ICED EARTH — Plagues of Babylon (review)

ICED EARTH — Plagues of Babylon album cover

Album · 2014 · US Power Metal

4/5 · 2014-01-19
arcane-beautiful

Another band who I haven't gotten around to reviewing an album of. And it's odd, because I've been a very big fan of these guys for a good few years.

For those who never have heard Iced Earth before, my best description of the band is the perfect middle ground between Metallica and Iron Maiden. Basically a mixture of thrash metal with melodic power metal.

Having released one album already with new vocalist Stu Block, the band are back with a pretty solid affair. Musically the band have stuck to their own melodic style of thrash/power metal, but I do notice that this album is probably one of their more darker and heavier releases since “Burnt Offerings.”

The first half of the album is also a concept “suite” with songs relating to Schaffer's ongoing Something Wicked saga. The concept is based around a zombie apocalypse. So basically it's like “The Walking Dead”. Lyrically the band haven't been the best, but whenever concept material is set on the band, that is where their strengths shine.

One of the slight criticisms I have with this album is from new vocalist Stu Block. Now, this also goes pretty hand in hand with another similar story and a similar styled band Kamelot. Both bands lost their lead singers respectively. Both bands got new lead singers from 2 active but slightly less then heard of bands (Stu coming from Canadian prog metal band Into Eternity and Kamelot getting Tommy Karevik from Swedish prog metal band Seventh Wonder). Both singers did an absolutely amazing job in their old bands, with their talent pretty much driving the bands to some cult success. In fact, their talent was what won them over to the bands they are currently in. But...sadly, because Kamelot and Iced Earth are pretty big bands with pretty big shoes to fill when their old singers leave, both Stu and Tommy almost mimic the old vocalists. Now, I know Matt Barlow (Iced Earth's previous and most prominent lead vocalist) was a massive part of the bands sound, Stu would have some big shoes to fill. But in Into Eternity, Stu's vocals where completely out of this world, showing off a mad high register with a great use of death metal growls and screams. In the band, Stu seems to stay in the same register for most, which usually is a quite high baritone, rather than the high tenor he is used to. I do admit, he pulls it off very well, but I would prefer a little bit more presentation and variation in his vocal stylings for Iced Earth's material. The mixing of the vocals is also a little low, and should be turned up just a little.

The opening title track is a pretty great and epic feeling intro. Some nice bombastic moments with some nice arrangements throughout. The mix on Stu's vocals are also pretty kick ass too, showing off some of his hidden abillity.

Hansi Kürsch also makes an appearance on the album on the song “Among The Living Dead”. Sadly his vocals are rather low in the mix, but the man is pretty hard to miss. A pretty great tune too.

One of the album's more epic songs would have to be “The End?” With a lot of interesting twists and turns, it ends of the concept part of the album pretty well.

“If I Can See You Now” is very much an almost sequel to the Iced Earth classic “Watching Over Me.” Pretty cheesy obviously, but I actually suprisingly really like it. In fact it's one of my personal favourites.

The album's strongest moment has to be “Cthulhu.” With Lovecraftian themed lyrics and some of Block's best vocals on the album, it really is a paragon moment for the band.

Another ballad on the album is “Spirits Of The Time” is another suprisingly enjoyable moment on the album. Originally a track by Schaffer's solo outing Sons Of Anarchy, the song is a bit sullen, but is still rather nice, with some nice vocals from Stu to add some flavour to the song.

The Jimmy Webb cover “Highwayman” was a bit of a suprise, but oddly enough it was rather enjoyable. The help from Russell Allen was also a help.

In conclusion, this definitely isn't their best album but it's not their worst either. A pretty strong and consistent album throughout. While they may not be in their “glory days” anymore, this album did prove that the band are still packing quite a mighty punch in their near 25 year tenure. Long may they live.

7.8/10

more than 2 years ago
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arcane-beautiful wrote:

more than 2 years ago

i heard her on videos online. she's pretty good. still prefer stu though. i reccomend only listening to the Stu Block stuff and the album before it. Their songwriting has seen a major improvement over the past few years

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'll give them a proper try sometime. I'm not so into melodeath sounds though, even when they're progressive melodeath like Into Eternity, so they were never a band that interested me much, even when Stu joined Iced Earth. But I will get around to it sometime, even if it's when they do a new album, which I gather must be soon since wikipedia has it down as TBA 2013, which obviously never happened. They have a new singer now though.

arcane-beautiful wrote:

more than 2 years ago

i reccomend giving them a listen. they're very good

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I guess I have the possibly dubious benefit of having not listened to Into Eternity.

arcane-beautiful wrote:

more than 2 years ago

i just don't like it when a singer tries to sound too much like a previous lead singer, especially when their voice is way more unique and powerfull xp

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Ah okay, misread what you meant. You can edit a review by the way, should wish to correct the Anarchy/Liberty mistake.

Not sure you'd like Dystopia any better given the problem you had with Stu on this one. He doesn't sound any different between the two really.

arcane-beautiful wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Still need to give Dystopia a listen.

And yes, I admit making the mistake about Sons Of Anarchy, and I regret it so much cause that show sucks.

And this album deals with a zombie apocalypse part of the Something Wicked trilogy. I'm aware that the concept is about Setians and shizz. If I wrote that down wrong, I apologize. I probably wrote this with very little lack of sleep

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I had similar thoughts about this album. I loved Dystopia though.

Did spot some factual errors by the way:

Jon Schaffer's solo project is called Sons of Liberty. Sons of Anarchy is a TV show. ;)

The Something Wicked concept isn't about a zombie apocalypse either. More like a combination of biblical and ancient aliens themes.