To Heavy for Power Metal. To thrash for power metal and to melodic for thrash… the best of both! Iced Earth is criminally under rated. Iced Earth brings in heavy complex galloping rhythms with amazing melodies and vocals (most of the time). Let it be said here that Jon Schaffer is one of if not the best rhythm player in all of metal. For the uninitiated you can think of Iced Earth as Iron Maiden on steroids. As a young metal head they combined everything I loved about Maiden with the heaviness Metallica and then some. Although they have had a number of line up changes including vocalist the heart has always been Jon. Unlike a lot of metal bands there is often a lot of emotion in the music. Matt Barlow makes this even more prominent. Considered the classic vocalist of Iced Earth, he is absolutely amazing at giving emotion to the songs. Rather anger or sadness, Matt has fantastic delivery. Although the band now has Stu Block on vocals, he does an amazing job at sounding like Matt and ripper both with bringing his own uniqueness. Iced Earth is easily in my top 5 favorite bands. If you are a sucker of concept albums then that’s one more reason to listen to IE, being that most of their albums are either concept albums, have trilogies, or themes. Here’s Iced Earth’s Albums Ranked!

How this works; Songs are rated on a 5 star rating with each star having a value that is averaged together for the album rating. Average album rating will equal the band’s rating

1 star=0, I hate it! The world would be better off without this.

2 stars=25, I don’t like it but it could be worse

3 stars= 50, decent song but not special

4 stars=75, good song but is missing something that might make it amazing

5 stars=100, Amazing!

Live albums, demos, cover albums and EP’s are not included.

Note: Popular doesn’t mean great and importance doesn’t mean it’s good either. A chart topping song only means it is watered down enough for a mainstream audience

#12

Plagues of Babylon - 70.55% (only excluded hidden track)

This album is the one that disappoints me the most. It starts slow and doesn’t get awesome till half way through the album. Honestly If there is an IE album to skip, it’s this one. Even some of the songs that got 4 or 5 stars barley did.

The Good: “The End?” “Cthulhu”, the some choruses on this album are the best thing about it.

The Bad: This album has a lot of boring uninspired riffs but the are normally accompanied with riffs and choruses that are much better and it saves this album from being a complete bore fest.

#11

The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2 - 80%

Style - Heavy Power Metal, epic, progressive (I use “heavy power metal” to distinguish between “melodic” power metal… Melodic Power metal is a dumb name because all power metal is melodic.)

This album saw the return of Matt Barlow on vocals, but honestly I kinda wish it had Ripper. This album is the second part of a two part saga and the first part had Ripper on vocals. Replacing ripper on this album is like replacing an actor for a sequel. Matt is an amazing vocalist and one of my favorites but so is Ripper and he gets treated unfairly a lot by being replaced by the vocalists that came before him. In Priest it made sense, but in IE, Matt left immediately after. On the plus side, it did give me the chance to see Barlow back in IE live. With all that out of the way this is a good album, but some of the songs are not as great as the could be.

The Good: “Behold the Wicked Child” has one of the coolest Iced Earth riffs. “I Walk Alone” has some of the most powerful IE choruses with Barlow’s heaviness with layered epicness. There is also a lot of Arabian sounding guitar playing which I’m always a fan of (this also applies to part one)

The Bad: Sometimes there is more focus on story telling then actual great music and therefore some of the songs are a weak.

#10

Horror Show - 83.36%

Style: Heavy Power Metal

This album was probably the first were vocal laying became more prominent in Iced Earth. It comes after the first Demons & Wizards album so it’s likely something Jon got from working with Hansi. This album with only one exception is themed on classic horror. Ghost of Freedom is the exception and should have been on the Glorious Burden album just like Hallow Man should have been on this one. Steve DiGiorgio is listed as the bassist on this album along side fellow Death alum Richard Christy. The bass and drums are improved from previous iced earth work but I actually found out somewhere that Jon either wrote or recorded a lot of the bass lines himself. this album might be lower on the list but is in no way a bad album. It’s a must own for any Iced Earth fan.

