On September 7, 2007, the eighth full-length studio effort by one of the most original bands on the modern heavy scene — ICED EARTH — is released. Jon Schaffer founded the band over twenty years ago, brought it to the forefront in the mid-90s, and all these years has been giving critics a hard time: the band seemingly plays power metal, but then where does all that heaviness, aggression, dark atmosphere, and thrash riffs come from? The last album marked Tim "Ripper" Owens' debut. In ICED EARTH, the position became vacant after vocalist Matt Barlow left the band to become a police officer (although he recently did return to music, becoming the frontman of the little-known Danish band PYRAMAZE, which caused considerable backlash from fans of ICED EARTH's 1995-2001 era), while Tim Owens officially became unemployed on July 11, 2003, when Rob Halford returned to JUDAS PRIEST. Just five months later, the ICED EARTH disc "Glorious Burden" was released with him on vocals — the band's most patriotic, epic, and bombastic (in the best sense of the word) work. After the tour, Ripper worked on a solo disc, Schaffer teamed up with Hansi Kursch to release the second DEMONS & WIZARDS album, and for a long time there was no news at all from the ICED EARTH camp — and then the remaining three musicians left the band. Things came to life in 2007: Schaffer announced that a two-part "Something Wicked" story was in the works, the first part of which would come out on September 7. Before us is a promo containing two songs from the upcoming disc — "Setian Massacre" and "Ten Thousand Strong," the latter of which we already heard on the "Overture of the Wicked" single released in early June.
"Setian Massacre" is a decent composition with fairly heavy guitars, not overly high-pitched vocals, and an easily memorable chorus. It can't be called particularly striking, but perhaps that will allow it to blend organically with the rest of the songs, which for now remain a mystery. "Ten Thousand Strong" is a fast, aggressive banger with an epic chorus recorded in multiple vocal layers, quite reminiscent in spirit of the previous album. The instrumental break, consisting of melodic riffs instead of a solo, is a perfectly typical approach for ICED EARTH, one that Schaffer has employed once again. Overall, it's a fairly interesting and beautiful piece; Tim Owens is, as always, simply magnificent. The vocal passage in the song's finale is simply mesmerizing. But then again, this was predictable — Mr. Owens is arguably the strongest vocalist on the modern heavy-power scene. The promo is more than encouraging. All that remains is to wait for the album release.