Iced Earth's Reviews

The Dark Saga

(Average Rating: 9.32 out of 10)

Buy this CD

(Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by Greg Hasbrouck from New York, New York United States

My first experience with Iced Earth was with their latest release, "Something Wicked". And while I absolutely love that CD, I was a little skeptical about checking out some of their earlier releases. Part of the reason for my skepticism was due to reviews I had read here. Reviews that claimed that the guitar work on this CD was very basic, that this CD sounded like Metallica, and that this was Iced Earth's most basic CD. Don't believe it.

First off, anything that Matthew Barlow sings on is worth owning. Barlow has quickly become my favorite vocalist. He is simply amazing. Based on this alone, any comparisons to Metallica, are off the mark. Metallica's sound is defined by Hettfield's voice, which I like. However, to compare Hettfield to Barlow as vocalists would be flat out silly.

As for the CD, it kicks off with the killer title track, Dark Saga, and never lets up. Although the entire CD is awesome, songs worth noting are "I Died For You", "The Hunter", and the trilogy that closes the CD, especially "A Question of Heaven".

It would be unfair to not point out the brilliant songwriting abilities of John Schaeffer. His music and lyrics are consistently poinnant and touching.

I sincerely hope that Shaeffer and Barlow stick together for many years, as Barlow's voice is the perfect medium for Schaeffer's lyrics.

By the way, I didn't notice in any of the other reviews that I read, that this CD seems to be a loosely tied concept album. Not in the traditional sense of Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime, where all the songs directly flow into one another, but rather that all the songs seem to be about the same character and circumstances.

Buy this album on Amazon at $13.99