Album Review - Iced Earth - The Crucible of Man, Something Wicked Pt. 2

Iced Earth led their ride into glory and metal immortality with the amazing power/thrash masterpiece, "Something Wicked This Way Comes". The disc put them on the map and instantly made them a major contender in the arena of all things hard and heavy. Their albums that came before were also fairly top notch, the best being a disc dedicated to the story of comic book character Spawn. But after "Wicked", the band took a few stumbling steps into silliness. They wrote a loose concept album where each song dealt with movie monsters, lost their "voice" Barlow, and did an album based more on historical warfare than dark fantasy.

Fans came and went, and when the band finally announced that they would be doing a fleshed out version of the much loved trilogy "Something Wicked" and turning that three part song into a double album and without Barlow to sing it... let's just say things took a downslide. Not that "Framing Armageddon" was a steaming pile or anything. It had its moments of mediocrity, and themes that just themed themselves into annoyance. Schaffer was trying for a movie majesty, soundtrack kind of disc, but that left it too long winded and reeking in its own rechurned debris. Ripper never quite won the audiences over either, despite a few great performances on his part. He just wasn't Barlow, and that was enough to keep the disc feeling like a bird with clipped wings. It wanted to fly, but circumstances just kept holding it down between an absent vocalist and Schaffer's blinded quest for epic metal immortality.

And now for the second part of the act, called "The Crucible of Man", Matt Barlow is back in the band and Ripper is nowhere to be seen. He has been kicked to the curb and probably feeling a bit deja vu about it all since the same happened the last time he had secured a seemingly rosy gig (the whole Judas Priest debacle, that would be the reference). His voice was powerful indeed, but lacked the warmer subtleties that Matt can invoke with such ease. It was this soul that "Framing" sorely lacked, as Ripper was more sterile perfection than raw bleeding honesty.
An album tangling out-of-this-world story threads of alien races, a seemingly doomed to destruction Earth, spook show mummys that suck souls, and the teetering balance of everything. Well that's much more Iced Earth than mining the pages of our own reality's history. And where "Framing" faltered, "Crucible" shines like an illuminated graveyard on a thunder sky's night. Barlow's dark cries and aggressive vocals growl just as passionate as the music itself, stomping, thrashing and thunderous. The guitars are electrified, the story is B-level Sci-Horror ridiculous, and the band just clicks. You can hear it in the musicians, and also in the song structures. This isn't a band that's rehashing the past because it's profitable, they are doing it to raise their musicianship to another level and just land a massive album in the hands of the listeners.

"The Crucible of Man" is almost everything an Iced Earth fan could desire, others may be a little lost at what all the hooplah is about, as the album is not "great" by any stretch, but is decent enough to satisfy and satiate the starved. Some may keep checking under the rug to see if there are more speedy/thrash bits hiding under there, but as it is, "Crucible" concerns itself with melody, story and the return of Barlow's voice.

"Behold the Wicked Child" flashes a bit of "Framing" before our eyes to set the scene and mood before whipping out some of Schaffer channelling Savatage's wicked riffing and from then on out it's all about metallic mastery. "Divide and Devour" in its crunch and thunder, the Egyptian exotic mysticism of "Sacrificial Kingdoms" (which is one of the few quick favorites here), the anthemic "Minions of the Watch", the grandiose ballad "Gift or a Curse", it's all quite melodic and destroyer worthy heavy.

"Harbringer of Fate" is a mellower piece that throwsback to "Watching Over Me" from "Something Wicked" back ten years prior. The band has slid back into their proper place, and guitarist Schaffer just seems more comfortable around Matt's vocals, the songs seem to just burst with that touch of brilliance again. As much as "Framing" was enjoyable, this is the Iced Earth that everyone pined for. However, it's difficult to recall individual riffs or songs even. As you listen to the album, you are enveloped with this warm feeling of familiarity, a sense of "rightness", but the aftershocks once the curtain has closed are a bit disconcerting.

It's battleships in space and Egyptian mummies, a twist on the Stargate movie schtick put to music. There is none of the distracting overdone instrumentals that crippled the previous disc, this one is more streamlined and all the better for it. Iced Earth fans will be pleased, and likely will everyone else. Though it can be silly lyrically at times, the performances are convincing enough to overlook that. Some songs do drag out too long and lose their welcome as ideas falter and riffs recycle, and others seem clipped and too short in general. This is not an album that trumps the diamonds of their past. No one is going to confuse this for "Something Wicked This Way Comes", it's just not up to that standard, but who really expected it to be? The important thing is that they truly are back in form and now that their epic has been put to closure, we can only wonder what they will attempt next.

Written by Alanna
Saturday, September 6, 2008
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