Iced Earth - Framing Armageddon
Songs:
1.) Overture
2.) Something Wicked (Part 1)
3.) Invasion
4.) Motivation of Man
5.) Setian Massacre
6.) A Charge to Keep
7.) Reflections
8.) Ten Thousand Strong
9.) Execution
10.) Order of the Rose
11.) Cataclysm
12.) The Clouding
13.) Infiltrate and Assimilate
14.) Retribution Through the Ages
15.) Something Wicked (Part 2)
16.) The Domino Decree
17.) Framing Armageddon
18.) When Stars Collide (Born is He)
19.) The Awakening
Review
Iced Earth just isn’t the same anymore. Without Matt Barlow, at least to me, it seems just like a heavier and more ”complicated” Judas Priest. Of course this has to do almost only because of the new lead singer, Tim Owens, which is the former singer from Judas Priest, after Rob Hallford. Right on the first track, you can see that this album is different, and is the follow up of the Something Wicked This Way Comes album (which in my personal opinion, is the greatest album from Iced Earth). It’s a fully instrumental track, that can literally take you out to ancient Egypt. Right on the second track, you can see that this is still Iced Earth, albeit a little heavier, and with more backing vocals, you will find one of the greatest riffs I’ve ever heard on this song, and at least for me, this is the best song of this entire album. On the beginning of the 3rd song, you can see that something has really changed, it’s new. The oldest albums from Iced Earth always seemed to me like a mix up from Iron Maiden and Blind Guardian, but way heavier, and it was good, it was old metal coming back to life. And this is just new, too new if you ask me.
Unfortunately, the other songs are just plain metal, with nothing to withstand for, except for the last track.
Now, this last track is something everyone should hear, really. It’s basically one of the greatest voice-instrumental songs I’ve ever heard, that instead of taking you off from Egypt, takes you in again, deeper and deeper, making you hope for Iced Earth to make a new album about Egypt, who knows? Maybe one day eh?
Overall
Well, it’s still Iced Earth, which means, it’s still Jon Schaffer’s songs, and they still kick ass, it’s just, different. It’s almost perfect.