a nice collection of material with some great covers
(Rated this album with 8 out of 10) Reviewed by
Justin S Gaines
from Oakton, VA
Iced Earth's Melancholy EP clocks in at just over 30 minutes, and features powerful metal 7 songs - 3 tracks from various Iced Earth albums (Melancholy, Watching Over Me, and I Died For You), 1 live track (Colors), and 3 excellent cover songs, which aren't available anywhere else. While the 4 original songs are quite good, they are probably already well-known to the serious Iced Earth fan. The highlights of this EP are the 3 covers - Bad Company's Shooting Star, Black Sabbath's Electric Funeral, and Judas Priest's the Ripper (which is a bit ironic considering former Priest frontman Tim "Ripper" Owens is now Iced Earth's lead singer). The Sabbath and Priest covers are quite good, which should probably be expected from a band that is so obviously influenced by those two bands. The surprising choice of covering classic rockers Bad Company shows that the band wasn't just influenced by traditional metal bands (as do their covers of Blue Oyster Cult and Alice Cooper on their Tribute to the Gods album). Ice Earth's version of Shooting Star turns out to be the EP's standout track. Vocalist Matt Barlow seems to put his heart and soul into the song, and it really pays off. Overall I was quite pleased with the Melancholy EP. I could have wished for all-new original songs, but that is a minor gripe considering how good the cover songs turned out to be. I'd recommend this album to all serious Iced Earth fans. Casual fans or those looking to try the band out might want to try some of the band's regular albums before checking this one out (I'd recommend Days of Purgatory as a great starting point).
