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By RYAN MAVITY
It takes about one second to get the first ear-splitting scream from Iced Earth frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens on the band’s new EP, Overture of the Wicked. That’s a good thing because Owens might have the most hellacious scream since, well, the man he once replaced in Judas Priest, Rob Halford.
Overture of the Wicked comes billed as a sampler to the band’s upcoming double album, Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked Part 1). If you think that title is goofy and bombastic, you should hear the music. Overture of the Wicked has galloping rhythms, guitar shredding and of course, Owens, whose vocal range is as impressive as his heroes Halford and Bruce Dickinson.
After the thrash based opening of “Ten Thousand Strong,” the album gets into its longest, most bombastic track, “Prophecy.” The musical skill of Schaffer and Owens is on full display as the former unleashes a classic solo and the latter ranges from creepy menace to primal scream.
Some may say that Iced Earth sounds a little too much like Number of the Beast-era Iron Maiden (particularly on “Birth of the Wicked”), but what sets them apart from power metal imitators is the fun the band seems to be having with the music. Yes, it’s excessive and over the top, but the band really seems to love playing it and the joy of performance comes through the speakers.
Plus, how can you resist the following quote from Schaffer in the EP’s press release, “The original trilogy is just an overview of the story that begins 12,000 years ago and leads us to modern day. You should look at the trilogy as an introduction to this whole epic. What is coming in the next two parts is a far more in depth look into this very tragic, heavy and apocalyptic sci-fi/fantasy story.”
Who can resist that?
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