The Good: Dracula, The Phantom Opera Ghost, Damien. This album has some absolute master pieces

The Bad: Im-Ho-Tep, this song is alright but kinda bland and repetitive.

#9 (#8 and #9 are tied, #9 instrumentally is probably better but #8 has more memorable choruses)

Incorruptible - 90%

Style: Heavy Power Metal

This is a great album and a big improvement from the previous release, Plagues of Babylon. I feel like Stu Block really found his own voice on this album and sounds less like he is imitating Barlow. He delivers incredible emotion and gives the best of both styles done by Barlow and Ripper. This album has good verity in sound from intense and heavy to lighter and more melodic. IE in general does this well on most albums.

The Good: It depends on what you are looking for, but “Clear the Way” might be my favorite on here it’s very maiden sounding like many other songs on this album

The Bad: If you are wanting an album that sounds the same all the way through you are looking at the wrong band in general. Sometimes there are intense heavy songs and other more melodic or emotional pieces. This isn’t really a bad thing for me though.

#8

Dystopia - 90%

Style: Heavy Power Metal

This album is the first with Stu Block on vocals. Really for someone who loves Barlow and Ripper equally they might find Stu is the perfect fit for IE. Probably the only thing that could be better is if Barlow and Ripper sung co-lead together…. I metal head can dream… a metal head can dream. This album delivers everything you want from an IE album and has some great choruses. After the two part concept this followed it was nice to just have some songs that could stand on their own.

The Good: Great album with some of the choruses being very memorable and is a good album to sing along to

The Bad: Although Stu delivers the best of both Matt and Ripper’s style sometimes it seems imitative especially with some of the parts delivered like Matt. This comes from someone who worshiped both Barlow and Ripper and for someone who is new to IE they will probably find Stu is amazing with out comparing him to previous singers.

#7 (Again another tie with #7 and #6)

The Glorious Burden - 93.75

Style: Heavy Power Metal

(Both the US and European versions I rank equally but I’m jealous I didn’t get Waterloo on my album because it’s an amazing song and I actually like it better than Greenface even though Christy’s drumming on Greenface is really awesome)

This album gets a lot of hate. I think a lot of it comes from European metal heads who don’t appropriate all the American history in the writing. Us Americans have been subjected to history through the eyes of European bands and I think it was high time to have our own band and historical music. One of the other reasons this one doesn’t get enough love is the change in vocalists. I started listening to IE around the time this album came out so I was equally exposed to Ripper and Matt and love them both. There is different sound with each singer but both are equally incredible. With Ripper, IE sounds like a more traditional power metal band where Barlow’s lower singing stood out from other bands. Ripper had some not so stellar albums with Judas Priest and a lot of people blamed him which isn’t really the case but we can get into that when ever we discuss Priest. This album finally gives some amazing songs for Ripper to sing and show what he can do with some amazingly written songs.

The Good: Ripper is an amazing vocalist. The Gettysburg trilogy is absolutely amazing!

The Bad: If you are non-american you might not appreciate this album as much. Hallow Man is the weakest track and really should have been swapped with Ghost of Freedom on Horror Show.

#6

Framing Armageddon: Something Wicked Part 1 - 93.75% (some filler story purpose tracks were not averaged in)

Style: Heavy Power Metal, Progressive

An In credible album and probably the best Tim Ripper Owens performance anywhere. Easily one of my favorite singers because of his two IE albums. Unfortunately Ripper isn’t as good when he isn’t working with a master writer like Jon. A great voice is wasted if not singing great songs and fortunately this album is full of great songs. This album is also the first of Jon’s Something Wicked story. It’s a story he’s wanted to tell for a long time, a follow up to the Something Wicked trilogy

The Good: Story telling and Ripper’s performance are at their best… Absolutely Amazing

The Bad: There are a lot of filler tracks sprinkled through out the album for story telling purposes. This is fine if you have the time to listen to the full album which is intended. Listening to most of theses songs by themselves isn’t as effective as listening to the album front to back.

