Iced Earth

Iced Earth
Iced Earth in Ludwigsburg (2012)
General information
Genre (s)	Power metal
founding	1984 (as Purgatory) 1988 (renamed Iced Earth)
Website	www.icedearth.com
Founding members
singing	Gene Adams (until 1991)
Rhythm guitar , background vocals	Jon Schaffer
guitar	Bill Owens (until 1987)
bass	Richard Bateman (until 1986)
Drums	Greg Seymour (until 1989)
Current occupation
Lead vocals	Stu Block (since 2011)
Rhythm guitar, background vocals, lead vocals, studio keyboard	Jon Schaffer
Lead guitar	Jake Dreyer (since 2016)
Bass, backing vocals	Luke Appleton (since 2012)
Drums	Brent Smedley (1996–1997, 1998–1999, 2006–2013, since 2015)
former members
singing	John Greely (1991-1992)
Lead vocals, backing vocals	Matthew Barlow (lead vocals 1995–2002, studio backing vocals: 2004, lead vocals: 2008–2011)
singing	Tim "Ripper" Owens (2003-2007)
guitar	Larry Sapp (1986)
guitar	Randy Shawver (1988-1998)
guitar	Larry Tarnowski (1998-2003)
guitar	Ralph Santolla (2003-2004)
guitar	Ernie Carletti (2006)
guitar	Tim Mills (2006-2007)
guitar	Troy soul (2007-2016)
bass	Dave Abell (1987-1996)
bass	Keith Menser (1996)
bass	James McDonough (1996-2004)
bass	Steve DiGiorgio (2000-2001)
bass	James "Bo" Wallace (2006-2007)
bass	Dennis Hayes (2007-2008)
Bass, backing vocals	Freddie Vidales (2008-2012)
Drums	Mike McGill (1989-1991)
Drums	Rick Secchiary (1991-1992)
Drums	Rodney Beasley (1992-1995)
Drums	Mark Prator (drums: 1995–1996, studio drums: 1998)
Drums	Richard Christy (2000-2004)
Drums	Bobby Jarzombek (2004-2006)
Live support and session musicians
singing	Kate Barlow (studio vocals: 1996)
Background vocals, guitar, keyboard	Jim Morris (studio backing vocals: 1996, 1998, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2011, studio guitar: 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2008, studio keyboard: 1998, 2001)
Keyboard	Roger Huff (studio keyboard: 1991/1992)
Keyboard	Kent Smith (studio keyboard: 1991/1992)
Keyboard, background vocals	Howard Helm (studio keyboard: 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, studio backing vocals: 2007, 2008, 2011)
Drums	Raphael Saini (studio / touring drums: 2013)
Drums	Jon Dette (touring drums: 2013)

Iced Earth is an American metal - band led by Jon Schaffer , the influences from thrash metal , power metal , progressive metal , speed metal and NWOBHM combined.

history

Iced Earth was founded in Indiana in 1984 by Jon Schaffer as the "Purgatory". After the band moved to Florida and changed their name to Iced Earth, they managed to get a record deal with Century Media through the Enter the Realm demo , which was followed by the debut LP Iced Earth .

Since that time there have been repeated changes of line-up, which is often attributed to Schaffer, who is considered very eccentric. Singer Matt Barlow joined the band in 1995 after the European tour entitled Night of the Stormrider with Blind Guardian as a replacement for John Greely. The first album he worked on was Burnt Offerings , which is largely based on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy .

Barlow's singing turned out to be very popular. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , however, he decided to work in the “real world” instead of indulging in the “illusion of being a rock star”. However, Schaffer persuaded him to stay in the band for the time being when Barlow announced the end of 2002. During the recording of The Glorious Burden , however, he decided that the quality of Barlow's vocals had deteriorated, so he left the band. Barlow then worked part-time as a police officer in his home state, and in 2005 he became a member of the "First State Force Band", an association of police officers from Delaware that campaigns against violence and drugs among young people.

The new singer Tim Owens left Judas Priest soon after , as their original singer Rob Halford returned. Owens had worked there on two studio albums. Before that he sang in the band "Winters Bane", with whom he had released the album Heart of a Killer . The Glorious Burden was now his first album with Iced Earth. Owens was initially viewed critically by many fans.

The Glorious Burden covers many aspects of warfare and the military that have shaped the modern world. The themes on it range from the American Declaration of Independence through Napoleon to September 11, 2001. Furthermore, three songs deal with the Battle of Gettysburg and one song with Waterloo . The subject of the album was controversial because of the political world climate.

The departure of Barlow, whose singing was considered to be style-defining, as well as the simultaneous turning away from fantasy, horror and comics as the main background of the texts, towards, in some cases, controversial, historical and current political and military topics, led to a strong loss of popularity of Iced Earth in Europe . Sometimes even longtime die-hard fans turned away from the band.

There was a scandal when an interview with Schaffer was published in the Canadian heavy metal magazine Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles . Schaffer accused the magazine of referencing his comments and underlining a bias against the US. He announced that the band would boycott the magazine in the future.

Schaffer announced a continuation of the Something Wicked storyline on the band's homepage . The pre- single Overture of the Wicked was released in early June 2007. In the same year Iced Earth released the studio album Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked Part 1) . In December 2007 Jon Schaffer announced on the band's homepage that Matt Barlow would return to the band and also sing the second part of Framing Armageddon . On December 11th and 20th, 2007, Barlow confirmed rumors of a return to Iced Earth on the band's website. He also announced that he would take over the lead vocals on the next album (Something Wicked Part 2). This was released in autumn 2008, the single I Walk Among You was released in Germany on June 13, 2008.

