Natalie
Iced Earth - O2 Academy Islington
A UK appearance from Iced Earth has up until now been somewhat of a rarity, playing only one headline show, a couple of festival appearances and a support slot on the 2007 Heaven and Hell tour on these shores in a career lasting over 20 years. It’s taken until the release of tenth studio album Dystopia only last month for Iced Earth to actually headline a full tour in the UK, and quite rightly there is a heightened sense of anticipation, excitement and also expectation in London tonight.
Onslaught Radio arrives at a jam-packed Islington Academy at just gone 8pm to learn that the advertised main support for this evening, White Wizzard, are absent due to a car crash on the way to the venue. The incident (during which, thankfully, nobody was injured) awarded openers Fury UK a longer set, and also causes Iced Earth to start earlier than planned, meaning than Onslaught Radio arrives just in time for the start of their set.
The chants of “Iced Earth! Iced Earth!” erupt almost immediately, and one can’t fail to notice that a large proportion of the audience tonight is made up of fanatical Greeks and Cypriots – anyone who knows the history of Iced Earth knows that they have something of a religious following in such areas, with their only live album to date being recorded during a two-night sold-out stint in Athens back in 1999. The intro of the title track from Dystopia sounds over the P.A., before the band storms the stage and launches into the song with a venom and fury only usually seen in a young, unsigned band who are out to prove themselves. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Iced Earth still do have something to prove, though, namely that they are still a relevant band on the live metal circuit with years of life still left in them, despite numerous claims that they ‘are back’, after each line-up change or album, and then for one reason or another never really following up it up or keeping the momentum going.
However, tonight Iced Earth smash out one of the most phenomenal live metal performance Onslaught Radio has ever seen. Watching Jon Schaffer knocking out riff and riff of unbelievable accuracy, speed, consistency and complexity leads one to the conclusion that he is arguably (and a fair few people here tonight would say unarguably) the greatest metal rhythm guitar player of all time -even Hetfield and Mustaine would struggle to keep up. Schaffer’s untouchable riffing is complemented beautifully by Brent ‘Deadly’ Smedley’s bass drum work, his feet seemingly telepathically connected to Schaffer and his right hand. New vocalist Stu Block fits right into the fold perfectly, surpassing every expectation and filling the shoes of Matt Barlow and Tim Owens perfectly. Block proves his worth on new tunes such as Dystopia and V, whilst also busting out fantastic and faithful renditions of classic I.E. numbers like Angel’s Holocaust and Stand Alone (the latter must be highlighted once again for some flawless playing from Schaffer, with even the venue bar staff looking on in disbelief). Whilst Block is able to pull out the low-end power and soul of Barlow in When The Night Falls, and the piercing, high-end vocals of Owens during Declaration Day, where he comes into his own is during Anthem and Tragedy and Triumph from Dystopia, where his unique feeling and tone shines through and proves himself to be solidly be one of the great metal vocalists. The audience tonight know that they’re witnessing something special and respond accordingly, pitting like their lives depend on it and screaming along at the top of their lungs like they’ll never get another chance to use them.
Some interesting points to note tonight, include the fact that except during the odd lead guitar break or solo, lead player Troy Seele is totally inaudible tonight. In fact, during sections of kick-ass metal riffery, it’s all but certain that the only guitar you can hear is that of Schaffer, with his signal noticeably taking over the P.A. speakers around Troy on stage left. If this were any other gig you might want to voice an opinion over this, saying “hang on, where’s the other guitarist?”. The fact is though, that when Schaffer is this good, you don’t really want to hear anyone else playing these riffs with him. He’s that good. But even when you can hear some lead playing from Troy, you frequently get the impression that Jon is still doing his damndest to ‘rhythm over the solo’. But even this is more than forgivable – in fact, Iced Earth has always been about awesome riffs and epic vocals – in fact, until the recent couple of albums, the lead guitar work from the band has always been somewhat shoddy.
Even the bass of Freddie Vidales comes under competition from Schaffer’s tone, but again everyone lets it go for the same reasons. The only time you really notice the bass is at the beginning of a jaw-dropping rendition of Damien, with Block churning out a brilliant performance along with the deafening audience. In fact, even though it’s his band, Schaffer sometimes takes it a tad too far – clearly miming along to some vocal backing tracks when Stu is doing some lead vocal work (such as over one of the choruses at the end of Anthem) is just funny – just like watching him in the video for When The Eagle Cries, miming along to what’s clearly multiple layered vocal tracks. The important thing to say about these comical additions to the gig is that they don’t spoil the enjoyment one bit – in fact, they make you smile whilst you headbang, rather than just headbang. Much like watching Lars Ulrich cocking up a drum fill as he frequently does. It’s just amusing.
The climax of the gig, though, is undoubtedly a run though of the mother of all metal epics – Dante’s Inferno. The riffs come thick and fast for 17 minutes, complete with all manner of metal vocal styles and techniques, all of which are executed to perfection. This hasn’t been played for several years (the excuse that it was because of a deleted click trick given by Schaffer is just laughable), but after a re-record during the Dystopia sessions, it’s back on the setlist. Seeing Iced Earth playing Dante’s Inferno is one of those moments like watching Metallica knock out Dyer’s Eve. It’s just epic.
To summarise, this gig was flawless. The performance were perfect. The audience was into it beyond all belief. The band had grins plastered all over their faces for the entire night. As far as metal shows in venues this size go, this was the textbook example of how it’s done.
In fact, this gig was so good that this review warrants a small rant to finish off. This gig was originally scheduled to be held at o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, but was recently downgraded to this venue due to poor ticket sales. However, in a year where just a couple of weeks ago Black Veil Brides were able to sell out the same venue, then turn up and play a 40 minute headline set (during which their vocalist complained incessantly about a broken nose and their drummer had to be taken off momentarily to receive medical attention after hitting himself in the face with a drumstick) to an almost unanimously positive reception, UK metal fans should feel eternally ashamed of themselves. It’s a crime that a band of Iced Earth’s calibre ended up playing in such a small venue to so few people. Let’s hope that next time they come around, people will get their heads out of the latest issue of Kerrang!, start actually listening to bands with their ears, come to their senses, and buy a ticket to see them.
[10]
Leigh Costanza - 15/11/2011 22:32:05
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