ICED EARTH – Something Wicked Part I + II

ICED EARTH – Revelation Abomination: Something Wicked Part II; BW&BK Track By Track Sneak Preview!





Special report by Mark Gromen

It’s done, or is it? While BW&BK heard 16 of the 19 tracks written for the second instalment of the Set Abominae concept, even at the eleventh hour (during mastering), ICED EARTH's Jon Schaffer is still unsure of the final sequence. As we sit in the rent-a-car listening to a possible final mix, the mainman/guitarist considers a radical overhaul, removing the remaining segues from the running order, having already opted out of ‘Be Warned’ and ‘Time Marches On’, the latter utilizes sound clips of historical events; “Oh, the humanity” Hindenburg disaster, Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler speeches, etc.) “The record seemed to flow better. When you’re driving down the road, most people just skip over them.” Then playing the debate out in real time, he switches tact. “This is an artistic album. You’re not supposed to put it on as background music and go do something else. You need to listen and pay attention.” So are those (all?) segues doomed to the vault? “They’ll be on the (proposed) box set. It’s supposed to be like a hardback comic book, with space for the singles and the two (full-length) discs. They’ll be extensive artwork that will flush out the story and those (deleted segue?) pieces will be exclusive to that. I’m also toying with writing a couple of additional acoustic guitar parts, specifically for it.”

So what follows is the running order, as proposed, minus just the two segues mentioned above. Given two opportunities to hear this master work still isn’t enough to digest the complex storyline, intricate musical details and the overall breadth of the project, so here are some rough notes, augmented by brief plot-line synopsis.

1) ‘In Sacred Flames’
Intro. The acoustically, joined by multi-voiced choir, tying together how Part 1 ended.

2) ‘Behold The Wicked Child’
From word go, classic metal picking. During the break, an echoey, distance voice. HEAVY bottom end (Dennis Hayes on bass). Thematically, the birth of Set Abominae on the 6th hour, of the 6th day of the 6th month. Plenty of ear candy, including chanting female vocals after the chorus.

3) ‘Minions Of The Watch’
Lyrics by Matt Barlow. Cleaner, Barlow’s voice shines through. Set is oblivious to his destiny.

4) ‘The Revealing’
Pace quickens, more prominent guitar. At age 13, Set is made aware of the master plan. Lyrics again by Barlow. Short on word, long on riffs.

5) ‘A Gift Or A Curse?’
From the introspective, contemplating mind of Set. A slower, ballad type song, includes hand drumming. '70s JOE WALSH/EAGLES vibe. Jon Schaffer singing some lead vocals (!) also harmonizing with Matt. Tom Morris (producer) plays Stratocaster and gets co-writing music credit. Picks up intensity, briefly, come the bridge, but falls to the aforementioned laid-back pace at the end.
“Am I a gift, Am I curse. I’m one and all Of God and Earth”

6) ‘The Coronation’
Segue. Crack of military snare and French horn (coronet) brass flourish. Snare continues, joined by tympani and low symphonic strings, building layers. The repeated theme recalls a similar cadence to RAVEL's ‘Bolero’. Leads directly into…

7) ‘Crown Of The Fallen’
First time the Barlow/PAUL STANLEY reference is relevant. Not full force vocals. Lots of intricate finger-work, not merely riffs.

‘The Dimension Gauntlet’
That trademark, bouncy Iced Earth rhythm. A Middle Eastern theme (Set’s signature music) can be heard.

9) ‘Injecting The Venom’
Segue begun with haunting winds, greeted by more tabla/timbali/conga hand drumming and bubbling sounds. Human voices (ominous “Ah, Ah”). Pizzicato symphonic strings amongst a whirlwind of otherworldly sounds, including sackbut (other odd pipes/horns). Set is purposefully beset by cobras, rattlers and black widows, their poisons intertwining to ignite his murderous rage.

10) ‘I Walk Alone’
1st single. Troy Mills gets co-writing music credit. Barlow and choir on the chorus, although a single voice (Set) cuts through. Mid-tempo, with abrupt ending. Same as the single version, although the voices of the choir have been expanded beyond Morris, Barlow, Schaffer, thus making for a wider sound.

