Iced Earth - Incorruptible Review

By -

Concise Summary:
To be honest, I haven't really listened much to Iced Earth, even though they're fairly well known. Incorruptible is their first full album that I've listened to, and I think I might have to listen to more! The style is very reminiscent of 80s-90s metal, with very vocal and guitar-driven songs and very little of the orchestration that is found in a lot of modern metal. The album has a very straightforward and unassuming sound, which is very refreshing in a world of over-processed and synth-driven music. Even though the sound of the album is fairly simple, the songwriting is still decently interesting and diverse and there are even a few experimental parts thrown into the mix. Something I particularly enjoyed about this album was that the lyrics weren't extremely cliché like a lot of the albums I've listened to recently. Overall, a very solid and enjoyable album.

My Rating: 8 out of 10

Highlights:

  • Straightforward Sound and Mixing
  • Interesting lyrics
  • Great singing
  • Good solos and solid riffs
  • A few interesting experimental parts (especially on Clear The Way and Ghost Dance)

Lowlights:

  • Some of the songs are fairly lackluster as far as songwriting goes
  • Occasionally over-repetitive and simplistic riffs
Favorite Songs:

  • Black Flag
  • Ghost Dance (Awaken the Ancestors)
  • Brothers
  • Defiance
  • Clear the Way (December 13th, 1862)

More Info:

Iced Earth Official Website

Iced Earth Facebook

Iced Earth Wikipedia

Iced Earth Encyclopaedia Metallum 



Comments

  1. A.J. SpaudeOctober 31, 2017 at 11:53 AM

    Follow me on Twitter @BPMetalReviews to stay updated on the latest reviews!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Unguided - And The Battle Royale Review

By -
Image
Concise Summary: The Unguided is a band that has apparently been around for quite awhile, but I just found them today. After listening to their newest album, And The Battle Royale, I think I'll be listening to more of their music in the future! And The Battle Royale has fairly synth-driven songs with both clean and screamed vocals. The style is almost like synth-driven metalcore, which I think is a pretty cool and unique concept. That being said, And The Battle Royale doesn't display much style diversity - most of the album is pretty much only has that metalcore-ish sound. As a result, a lot of the songs sound very similar, making the album seem kind of "flat", if you will; the songs seem to run together. Overall, this is a very good album, and I really enjoyed listening to it, but the style diversity is lacking.  My Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Highlights: Excellent vocals Interesting musical style Enjoyable overall sound and feel to the album
Read more

Red - Gone Review

By -
Image
Concise Summary: In my opinion, Release the Panic back in 2013 was a style transition album into Of Beauty and Rage, which, in turn, set the tone for Gone. However, I think that Of Beauty and Rage and Gone sound way too similar. Both albums seem to have apocalyptic themes to the lyrics, there's a lot of synth, the drums are electronic, there are really no technical guitar parts, and the singing is generally quiet with a few screams thrown in for some variety. Granted, it's a pretty unique sound, but having Of Beauty and Rage and Gone sound so similar, especially with regard to lyrical themes, is just... boring. In my opinion, each album should tell a different story, but Gone just seems to tell the same story that Of Beauty and Rage told: a vague, apocalyptic, dark, and fairly hopeless story. Because the story is so vague, it's not even like a two-part continuation. Apart from the story (or lack thereof), Gone is probably a better album than Of Beauty and Rage.
Read more

Hulkoff - KVEN Review

By -
Image
Concise Summary: When I started listening to KVEN, I thought, "Wow, this really sounds like Raubtier." After some quick research, I was somewhat unsurprised to find out that Hulkoff is Pär Hulkoff's solo project, and that he is the lead singer and guitarist for Raubtier. With that perspective, I suppose it's not surprising that Hulkoff sounds almost identical to Raubtier, but I still would have liked to see something different from Hulkoff. As is, KVEN could easily pass as a Raubtier album; there's not much to make it unique. The guitars are extremely heavy and the singing is very guttural, just like Raubtier. The songwriting is based on chugging guitars more than intricate riffs and there isn't much for variety in instruments, again, just like Raubtier. Because Hulkoff is basically one-man Raubtier, it has the same issues as Raubtier. The mixing on KVEN is oppressively balanced toward the low end, the guitar sounds muddy, and half of the songs sound li
Read more