Iced Earth - Horror Show
(Century Media, 2001)

Iced Earth have an interesting mixture in their music. It seems like half the band yearn for days of long hair and elaborate rock stardom, and the rest just desire to downtune their guitars and hammer in the double bass drums. Yes, it's death metal meets Iron Maiden, Iced Earth placing themselves in this growing genre overseas known as power metal. At times, it sounds dated, and at times it sounds universally fresh. Horror Show is a concept album where the band arranges the lyrical content around their favorite villains of motion picture and literature. In the end, it turns out to be a dull idea, but when one ignores this, the music itself proves Iced Earth to be the perfect composite of old british metal ideals and Metallica back when they still ruled the metal scene.

The opening track Wolf is a complex grind that kicks the album into high gear, instantly winning the praise of the new-school and old simultaneously. Damien is a sepulchral gothic cruncher that makes the stench of Satan smoke from my compact disc player (it's true!). Tracks like Im-Ho-Tep and Frankenstein lurch to and fro through the fog of guitar fuzz, twin apocalyptic pounders from hell. Also, the refreshing Maiden-like gallop of Dracula feature Matthew Barlow's demonic, vaguely Mercyful Fate-like vocals to full employment. The song The Phantom Opera's Ghost is provocative most of the time, but irritating synthesizer interludes and bizzare female vocals plain displease me. I can deal with that song (it's the last track), but the acoustic ballad Ghost of Freedom just seems completely out of place on this album. It doesn't really matter though, because Horrorshow comes with a reckless attitude that kicks the living daylights out of much of the new music out today. There are metal bands back in the eighties who would kill to be as masterful as Iced Earth.

Rating: 4/5