On March 2, 2011, Barlow announced his final resignation from the band after the summer festivals in Europe. As a motivation, he cited the lack of time with his family. Barlow had his last stage appearance with Iced Earth on August 6, 2011 in Wacken .

Barlow's successor is Canadian Stu Block , who was featured on the October 2011 album "Dystopia". In April 2012, Luke Appleton was introduced as the new bassist. He has already toured with Iced Earth with his band Fury UK .

In May 2013, Iced Earth announced that drummer Brent Smedley had left the band for personal reasons. Raphael Saini was hired for the upcoming studio production and also as a live drummer for the upcoming concerts and was later replaced by Jon Dette in this regard . From July 15, 2013 the band went to the studio to record their new album Plagues of Babylon , which was released in Germany on January 3, 2014. Half of it is a concept album and the other half is a conventional album. After the position on drums was vacant for a short time, Brent Smedley returned in spring 2015 to record the album Incorruptible , which was released in 2017.

On June 16, 2017, the twelfth album Incorruptible was released. It is the band's first studio album in over 20 years that is not a concept album. Each song has its own theme.

style

Stylistically, Iced Earth are mostly assigned to Power Metal , whereby influences of Thrash Metal can also be perceived. Iron Maiden are always seen by fans as a direct role model. The band themselves recorded some cover versions of the NWoBHM legend and played them live. A distinctive feature of the sound of Iced Earth is rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer's right-handed gallop , which sounds like an accelerated and varied take on the 1/8-2/16 rhythm found in Steve Harris ' play in Iron Maiden songs such as Run to the Hills , The Trooper or Caught Somewhere in Time .

Iced Earth's lyrics often deal with theological subjects such as punishment and sin , destiny , heaven and hell , the antichrist and the apocalypse . Many of the band's albums are concept albums that deal, for example, with the superhero Spawn ( The Dark Saga ), horror films ( Horror Show ) or - as mentioned above - with historical wars ( The Glorious Burden ).

In some songs like Dante's Inferno , Angel's Holocaust , Damien or The Coming Curse , the band uses elements of Gregorian chant . Three Iced Earth songs have female co-singing: A Question of Heaven , The Phantom Opera Ghost and The Awakening as well as the remastered version of Burnt Offerings at the Days of Purgatory. The female part in the song A Question of Heaven was taken over by Matthew Barlow's sister Kate. The unknown US singer Yunhui Percifield contributed the guest part in The Phantom Opera Ghost .

Trivia

In an interview with the German music magazine Rock Hard in September 2007, Jon Schaffer named the contract with Century Media as a problem that was partly responsible for the many line-up changes. He described the time as "pure slavery" because the band would not have gotten out of the contract, but he could not have financially secure all members. In the November Rock Hard issue of the same year, however, a letter to the editor was published by the employees of Century Media in which they denied all statements by Jon Schaffer and stated that they had regularly transferred larger amounts to him during this time and that he still had money Century Media receptions. In order to be able to continue to support him financially, the label - with the invitation to readers to buy this - released the box set Slave to the Dark , the title of which was based on Jon Schaffer's statement and an Iced Earth title.

Discography

→ Main article : Iced Earth / Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	US
1990	Iced Earth Century Media	-	-	-	-	First published: November 1990
1991	Night of the Stormrider Century Media	-	-	-	-	First published: November 11, 1991
1995	Burnt Offerings Century Media	-	-	-	-	First published: April 18, 1995
1996	The Dark Saga Century Media	-	-	-	-	First published: July 23, 1996
1998	Something Wicked This Way Comes Century Media	DE19 (6 weeks) DE	AT50 (1 week) AT	-	-	First published: July 7, 1998
2001	Century Media horror show	DE28 (5 weeks) DE	AT32 (2 weeks) AT	CH86 (1 week) CH	-	First published: June 25, 2001
2004	The Glorious Burden Steamhammer	DE15 (6 weeks) DE	AT24 (4 weeks) AT	CH77 (1 week) CH	US145 (1 week) US	First published: January 11, 2004
2007	Framing Armageddon: Something Wicked Part 1 Steamhammer	DE19 (4 weeks) DE	AT36 (2 weeks) AT	CH56 (3 weeks) CH	US79 (2 weeks) US	First published: September 11, 2007
2008	The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2 Steamhammer	DE28 (3 weeks) DE	AT34 (2 weeks) AT	CH39 (2 weeks) CH	US79 (1 week) US	First published: September 5, 2008
2011	Dystopia Century Media	DE23 (3 weeks) DE	AT51 (1 week) AT	CH53 (1 week) CH	US67 (1 week) US	First published: October 14, 2011
2014	Plagues of Babylon Century Media	DE5 (4 weeks) DE	AT27 (2 weeks) AT	CH23 (2 weeks) CH	US49 (1 week) US	First published: January 3, 2014
2017	Incorruptible Century Media	DE15 (4 weeks) DE	AT18 (1 week) AT	CH17 (3 weeks) CH	US140 (1 week) US	First published: June 16, 2017

Web links

Commons : Iced Earth  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website

swell

1. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/video-ex-slayertestament-drummer-jon-dette-performs-with-iced-earth-for-first-time/
2. ↑ metal-hammer.de: Review of the album Plagues of Babylon (accessed on January 7, 2014)
3. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=192448
4. ↑ rockhard.de: Iced Earth: Brent Smedley returns to record the "The Judas Goat" album (accessed on July 22, 2016)
5. ↑ Fender® Musical Instruments: Iced Earth Unveils New Album Details Incorruptible | Charvel guitars. Accessed March 26, 2018 .