adg211288 Overture of the Wicked features one new song and three new versions of the Something Wicked trilogy that originally appeared on the Something Wicked This Way Comes album.

New song Ten Thousand Strong is a masterpiece and easily the best song on Overture of the Wicked and in my opinion one of the best from Tim Owens time as Iced Earth’s lead singer. His vocals on this send shivers down my spine. I really can’t believe how long he holds the final notes in the last chorus. Jon Schaffer plays some great riffs too. The only fault here is that there is no guitar solo and while good without, a solo would have made this song even better.

As for the new version of the Something Wicked Trilogy, in short Prophecy, Birth of the Wicked and The Coming Curse with Tim Owens is not as good as they were with Matt Barlow on the originals. There are many faults in these new versions and they make the new versions range from ‘as good as’ to ‘decidedly weaker’ tags.

The first fault is that in some cases Tim’s voice, although good, does not suit some of the sections that Matt Barlow as able to make great. As it is he manages an acceptable job of the whole thing, sounding best in Birth of the Wicked.

The second fault is the guitar sound doesn’t sound as good as on the original. The Matt Barlow versions had a darker sounding tone to them that fitted the mood much better than on the new versions.

The final and most major of the faults applies only to The Coming Curse. Iced Earth committed utter blasphemy by choosing to remove the piano intro that the original had. This section made the Matt Barlow version of The Coming Curse into the gem of Something Wicked This Way Comes, as it provided a nice break between the heavy section of Birth of the Wicked and the main song of The Coming Curse. The song just doesn’t seem right without it. This coupled with Owens’s weakest vocal performance of the CD makes for a very disappointing end of Overture of the Wicked.

I’d recommend this to die-hard fans of Iced Earth or Tim Owens only, as there is not much material on offer here and you can get Ten Thousand Strong on Framing Armageddon anyway so that in itself is a reason not to buy this. The question here is, “are you a big enough fan to want alternate versions of the Something Wicked Trilogy?”

The above review was actually written quite a while ago but never got posted anywhere, it was originally written sometime in 2008 I believe. Not sure if Matt Barlow was back in the band when this was written but now, in a way, this EP is kind of redundant. It’s intention was to add continuity between the original Something Wicked Trilogy and the more recent two part concept album, Framing Armageddon and The Crucible of Man, which were to feature Tim Owens up front on both releases. Then they went and brought Matt Barlow back half way through it, rendering the intent behind Overture of the Wicked, as I said, redundant. I’m going to stick by my original score however since I’m rating for the music, but I thought that this would be an interesting fact to point out.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

Stephen Acting as an appetizer before the main meal of the full album "Framing Armageddon", this EP contained the new single, "Ten Thousand Strong", and the re-recorded version of "Something Wicked Trilogy" with a slightly different composition than the original version that appeared in their 1998's fifth album. This EP marked the end of Tim Owens era with Iced Earth as his appearance in "Framing" is his final one. The short stay etched a memorable vision in my mind as Owens got one hell of a pipe and you have the privilege to hear it directly here, if you haven't heard "The Glorious Burden" or Ripper Priest era of course.

An overkill long-haul scream opened "Ten Thousand Strong" which was penned by Schaffer himself. The song has a ground shaker verse with a powerful beat that's magically waved together with the catchy chorus. This song was also later included in "Framing" in a non-similar fashion. What makes this record unique is probably you can see how Schaffer handles the guitar and recorded the bass as well since Wallace quit the band before the recording process even took place.

To compare the original "Something Wicked Trilogy" with this new one is kinda tricky, hard to say which one is best, it's back to your taste, but for me, I prefer Owens only because I can sense the fearsome thrill in his voice, erupting an interesting flavor out of the song.

For those who haven't heard the original form, this song was divided into three sections. The first one, Prophecy, waved the tempo dynamically with an ethnic sound and a furious stampeding rhythm, this is a pure non-melodic power metal avenue. The second one, "Birth of the Wicked", is probably the greater of three evils. I can hear a bit of Egyptian flair within with a superb chorus in the veins of Iron Maiden. While the last one,"The Coming Curse", try to continue what's left from "Birth" and introduced an interesting rapid pedal drum attack and ritual chant, the 8-minutes clocking is just too long and definitely weaker than "Birth".

From my point of view, casual fans probably should go directly for "Framing" or "Something Wicked" while hardcore fans probably should after the "Box of the Wicked" as they also included this EP in digipak version. As a stand alone album without comparing to any other release, "Overture" is pretty good but not essential as this is only a short release and with "Ten" and "Birth" as the standout tracks, basically you only get 50% of everything, though the other two tracks aren't bad. Worth to buy if you can get it cheap, but if you can't, a full album record is far more interesting choice I guess.