One of the most anticipated releases of this year, Iced Earth have finally delivered Jon Shaffer’s real vision of his Something Wicked saga, started ten years ago with the release of “Something Wicked This Way Comes”. Earlier this year the band released “Overture of the Wicked”, an EP that had the original Something Wicked trilogy re-recorded with Tim “Ripper” Owens on vocals, and long time live drummer Brent Smedly. It received a lukewarm reception by both critics and fans, but it was only a taste of what the band was really conjuring.
Since “Framing Armageddon” is a concept album, listeners can expect the songs to flow seamlessly with one another, in reality this album feels more like a metal opera (no, there’s no operatic vocals), but is a grand sci-fi epic telling a story that spans on the course of ten thousand years and the fall of mankind; I strongly suggest you buy this album because not only does it have great artwork, it also helps to tell the story and gives the listener a great visual perspective of what is being told. Musically “Framing Armageddon” is a mixture of old Iced Earth with a lot of the elements present in “The Glorious Burden”. Looking at the album in its entirety, “Framing Armageddon” is an impressive composition and somewhat of a pinnacle for Jon Shaffer, but the songs fail to stand on their own two feet. A clear example of this is “Ten Thousand Strong”; the song was released earlier this year on the “Overture of the Wicked” EP mentioned earlier. After I first heard the song I was unimpressed and felt the song was contrived and generic, but within the album, this is definitely one of Iced Earth’s best moments. You can bang your head to the pummeling gallop riff and you realize it has one hell of a catchy chorus. This applies to most of the songs in the album, “A Charge to Keep”, “Setian Massacre”, “Infiltrate and Assimilate” and “Retribution Through the Ages” are songs that aren’t that impressive, but when you hear them along side the many intros the album has and within the whole concept of the album you find out the actually just rock out. As for Tim Owens’ performance, all I can say to the many bitter fans who are still bickering about Matt Barlow leaving the band is get over it, Ripper does a fine job (he already proved it in “The Glorious Burden”) and this album finds him fitting in perfectly and also giving Jon Shaffer a chance to explore new melodies that weren’t there before.
It may take you a few spins before “Framing Armageddon” sinks in, but once it does, I’m pretty sure this will be one of those albums where fans won’t be able to skip a single song. Iced Earth’s new album will either be a failed attempt by the band to capture past glories; or it is the first part of their masterpiece. I believe the second choice is the more appropriate.