11) ‘Harbinger Of Fate’
More ethereal. Barlow in that ‘I Died For You’ mode. Big dynamic jump (not tempo) come chorus. Multiple voices, tolling bells, dive bomb guitar run and rapid hand drums as song fades.
“I am the Future, ending Man’s Tomorrow”

12) ‘Crucify The King’
CRUNCH! Barlow penned lyrics. Heavy groove bottom end, high vocals in chorus. Interplay of the pummelling bass, staccato guitar riffs and Barlow’s highs.

13) ‘Sacrificial Kingdoms’
Lyrics by Barlow. Jumps right in. Historical references to Rome/Ottoman Empire both falling as Set pulled the strings. Barlow ultra-highs atop sustain guitar.
“Your future’s clear if you look back
Every culture’s earned their fate
Your gluttony as my tool of choice
You’ve proved your worth less every day”
“Kingdoms fall to the ground, crushed by their own greed”

14) ‘Something Wicked (Part 3)’
Lyrics by Barlow. Choir delivers the chorus, but Barlow interjects a solo line after every pair by choir. Dramatic shift to staccato riffs w/ neat guitar underpinning

15) ‘Divide Devour’
Speedy/heavy! Again chorus=choir, apart from Barlow, who sings “I will divide. I will devour.” Female vox in Latin atop speedy guitar. Shorter tune, not much embellishment

16) ‘Come What May’
Slower, but guitar buzzing away underneath. Matt sings in soulful, lower register. Stops just short of Schaffer asking listener, ‘Do you want what’s carved out for your life or do you have the drive/ability to make your own path?’ Repetitive chorus of symphonic strings stretches Barlow’s repertoire, screaming over top.
“From living in caves to manned flights in space
And for all that it’s worth, still the sad pathetic race”

17) Epilogue
yet to be finished…

Watch for a new exclusive BW&BK in-studio interview with Jon Schaffer in the days to come.

ICED EARTH - Set To Take On The World, Part II

Special report by Mark Gromen

Morrisound, quickly becoming my home away from home in Florida. With ICED EARTH mixing/mastering the mammoth two-part Set Abominae concept at the fabled studio, this marks my third privileged visit to hear the music, hot off the press (so to speak). Initial reaction? Apart from the obvious fan-approved return of vocalist Matt Barlow, it’s the heaviness and guitar-oriented nature of the Part II material. Granted Framing Armageddon needed to set up the story, the main character’s birth only comes to fruition on this record’s first proper track, ‘Behold The Wicked Child’. While the anticipated and prophesized annihilation of mankind is not forthcoming (“It goes right up until now,” claims its creator), the new album IS more aggressive and intense, without sacrificing the choirs, orchestral instrumentation and world music elements (hand drumming, etc.) that characterized the initial platter.

“This is only one medium for the story,” says mainman Jon Schaffer, having previously hinted at comic books/graphic novels and/or some sort of visual treatment. “So I didn’t want to end the story. There’s so much more that can be told. Howard, who works here at Morrisound, was able to assemble a 16-person choir. He works with a church group and they were able to come in over Memorial Day weekend. They’re singing in Latin (on ‘In Sacred Flames’), so those parts had to be written out for them. I’ve wanted to work with a choir since ‘Angels Holocaust’ off (Night Of The) Stormrider. In a perfect world, I would have gone to Prague (Czech Republic) to work with a full orchestra and choir, but at least we didn’t have to take a slice of the Conan soundtrack and build it up, like we did on Stormrider!”

In March, when BW&BK visited Schaffer in the studio, he mentioned something about Barlow writing lyrics for a couple of tracks, as the lyrics for part II were still a work in progress at that point. Turns out, Barlow contributed to at least five songs! Over a dinner of Carrabba’s Chicken Bryan (an excellent recommendation) we discuss the songwriting process.

“Matt’s a good lyricist,” says the understated guitarist. “There’s no one else I would have trusted with lyrics. We’re on the same wavelength and he knows the story. He asked questions back in the old days. You can’t do this if you don’t ask questions. I gave him directions. ‘This is what the song’s about. These are the bullet points, things that need to be mentioned, time lines,’ whatever. He came up with some great stuff and cool vocal melodies as well. Yes, this is my story, but lyrically, I don’t feel I have as much to say as I used to. I need someone to help out with that. If a song says ‘Jon Schaffer’ on it, that means I wrote what you’re hearing; music, lyrics, vocal melodies, cadences, whenever there’s a scream… It’s all mapped out. It’s not like I only do the guitar parts and say I wrote the song. Some bands do that, but that’s not how it works in Iced Earth. I played 95% of the guitars, lead and rhythm, on these (two) albums, as well as most of the bass. Because my rhythm playing is such a recognized part of the Iced Earth sound, people assume I don’t play the lead melodies on the albums. False. If I stopped playing rhythm to go to single note melodies live ,the power of the band drops dramatically so the lead guitar plays about a quarter to half the notes I’m playing on the fast stuff and then brought up in the mix during the melodies. Troy (Seeley) did two solos on the album that are really cool, but it’s better for the guy who wrote it, to play it. I can’t force stuff. I have to be passionate about it. We don’t write shallow shit like ‘Let’s go party. Let’s go fuck chicks’ or, ‘Let’s be metal, raise your fist,’ cheesy shit.”

