Iced Earth – Plagues Of Babylon

By Andrew Bansal

American heavy metal stalwarts Iced Earth are ready to release their eleventh studio album ‘Plagues Of Babylon’ in North America via Century Media Records next Tuesday January 21. The previous album ‘Dystopia’ opened up a new chapter in Iced Earth’s career with the Stu Block-fronted lineup, and this new album is a much-awaited follow up for the band’s fan base, a large majority of whom gave a positive response to Stu Block as the new singer on the previous album as well as in the live setting. The Dystopia world tour certainly consolidated his position in the band, and it was going to be interesting to see how he developed on this new album. Also joining the band is new bassist Luke Appleton who’s replacing Freddie Vidales, and drummer Raphael Saini, who filled in after the band parted ways with Brent Smedley. Was a lot expected from this album? Following the success of Dystopia, most definitely yes. Did it live up to those expectations? Perhaps not.

The title track kicks off the album, and although it comprises excellent vocal delivery by Stu Block and decent guitar riffs by Jon Schaffer and Troy Seele, the 8-minute track seems far too drawn out and unnecessarily long. Aside from the music itself, one thing noticeable straightaway is the underwhelming quality of the mixing. The guitar solo is buried much too deep in the mix and the bass sound has a dry, hollow, almost ‘And Justice For All’ Metallica-type feel to it, which is never a good thing. From the overly slow and long title track the album moves on to ‘Democide’ which picks up the pace considerably, offering more in terms of lead guitar work and even treating the listener with an epic scream or two from Stu Block. It’s more like what Iced Earth fans have grown to love over the years, but moments like that are few and far between, as the album settles into a generally bland, mid to down-tempo pattern with tunes like ‘The Culling’, ‘Among The Living Dead’ and ‘Resistance’, and never fully recovers from it.

‘The End?’ and ‘Chtulhu’ do offer some of the vocal chorus style that’s been Iced Earth’s trademark for a number of years, but just like the title track, both tracks are much longer than they needs to be, and get ruined to a large extent as a result. The other four original tunes ‘If I Could See You’, ‘Peacemaker’, ‘Parasite’ and ‘Spirit Of The Times’ unfortunately do not contribute anything positive to the album and only succeed in taking it into a downhill plunge. The album comes to an end with ‘Highwayman’, a Jimmy Webb cover featuring Michael Poulsen of Volbeat and Russell Allen of Symphony X/Adrenaline Mob on guest vocals. It really doesn’t fit on the album and should have come as a bonus track instead. All in all, the album leaves the Iced Earth fan largely disappointed. Granted that Stu Block has held his own and put in a performance that equals his efforts on Dystopia, the rest of the music simply isn’t on the same level this time around.

Over the past nearly three decades, Iced Earth have been known and loved for their soaring high-pitched screaming vocals, memorable guitar harmonies, epic chorus sing-alongs, and a fist-pumping style of heavy metal. But sadly, these signature Iced Earth traits are either missing completely from this album or are present only in meagre amounts. The Matt Barlow and Tim Ripper Owens fronted years gave fans some truly amazing music, and Dystopia certainly promised to begin an equally glorious phase of the band’s career with epic, compact and catchy songwriting, but those qualities have not carried over to ‘Plagues Of Babylon’. In these overly mellow and ‘safe’ compositions, Stu Block’s vocal performance is the only positive aspect, but even its impact is dimmed by the music that accompanies it.

Iced Earth’s ‘Plagues Of Babylon’ comes across a major disappointment and a backward step from Dystopia, and the band haven’t quite succeeded in delivering the goods on this occasion.

Rating: 5.5/10

Record Label: Century Media

Release Dates:
January 7th 2014 (Europe)
January 21st 2014 (North America)

Track Listing:
01. Plagues of Babylon
02. Democide
03. The Culling
04. Among The Living Dead
05. Resistance
06. The End?
07. If I Could See You
08. Cthulhu
09. Peacemaker
10. Parasite
11. Spirit of the Times
12. Highwayman

Links:
IcedEarth.com
facebook.com/OfficialIcedEarth
twitter.com/_IcedEarth

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