Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is way too early into the start of a New Year to even suggest that whilst 2013, with a couple of notable exceptions, was a pretty poor affair for any band on either side of the Atlantic Ocean that finds itself placed into the all-encompassing Metal genre, 2014 already has the feeling of being a million times better. The notable success stories came from the lands of Scandinavia and mainland Europe, these bands took on the old guard and walloped them to all corners of the stage as easily as a one-armed Australian batsman taking apart a 100 English bowlers. Now perhaps the time has come for the retaliation and in that colossus of Iced Earth and their new album Plagues of Babylon, Metal lovers can once more see the real face of American Metal.
Not only is Plagues of Babylon an album of stonking proportions but for the second album on the trot, Iced Earth have delivered something that won’t let go of the nerve endings and makes each muscle twitch with delight as if it is a marionette on a piece of string. The master of all this, the indefatigable Jon Schaffer, is unfaltering in his pitch to the fans and with Stu Block delivering vocals that growl like a hungry wolf scenting prey on the snowy horizon, there is nothing not to like and plenty to love.
With a charm that somehow seems alien to the world of Metal, Jon Schaffer, Stu Block, Troy Steele and Luke Appleton dispense a certain musical justice, a balance that saw a seismic shift in the last year away from the natural homes of Metal and in tracks such as Among The Living Dead, the haunting If I Could See You, the brilliance of Peacemaker, the fury of Parasite and a rather exceptional cover of the song Highway Man, which in all honesty sounds absolutely terrific, that shift could be, if not reversed, at least slowed down.
The weather on both sides of the Atlantic may be the worst we have seen for many a generation but there is nothing like a little Iced Earth in which to ignite the fires and get the soul moving.
Ian D. Hall