(Rated this album with 10 out of 10) Reviewed by
Joe Johnson
from Superior, WI USA
Now that Ripper is out of the band, I like him even more. See my review for his masterpiece in Iced Earth's Glorious Burden. It opens with the title track, reminiscent of Painkiller, but heavier and not as fast. Blood Stained is a concert favorite in the Ripper era. Dead Meat is badass as hell. Burn in Hell is badass as hell. Bullet Train is the most badass, with execellent harmony on the chorus; it combines Ripper's screams with low death metal style backing. Cathedral Spires is hands down the best track, an epic that recalls Beyond the Realms of Death. Now shut up that Ripper's out of the band; you can't even come close to being bad. The fans, the fans...didn't want to move on. They're stuck in the 1980s and 1990 with Halford. Halford followed trends, from the Pantera- rip War of Words, to the grunge rip Small Deadly Space, to the goth/industrial rip Voyeurs, back to the old school metal trend with Resurrection and Crucible.
