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Iced Earth: The dark saga
22/09/09 || Smalley
Although Iced Earth has been floundering recently as the result of a few disappointing releases, they were easily the cream of the power metal crop (and metal crop in general) during the old Matt Barlow days, releasing album after album of uncompromising, serious business PM (though the non-Barlow “Night of the stormrider”/“The glorious burden” are pretty nice too). Now, I have no particular distaste for power metal, I actually do enjoy most bands in the genre, but a lot of it be too silly at times; IE was a breath of fresh air, in that their brand of power metal was always dark, always serious, and always meaningful, and “The dark saga”, coming from deep within their golden age, is an excellent example of that classic style.
The title track opens us up, starting with a foreboding bass line, lamentful leadwork, and Barlow darkly murmuring “The deal was rigged/There’s darkness in my soul/I want to die… agaaaaaaaaaaaain!“. Then, Jon Schaffer kicks in with his aggressively crunchy riffing, a moment that can only be described as “pure metal bliss”, and Matt continues belting out the tortured, Spawn-inspired lyrics (yes, all the lyrics here were based on the character of Spawn, which is why he’s on the cover). I don’t know how close they come to the spirit of the comic, since I never read it, but it doesn’t matter much anyway, and Matt’s passionate, superb vocals, along with Jon’s heavy riffing, make the track an excellent way to open up this album.
The sorrowful “I died for you” is kind of like Iced Earth’s “Nothing else matters”, except with lyrics that actually feel like they mean something, and not just vague, power ballad platitudes (sorry Metallica, I still like your song!). Barlow’s singing does get a tad cheesy here, but not much (not Hansi-level cheesy, at least), and the song remains poignant and powerful all the way. “Violate” then does away with any pretension of restraint, with furious riffing and a double bass drum assault to match, courtesy of Mark Prator (who performs very energetically on every other track here as well). Being a Spawn virgin, the song’s lyrics come off somewhat stupid to me (“Demonic clown and shapeshifter/Little man gone insane!”?), but “Violate” is redeemed by being just as worthy headbanging fodder as say, Decapitated, or any other really heavy band you care to name. Awesome.
“The hunter” is another enjoyable, up-tempo cut, while “The last laugh” is a real menacer (don’t know if that’s a real word, but it should be!) especially in its lyrics: “My personal quest is to make your life hell/Yes dear friend, listen up well/The power I’ve given… I can take as well!”. After that, the tense intro of “Depths of hell” recalls the intro on the title track somewhat, and Barlow gives an extremely dramatic performance here, perhaps his best on the entire record. Very intense stuff…
…but unfortunately, by the time “Vengeance is mine” starts, that same intensity is beginning to wear on my nerves; there’s only so much hell-and-punishment lyrics, over-the-top vocals, and sad lead guitarwork you can take on one record before it starts to tire you. “Vengeance” is still decent though, and “The dark saga” is wrapped up with the trio of “The suffering scarred”, “Slave to the dark”, and “A question of heaven”, which Iced Earth considered to be a trilogy of connected songs. “Scarred” begins with some nice atmospherics, but soon turns into the draggiest, worst song on the album, “Slave” immediately follows with (thankfully) much more energetic songwriting, and “question” is easily the best of the trilogy, with an appropriately climatic tone and delicately beautiful guest vocals from Matt’s sister, Kate (hey, if you got the connections, use ‘em; John Haughm used his girlfriend on “Pale folklore” ‘cause she happened to sing opera). Erm…
To continue with what I began in the intro, I don’t at all ignore the contribution that Schaffer’s songwriting/guitarwork gave to Iced Earth, and I wasn’t trying to lay all of the credit on Barlow, it’s just that Schaffer’s kind of writing really benefits from a strong singer delivering it, and Matt was just the man for that job back in the day. “The dark saga” has some of Matt’s best vocalwork, as well as some of Schaffer’s best songwriting, and when you combine the two, it’s like chocolate and peanut butter, Scorsese and DeNiro, Mike Nelson and bad movies: fucken awesome! In addition to that, this one’s also a great continuation and improvement on the sound and themes begun on “Burnt offerings” (another great record), and one of the best albums IE ever made; forget about being into power metal, if you’re just into metal, you need to check this one out. By the way, kudos to the Barlow family for having some incredible vocal cord genes!!!
- Information
- Released: 1996
- Label: Century Media
- Website: www.icedearth.com
- Band
- Matt Barlow: vocals
- Randall Shawver: lead guitar
- Jon Schaffer: rhythm guitar
- Dave Abell: bass
- Mark Prator: drums
- Kate Barlow: guest vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. Dark Saga
- 02. I Died For You
- 03. Violate
- 04. The Hunter
- 05. The Last Laugh
- 06. Depths Of Hell
- 07. Vengeance Is Mine
- 08. The Suffering Scarred
- 09. Slave To The Dark
- 10. A Question Of Heaven
