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› Iced Earth - Framing Armageddon: Something Wicked, Part I
SPV - Out Now
So, this is the album I’ve waited for since I started university. Missing their performance at Wacken by days made me cry like a small girl, have wanted to see them since 2002. For those of who will plead ignorance, a quick history lesson. ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ was released in 1998, and the final three tracks comprised the original ‘Something Wicked’ trilogy; ‘Prophecy’, ‘Birth Of The Wicked’ and ‘The Coming Curse’. These three tracks appeared re-diddled on the ‘Overture Of The Wicked’ EP released earlier this year, which I gave a very nice review of a few months back. ‘Framing Armageddon’ is the first part of the Set Abominae story that the original ‘Something Wicked’ trilogy began. Australian distribution being the joke it is, I had to resort to renting the album until my nice shiny copy from Amazon arrives. Onwards, then!
Straight from the off, you can tell this isn’t just another album with a loose story line that ties the songs together. There are intro songs, ethnic instrumentals, weird 90 second tracks of explosions and screams (‘Invasion’ & ‘Cataclysm’ spring to mind), and there is a feeling of general continuity through the album that doesn’t grow wearisome. Vocal lines and small pieces of melody that are directly lifted from parts of the original trilogy, and it actually adds to the nostalgia of the record, and reminds you of the original trilogy without thinking that it owes too much to it.
When it gets down to the actual songs though, the result is nothing except astounding. Three years of writing have paid off in a spectacular manner; this is easily the strongest Iced Earth record to date, even without Matt Barlow singing. There are the set pieces in the story, such as the very creatively titled ‘Something Wicked (Part I and II)’, which take you back to the trilogy, but the standout songs (and there are several) grab you and don’t let you go. Straight in with ‘Setian Massacre’ and ‘Charge To Keep’, are Iced Earth at their absolute finest, combining crushingly heavy riffs with screaming vocal melodies. This album truly is Iced Earth back on form, the crushing riffs that dominate the album your mind captivated as Owens’ voice rips (pun maybe intended). The spectacular set piece of the album, is the 9 minute plus ‘The Clouding’, a half-ballad epic that captivates the essence of this band, and proves that guitar solos aren’t always needed when the lead guitar work and lyrical melodies are as beautiful as they are; the atmosphere is perfected on this track, and is at the top of my ‘Most Plays’ play list this month. Keeping up the pace, the next three or four songs meld together, particular praise for ‘Infiltrate & Assimilate’, to lead up to the grand finale of the album, ‘When Stars Collide (Born Is He). Bombastically orchestral, the vocal choirs dominate the subtlety evil melodies against Shaffer’s grinding guitar work. To finish the album, we’re left with the groovy little ethnic/choral number, ‘The Awakening’, which must surely lead onto the next album, which promises to be full of all manner of mayhem
Iced Earth can live without Barlow at the helm. If you’d asked me in 2005, I wouldn’t have been so sure, as Owens’ debut with the band was fairly shaky. However, he sings the album of his career, and the band play theirs.
A cracking album who’s only minor fault is a couple more little guitar solos would’ve been nice.
The Twaddlefish album of 2007.
9.5/10
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