I
n underground music circles, Iced Earth
is the "Rocky" of US power metal.
Starting from the ground up, the band
has gradually built up a steady worldwide
fan base. Mastermind and guitarist Jon
Schaffer has been the driving force behind
the band's sound and vision since 1985. As
a defiant teenager, he relocated to Florida
from Indiana to form Iced Earth, then
called Purgatory.
On its 11th full-length album, Plagues of
Babylon, the band's collective sound
harkens back to its earlier material, which
they had (unfortunately) strayed from on
their last few records leading up to 2011's
Dystopia. Schaffer has never been one to
shy away from a conceptual album or
theme. Plagues of Babylon again expands
upon the ever present Iced Earth concept.
It began with the last three songs on 1998's
Something Wicked This Way Comes album,
which introduced Schaffer's apocalyptic
story and main character Set Abominae.
The Plagues of Babylon cover art paints a
vivid picture of the concept lurking inside.
It depicts a Messianic Set, complete with
golden crown sitting on his throne holding
apocalyptic zombies in chains as he's about
to unleash the plagues. The record consists
ror and Sci-Fi. We didn't need to have an
entire album to tell that story. We had
already put together some really good
songs that I knew musically did not fit the
Something Wicked zombie apocalypse
story, but they were really strong songs
and I wanted to keep that separate. Of
course, when I started thinking about this
as it was developing in my head, the first
thing that came to my mind was the way
Rush did stuff, especially 2112. I think it
makes for a really cool journey for the listener."
And what an extensive journey it is.
The album is over an hour in duration,
which requires the listener a bit time to
invest in it. With the average music fan's
gadget-obsessed, short attention span, the
album could be in jeopardy of not getting
the attention it deserves. However, this
doesn't affect the way Schaffer writes.
"If I worried about what people think
about the songs I write, I wouldn't get anything done," Schaffer said. "It's got to be
true, and it's got to be from the heart. Of
course there are going to be people who
will say that that album is better or this
album is better. For some reason, whatever
record takes us back to that. I'm like that if
of gruesome subject matter dealing with a
lot of real world issues (such as human
threat, deception, disease and democide).
Tracks one through six are specifically
related to the Something Wicked storyline.
Plagues of Babylon is to Iced Earth as 2112 is
to Rush; an album where the concept is on
side one, and an equal amount of tracks are
on side two.
"When we were finishing up the world
tour last year, I mentioned that it may be
cool to write a song about zombies,"
Schaffer said. "Stu (Block, vocals) is really
into the zombie thing and he thought it
could be cool. Then I started thinking that
writing songs about zombies can be pretty
f***ing corny. So, we needed to make it
really cool. We wanted to take the zombie
apocalypse scenario and add some real
depth to it. I decided to apply it to the
Something Wicked universe and use that
framework of the story and make it creepy
and scary, as it has a lot of elements of hor-
I hear Number of the Beast; it takes me back
to my early years in high school. Or listening to Kiss Alive. I was seven years old
when I got that record. There are albums
that sort of become the soundtrack to your
life. The songs always tell me which way to
go; not the people, not management, not
anybody around me. If you're honest,
you're going to touch people."
In the past, Schaffer has gotten caught
up in the technology aspect of making an
album and like so many others in the
music biz, he is guilty of abusing its power;
abundant overlaying, a gluttony of 300voiced choir harmonies and gratuitous,
symphonic elements. But on the current
album Schaffer has learned to hold back on
the reigns a bit and get back to the genesis
of the band's original sound.
"Even with Dystopia, it felt like the natural step," Schaffer said. "The thing is,
when you have all this technology and you
have all these ideas, you can basically get
yourself somewhat into a trap. In the old
days, you didn't have all the tracks to put
your ideas down, where you can just layer
By Kelley Simms
26 illinoisentertainer.com april 2014
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