Today in 1991 Iced Earth released the album Night of the Stormrider Tampa, Florida Power/Thrash Metal Status:Active Years active: 1985-1988 (as Purgatory), 1988-present Iced Earth is an American heavy metal band that combines power metal and speed metal/thrash metal genres in its music. The band was formed by Jon Schaffer, the lead songwriter and rhythm guitarist, in Tampa, Florida in 1984. The original name of the band was Purgatory but was then changed to Iced Earth. Iced Earth’s music is often described as the style of Iron Maiden combined with 80’s thrash metal. The most distinctive element of the band’s sound is the stuttering right-hand gallop of rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer, which sounds something like the ‘eighth-note, two-sixteenth-notes’ gallop made famous by Iron Maiden’s bass player/songwriter Steve Harris (in such songs as “Run to the Hills”, “The Trooper”, and “Caught Somewhere in Time”), varied rhythmically. Overtop of this gallop are typically laid strong melodic hooks, sometimes doubled by two guitars playing in harmony. The vocals are often high-pitched, but express a full range, while the rhythm section uses thrash and power metal techniques such as double-bass-drumming to keep the speed and energy high. Iced Earth’s drummer is known for his frequent use of drags and flams on the bass drum. Today, Jon is the only original member in the band, having changed multiple guitarists, drummers, and vocalists. The two most recognized vocalists of the band are Matt Barlow and Tim ripper Owens, the former vocalist of Judas Priest. Matt Barlow ended up marrying Jons sister, making Matt the brother-in-law of Jon Schaffer. Iced Earth lyrics tend to deal with theological issues such as punishment and sin, destiny, heaven and hell, the Antichrist and the apocalypse. Many of the band’s recent albums have been concept albums written around a theme, e.g. the antihero Spawn (The Dark Saga), horror movies (Horror Show), historical wars (The Glorious Burden) and the double concept about the anti-christ (Something Wicked). Matt Barlow left Iced Earth for a second time in 2011, stating the need for the band to tour more as his reason for leaving. He will perform any remaining festival dates in 2011 however. On March 16th 2011 Iced Earth announced that Stu Block of the band Into Eternity would be the bands new lead singer. During the recording of the bands next album, Dystopia, the band re-recorded fan favourite Dantes Inferno with Stu Block. Century Media Records Jon Schaffer – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals (on track 2), co-producer John Greely – vocals Randall Shawver – lead guitar Dave Abell – bass Rick Secchiari – drums Additional musicians Roger Huff – keyboards Kent Smith - keyboards 1. Angels Holocaust 2. Stormrider 3. Path I Choose, The 4. Before the Vision 5. Mystical End 6. Desert Rain 7. Pure Evil 8. Reaching the End 9. Travel in Stygian In Europe, this album was released in November 1991, and in the USA in April 1992. Its U.S. release date was delayed so as to not compete with the bands self-titled debut album. The first pressing has a different cover. Today, it has a different comic artwork cover compared to the original cover work. Remixed and remastered version from the Dark Genesis box set was released separately on August 26th, 2002. The 2008 reissue has a bonus track: 10. Stormrider (live) (04:49) Night of the Stormrider is American heavy metal band Iced Earths second full-length album. It is a concept album about a man who is betrayed by religion and turns away from it in anger. The dark forces of nature reach out to this enraged man and use him as their vessel to bring death and destruction to Earth. He is commanded to travel to a desert, where he is given visions that reveal the truth of humanity, and warp his mind further to make him the Stormrider. After the destruction of the world, he is then damned forever into the depths of Hell, also referenced as the River Styx. After being forever damned and taunted by evil spirits, he eventually sees what he has done, and realizes that it is too late to repent. Night of the Stormrider is the only album featuring lead singer John Greely (who was later fired) and drummer Rick Secchiari. Like the albums predecessor, Night of the Stormrider is mostly a thrash metal release, the main reason being that the album is unusually riff-based when compared to other Iced Earth releases, and Greelys vocals, which are slightly more aggressive than the power metal reminiscent vocals of Matt Barlow youtube/watch?v=xlfOaZF77MA
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 21:31:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015