ICED EARTH — Overture of the Wicked (review)

ICED EARTH — Overture of the Wicked album cover Single · 2007 · US Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
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.
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