“The songs were titled,” continues Schaffer, dismissing any notion that record #2 was in any way compromised or altered due to the shifts in lineup or feedback garnered from Framing Armageddon.

“That had nothing to do with it. Things outside the band don’t influence my work, or who I am. ‘Come What May’ (with extra studio time, a radio edit was concocted, just in case)… I knew that one would end the record. I write music to fit the title of the song. It wasn’t like I wrote 15 extra songs without any direction in mind. I’m covering 10,000 years of storytelling in part 1, so I needed to have more segues,” warding off criticism of the “non-metal” moments within the plot.

“Actually, it’s right around the same number this time. If you don’t like ‘em, fast-forward through it. This is a theatrical record. It’s not something you’re supposed to half-assed pay attention to. Sit down, listen to it, absorb it! From my perspective, that’s what this record is. I don’t think there’s a lot of fluff on either one of them.”

Yet, over the two days in the studio, he re-thinks the validity/necessity of the segues, altogether. “I have to think about it tonight, decide if I’m going to edit some stuff down or leave it the way it is. It’s different when you’re working on bits of individual songs than listening to it as a whole. I have the order in my mind, but when it’s done, did it come out as I envisioned, the flow of the record?” Upon my departure, he planned to have two alternate mastered versions of the album, one with segues, the other not (“I want the flow to be like a sharp kick in the nuts.”) which he would take with him to Indiana, to “live with” for a week or so, before deciding.

Sometimes the vision changes. Case in point, ‘A Gift Or A Curse?’, Set Abominae’s self-evaluation, which began life quite differently and not even as part of the concept album.

“That song was going to be a Demons & Wizards song, part of it,” contends Jon. “I wasn’t happy with where it was going at that time. Instead of having the acoustic play every part, we arranged it so there are other instruments. Jim (Morris, producer) is the one who turned me on to Peter Gabriel, which is the inspiration for the arrangement of the ‘mellow’ parts of the song. Jim got a co-writing credit because he plays all the Strat guitar, while I play the acoustic and Dennis (Hayes, departed bassist) is playing bass. It does have a different vibe. The lead guitar style I wanted Jim to play, as the song fades, is kind of a David Gilmour style, of which we are both huge fans – ‘70s is a good way of putting it. Vocally, we’ve harmonized before, Matt doing lead and me tucked behind him. This is the opposite (Schaffer singing lead, or backed by Barlow!), although the turnarounds and heavy sections, that’s Matt. It’s got a tragic feel to it, very melodic.”

The use of hand-drummed percussion and multi-voice choir make ‘Harbinger Of Fate’ similarly melodic, if not ethereal. “Iced Earth has always had songs that sound like that. I’ve used clean guitars with weird effects (to say nothing of tolling bells) many times through the years. It’s dynamics. I think of a title or a theme of what the song’s going to be about, get it in my head and let it grow. The choir on that one, the bridge part, came out pretty cool. The only way you can get 16 people to sing in Latin, is they have to be sight-readers. That’s not my world. I write the stuff, but it comes from within. I don’t know what I’m doing, by theory. There’s a program called Syllabus, which takes the MIDI (keyboard) files from your computer and prints out sheet music. Again, that’s where Howard comes in.”

Even though European festival dates will be devoid of any new material, except perhaps ‘I Walk Alone’, Schaffer isn’t unfazed by the difficulty inherent in possibly bringing these songs to the stage. Just the opposite, in fact.

