ballad"-style track with superb guitar-solo.
The CD is concluded by the "Something Wicked"-trilogy (consisting of the tracks "Prophecy", another example of Schaffer's rhythm-guitar prowess, "Birth Of The Wicked", an awesome heavy song, and finally "The Coming Curse", which starts with a one minute piano-intro and then starts rockin' like hell.).

As mentioned before, if you think you're into Power-Metal, you better own this or get it. Soon.

Buy this album on Amazon at $14.99