#5

Something Wicked This Way Comes - 94.23%

Style: Heavy Power Metal

This album is a roller-coaster between heavy and lighter songs. For some bands this might be a problem but when you have Matt Barlow on vocals even the lightest songs become amazing. Matt has the ability to deliver emotion in his voice like no other. This is kinda of Iced Earth’s Black Album. It had songs that were a bit more simplistic than some of their previous songs and for sure showed off their softer side to a new extent. This is the album I would use to introduce Iced Earth a lot because it shows a variety of what they do and more easily approachable for a less dedicated metal head.

The Good: Matt Barlow!, The Something Wicked Trilogy is a master piece!

The Bad: The change between heavy and lighter songs can be a bad thing if you are only in the mood for one or the other. Still I highly recommend this album!

#4 (A four way tie for the next four because IE is awesome!)

Iced Earth - 100%

Style: Power Thrash (the first two albums are closer to thrash metal than later albums although the thrash element never goes away completely)

An absolutely amazing album despite the weak vocals and simple drumming. Despite the problems with this album it has some incredible writing from Jon. Many of these songs were re-recorded with Barlow on vocals on the Days of Purgatory album. If you really can’t get past the weak vocals then you should at the very least listen to that album

The Good: Great song writing and riffs all the way through

The Bad: Weak vocals compared to later singers and the drums are more simplistic than what future drummers would bring.

#3

Night of The Stormrider - 100%

Style: Power Thrash

A incredible concept album with no filler. This album introduces IE’s second vocalist. He is an improvement from their first but again many of these songs are vastly improved on Days of Purgatory with Matt Barlow on vocals. Theses songs are so good though it would be hard to mess them up no matter how bad the vocals are. The song Night of the Stormrider is actually sung by Jon and he has a very similar sound to Matt’s.

The Good: Incredible story telling and writing and riffing. “Angel’s Holocaust” “Travel in Stygian”

The Bad: The vocals would be better with later vocalists, but a great song is a great song anyways.

#2 (This and the next feature Barlow on vocals so they go ahead of the last two)

Burnt Offerings - 100%

Style: Heavy Power Metal, Progressive structuring

This is the darkest heaviest Iced Earth album. A lot of problems between Jon and the record label lead to a lot of pent up anger that came out here. This is the first album with Matt Barlow who brought a heaviness that wasn’t seen before vocally in IE. I love this album!!! It was very hard to pick between the first two albums but ultimately this one came in second for a reason I will explain with the next album. If for some reason I had to get rid of all but 10 albums, I guarantee this one would be one that I keep. There is also a bit of a death metal sound on this album. Iced Earth was a Florida band and played along side some of the biggest death metal bands and I think some of that had an influence on IE.

The Good: Everything! “Dante’s Inferno,” a 15 minute epic is one of the greatest master pieces in all of metal

The Bad: Nothing!

#1

The Dark Saga - 100%

Style: Heavy Power Metal

Here it is! So Why this one over the last one. Two reasons. First “A Question of Heaven” is my absolute favorite song. Second this is a concept album and tells an incredible story. Rather you are a fan of Spawn or not doesn’t matter, but if you are you’ll appreciate this even more. This album is a perfect example of how Matt delivers the emotion of the story in his voice. When I first got this album I was completely new to the songs on it. I listed to this album like six times strait though. It was so good I didn’t want to take it out. Despite being a concept album all the songs are great on their own even if you don’t know the story. Obviously as with any concept album it is enhanced by listening to the full album as intended.

The Good: Everything! Story, Vocals, Riffing, rhythms and drums are incredibly tight sounding

The Bad: None. If you have no emotion or ears you might not care for this one.

Bonus Album

Sons of Liberty - Brush-Fires of The Mind - 80.55%

Not Iced Earth but really isn’t it? Jon has always been the heart of IE just like Mustaine in Megadeth. Jon does all the vocals on here and has a similar style to Barlow. This album has a lot of political and conspiracy stuff on it. It came out at a time when I was very much in the same head space as Jon Even if you don’t care for the themes I think they are great songs anyways. Power metal is often about freedom and this exemplifies that.

The Good: “Don’t Tread on Me” is one of my favorite tracks, there are some great chorus on this album

The Bad: You might not like this album if you hate freedom… shame.

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