“I don’t worry about that. We won’t play anything off Part II until it’s out. We’ve got time for that. The summer is focused on Matt coming back and the classic Iced Earth stuff. Live performances are here and gone, but a record is for posterity. I don’t want ‘How we gonna do this live?’ to hinder something that will outlive me. Iced Earth music is hard anyway. Anyone who says otherwise is a moron and not playing it right. Rhythmically it’s very difficult stuff. Not all of it. ‘I Died For You’ certainly isn’t, but ‘Travel In Stygian’ is. There are ways to do this live. When we did Gettysburg, we couldn’t take a 55-piece orchestra with us, so we had to use tapes. We’d have to have the budget of PINK FLOYD to pull it off with live musicians, but in the fall, we’ll do several things off the new album.”

The album hits stores at the end of August, just in time for the North American tour, scheduled to begin in September. For a track-by-track synopsis of the new disc, click here.

Il a pris un coup de vieux le Schaffer!
Même si je déplore le départ de Owens qui avait sublimé le brillantissime "Framing Armaggedon" je vais me procurer ce N°2 pour le concept, histoire de savoir ce que sont devenus les Setians.

ICED EARTH - Box Set Planned For Something Wicked Parts 1 & 2

ICED EARTH mainman Jon Schaffer gave some details to Metal Asylum in New Jersey about the forthcoming Something Wicked box set which includes the albums Framing Armageddon and the latest release The Crucible Of Man. He also gives an update on his side project with BLIND GUARDIAN’s Hansi Kursch called DEMONS AND WIZARDS.

Q: Again you gave a partial answer to my next question, now that Matt is back in the band have you thought of going back and re-recording the vocals for Framing Armageddon? You also mentioned a box set?

A: "Yeah, originally the box set was something that was planned from the beginning when we knew we would be completing the Something Wicked story. So I asked SPV to make sure that Framing Armageddon Pt.1 and Crucible of Man Pt.2 would be released only once without those albums coming out again as some kind of special edition because we already had these plans to re release both albums in this Something Wicked box set. So it makes sense to have the continuity between Parts 1 & 2 now that Matt is back in the band. I have my own studio so it makes this not such a hard thing to accomplish and its really cool because I can go back and remix and fix some of the low end issues I had on Framing Armageddon and also something I was able to address on Part 2. Part 2 I think is a bit more punchier than Part 1."

Q: What else will the Something Wicked box set include aside from Framing Armageddon Pt.1 and The Crucible of Man Pt.2?

A: "It will include the Overture Of The Wicked EP, which has the newer versions of the original trilogy ('Prophecy', 'Birth of the Wicked', 'The Coming Curse' from the Something This Way Wicked Comes album) but Matt re-singing those songs, then it will have Framing Armageddon Pt.1 remixed with Matt singing, a DVD with footage from the festivals we did this summer in Europe plus behind the scenes of us making Parts 1 & 2."

Q: Recording any shows for DVD?

A: "Yes we are. We recorded at several of the festivals we played in Europe and we are planning to put a DVD out in Jan/Feb but this is not going to be an Iced Earth full production DVD but it will be better than Alive In Athens. But it is festivals so it’s a different situation from our show where you will get lights, pyro, our stage design. Its gonna either be the show from the Metal Camp or the Rock Hard festival. Those were the two that were shot pro with multiple cameras but I have not seen or heard the masters to decide which is the better show. Then you will get some behind the scenes stuff and highlights from Graspop and some of the other shows. We are gonna call it the Summer Slaughter."

Q: When you do record this show for DVD, have you ever considered maybe doing a history type thing where you start at the beginning of Iced Earth’s career and play songs from the first album to the present?

A: "I don’t know yet. It depends actually because I have been asked if we are going to do the whole Something Wicked saga live but that really depends on the fans if they wanna see that. I want to see what the long term feeling on this record is and if that’s what they want to see then I would work to make it happen. I can’t say yet. Whenever the time comes we will do a show on the level that I have been wanting to do a DVD for a long time.

Actually I would like to do a historical type thing, something like we did for the Horror Show over in Europe. It was great and I wish we taped it but Century Media didn’t believe in the idea. We did three sets with no support band, for the first set the stage looked like it was made of metal and we played only songs from the first three albums, then the curtain closed and the set changed to look Egyptian where we played songs from The Dark Saga and Something Wicked, then the stage changed again with the back drop and artwork for Horror Show and we came back and did the whole album live. We had pyro, did a couple costume changes, it was really a spectacle and it should have been filmed and I don’t understand and can’t believe Century Media wasn’t willing to cough up the cash to tape it."

You can read the full interview at metalasylum.net.