This afternoon I listened to the most recent effort from American metal band Iced Earth, Dystopia. This is the first album with new lead vocalist Stu Block. I have owned this one for quite some time, but have been weary (and lacking the free time) of listening to this album because Block has big shoes to fill. Despite my original misgivings, I wanted to give the new guy a fair chance.
Before I give my thoughts on this album, I just want to state that I love Iced Earth. There albums usually range from solid to stellar. I particularly love the two albums with Tim "Ripper" Owens on lead vocals, but equally enjoy the ones with Matt Barlow singing.
So . . . here we go.
Based on the initial listen, I did not like this album.
The main problem is the music and the vocals did not complement each other at all. The overall arrangements and quality of the music was stellar and epic in scale; however, vocalist Block does not possess the range to support such an album. If Barlow was still the lead vocalist, I believe that the album may have worked. If Owens was the vocalist, the album most definitely would have worked.
As much as I wanted to like this album, I skipped through each and every song after roughly a minute because I cannot get passed the vocals.
One possible hope is that this is an album that will grow on you, but the initial listen was not promising.
By way of comparison, I have three examples of Iced Earth's work. I have listed them in this order: Barlow vocals, Owens vocals, and Block.
As always,
Thank you for reading,
Marty Sabin
I have never been able to get into Iced Earth. Stu Block is the singer for Into Eternity and I think he does a fairly good job there mixing shrieks with growls and his power metal singing. But you're right, I didn't really like this new Iced Earth track.
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