unica723 | Fecha: Miércoles, 2014-04-30, 8:50 AM | Mensaje # 1 |
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| Iced Earth is an American heavy metal band from Tampa, Florida, that combines influences from thrash metal, power metal, progressive metal, opera, speed metal and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Iced Earth has been known to have a volatile and often changing line-up. Founding member, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer is the only original member who has remained, handling nearly all of the songwriting and leading the band. Former vocalist Matt Barlow and former lead guitarist Randall Shawver are the next longest-tenured members. They are the only people besides Schaffer to have spent a full decade in the band. Shawver, the first lead guitarist to record with the band, joined in 1988 and remained until 1998. Barlow joined in 1994 and remained until 2003. However, he returned to the group in late 2007, making his live return at the 2008 Chicago Powerfest. In March 2011, vocalist Matt Barlow announced his intentions to leave the band. Stu Block, from Into Eternity, was named as Iced Earth's new singer.
Originally formed as Purgatory by Schaffer in 1984, the band spent five years playing live locally and went through several line-up changes. After changing their name to Iced Earth, the band recorded the 1989 demo “Enter the Realm,” which landed them a deal with the German label, Century Media Records.
One year later, the band recorded their self-titled album “Iced Earth,” followed by 1991's “Night of the Stormrider,” which peaked at #60 on the Japanese Oricon charts. Three years later, Iced Earth released “Burnt Offerings,” featuring new vocalist Matthew Barlow, followed by 1996’s “The Dark Saga,” but both releases failed to chart.
In 1997, the band re-recorded the best of their early material, and released it as a compilation titled “Days of Purgatory.” Released in 1998, “Something Wicked This Way Comes” reached #19 on the German Media Control charts. They followed up with the 1999 live album “Alive in Athens”
In 2001, the band released their sixth full-length “Horror Show,” which reached the Top 30 on the Austrian Ö3 Top 40 and German charts. Also in 2001, the five-disc box set “Dark Genesis,” which contained remastered versions of their first three studio albums, the demo “Enter the Realm,” and a studio album only of cover versions, titled “Tribute to the Gods.” “Tribute to the Gods” was later also released separately in 2002.
Two years later, Iced Earth signed a deal with SPV, and hired singer Tim “Ripper” Owens to record vocals for “The Glorious Burden.” The album reached the Top 30 in Austria, Finland and Germany. For the first time, the band entered the American Billboard 200 Albums chart, at #145.
Between 2007 and 2008, the band released two concept albums for the conclusion of the “Something Wicked” saga. The first part, 2007’s “Framing Armageddon,” reached the Top 30 on the German and Swedish Sverigetopplistan charts. The following year, they released the second part “The Crucible of Man,” which reached the Top 40 on the Austrian, Finnish, German, and Swiss charts. A second live album, “Festivals of the Wicked,” was released in 2011. 2005 Gettysburg (1863) DVD
Tracklist:
DVD 1: - Gettysburg (1863) - Dolby Digital 5.1 Metal Mix - Gettysburg (1863) - Dolby Digital 5.1 Orchestral Mix - Gettysburg (1863) - Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Mix - Gettysburg Battlefield Tour - Spirit of '76 - Photo Gallery - Trailer
DVD 2: - When The Eagle Cries (Video) - The Reckoning (Video) - Jon Schaffer Interview
Label: Steamhammer It could be construed that picking up something out of a bargain bin, a few years after something has been released, skews the listening experience a bit in favor of enjoying what you’ve bought. But this is how I came to own this DVD, which is essentially a surround sound rendering of a 3 part epic Iced Earth song with a montage of still photos depicting various events around the time of the battle of Gettysburg. Being someone who doesn’t live too far away from the site, I’ve been there a few times and am familiar with the background, which probably further biases me away from how most would view this.
Basically this is fan-boy fodder, to the very last split second of video footage. This doesn’t necessarily make it bad, but it definitely limits the audience to a narrow group of people who are anxious to see an interview with Jon Schaffer, because it’s the high point of the viewing experience. As someone who doesn’t follow Iced Earth heavily outside of their major studio releases, it is an educational interview that gives some good insights into how their songs are created, as well as the historic trials and tribulations of trying to keep a style of music going in America that has been ridiculed up until just a few years ago for most of one’s career. Jon definitely comes off as forthcoming and concise, and even gives a solid retort to those who accuse him of recycling guitar riffs. Being someone who has played many of them, I can testify that in addition to being murder on your picking wrist, there are noticeable nuances between every song, though obviously some of them come off as watered down in comparison to the early Thrash material on the first 3 albums.
The rest of the video material on here is somewhat par for the course. Despite my own personal issues with my country’s unquestioning sense of patriotism after the 9/11 attacks and all of the political nonsense that continues to plague this country, the video for “When The Eagle Cries” does work well as a sort of folk/pop rendering of a melodic metal ballad, being pushed along by Tim Owen’s unique and eccentric vocal style. “The Reckoning” gives a brief glimpse into Iced Earth’s power/thrash history, though with a vocalist that is naturally even closer to Rob Halford in sound and style than John Greely was. The content of the videos is pretty standard, though the imagery on “The Reckoning” looks like it was put together in a pretty short period of time and doesn’t really add much to the experience of seeing the song played live at a small venue, save perhaps all of the light bulbs hanging around.
The video montage found on “Gettysburg 1863” gets old pretty quickly, even if one approaches it with barely any knowledge of civil war history. You might as well just be listening to a surround sound version of the song with a public school history textbook in your hand, flipping pages every 7 or 8 seconds. The song itself, for anyone who hasn’t heard “The Glorious Burden” but is familiar with Iced Earth’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, this is basically a slightly more interesting version of that epic song cycle, with a much better vocal performance. Schaffer relies a bit more on orchestration than on slow acoustic alone passages, which keeps things a bit more interesting. The riff construction tends to be pretty formulaic, which has been the case for this band’s sound since “The Dark Saga”, and caters more towards a conceptual vocal narrative than the pulsating rhythmic attack that the band imported from the Bay Area thrash scene in the early 90s. It’s interesting to hear once in a while, but it wears thin and gets predictable after a few listens.
The ultimate impression that this DVD gives off is the same as what was put forth on “The Glorious Burden”, and that is Schaffer wishes to adapt a rather important part of American history to the metal medium. It may have had the unintended consequence of educating some people who were let down by America’s failure of an education system, but mostly it listens like a familiar story being retold in a different medium. Schaffer firmly believes that this event in history is not his to visit judgment over; something which I personally disagree with as I see it to be an essential step to avoiding any future mistakes by looking at history critically, but it is all laid out for one to disagree with. This is something that will be welcome in the collection of any strong fan of this band, but probably will have little appeal outside of their current audience. If you’re looking to take a risk on it, I paid about $7 for it, which is pretty close to its actual value. Disc 1 Quality: DVD9 Format: DVD Video Video codec: MPEG2 Audio codec: AC3 Video: 720X480,NTSC,4:3 Audio: DD 5.1 DD 2.0
Disc 2 Quality: DVD5 Format: DVD Video Video codec: MPEG2 Audio codec: AC3 Video: 720X480,NTSC,4:3 Audio: DD 2.0 8.23 GB Disponible sólo a los usuarios
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velasco | Fecha: Viernes, 2014-05-09, 1:48 PM | Mensaje # 2 |
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