Iced Earth
Burnt Offerings (Century Media)
by Chaz Thorndike
When a prolific and verbose metal reviewer is stumped, you know something’s up. Iced Earth doesn’t sit still long enough to attach a genre sticker. I can’t even tell if I like ’em. Burnt Offerings (Century Media) begins with the music of Halloween (oh, that’s original) and launches into the double bass drumming and technical riffing of melodic speedcore. The growling vocals, offset by a rich male voice and chilling angelic backup, is very Celtic Frost until they switch to Fates Warning time changes and warbling falsetto. I’m writing it off as powermetal when the ethereal orchestration turns melodic doom metal. That was song 1; see what I mean by shapeshifter?
The highlight of Burnt Offerings has to be the 16 minute “Dante’s Inferno.” Anyone who’s read the book(s) will understand why it took two years for guitarist Jon Schaffer to write the song. This song has similar passages and a variety of voices with which it speaks. At times erotic, at times abrasive, this song is a masterpiece of horror mixed with beauty.