Iced Earth's Reviews

Tribute to the Gods

Fun cd

Unsurprisingly, this album is quite different from IEs albums of original material, because most of the bands covered here weren't really an influence on Iced Earth's style. Iron Maiden is the only major influence found on here, and Judas Priest is the only other band that seems to have been of any influence at all. The songs on here generally seem to be extremely faithful to the originals, though they are generally much heavier and thicker sounding than the originals, as IE is heavier than any of the bands found here, and much heavier than most of them.(KISS, BOC and AC/DC aren't even metal bands. Hard Rock to be sure, but not even close to metal in the modern sense of the word.) All of the tracks on here are enjoyable, so you might ask why doesn't it get the full 5 star rating? Well, everything on here is fun for sure, but most of it isn't really brilliant for the most part. It's just good fun to listen to.

About half of this albums consists of intentionally dumb classic rock songs. I normally don't care for dumb, silly music much, but this stuff is great, cause it isn't meant to be taken seriously, whereas most stupid music is trying to be serious, the performers are just doofusses. The dumb classic hard rock bands found here are the aforementioned AC/DC, KISS and BOC.(Some people try and claim BOC are an intellectual band. They aren't on the 2 songs found here.) I don't care for the band KISS, so the covers of them here are probably my least favorite tracks on the album, but they're still fun. The increased heaviness helps out these songs a lot. Stupid music is bad, but stupid and very loud music can be good, some of the time, especially when the band knows it's stupid. IE knows that this stuff is dumb, simple hard rock.(KISS, however, always wanted to pretend they didn't write stupid music, though I'm sure that they knew they.) The AC/DC songs are better, though they are the same basic style. Highway To Hell has a fun anthemic chorus, just as the original did, and It's a Long Way to The Top... is fun too.(AC/DC almost as dumb as KISS, but at least they admitted it.) The BOC covers are the best of the classic rock material on here. These covers prove that BOC could write some cool riffs, they just needed to crank up the volume a bit, and get a great singer, which is pretty much the only difference between their songs found here and the originals. I've always liked the song Burnin' For You, and the version here easily outdoes the original, and is among the best tracks on this album. Cities On Flame isn't as good, though it's got a pretty cool main riff to it. The rest of the album is much more serious. The cover of Black Sabbath, by the band of the same name, is another stand out track, and shows that Sabbath really knew how to sound threatening, unlike many of the cartoonish, modern metal bands. The version found here is less ominous sounding than the original, but equally good. It, like most of the songs here, is much heavier than the original, which is probably what makes it sound less threatening. That and Barlows vocals are less suited for this than Ozzy's atonal wailing. Still, very cool. Dead Babies is cool but undistinguished. Screaming For Vengeance is very fun, classic metal, with a great, strangely catchy chorus. The Iron Maiden covers are the best on the album, with Hallowed Be Thy Name being hands down the strongest track on the album. Generally regarded as a metal masterpiece, this song shows why Maiden are the legends that they are. The songs got great, soft loud dynamics and awesome riffs abound, as well as some great harmony leads as well, and simply stunning vocal work from Matt Barlow.

Buy this cd, but first buy IE's other albums.

Buy this album on Amazon at $15.98