~|From the eternal sea he rises
Creating armies on either shore
Turning man against his brother
Till man exists no more|~

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Hey fellow Steemians! For todays edition we're checking out the American metal band, Iced Earth. Active since the beginning of the 90s, the band has released 16 albums and changed out it's members quite frequently for a varied sound in their discography.

This bands sound consists of a mix between genres, rooted in thrash metal with heavy influences from Melodic and even power metal. Their albums usually have some sort of theme, though not strictly concept albums they at least tend to tell a story. We'll start off with their fifth record, "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

Something Wicked This Way Comes

The bands fifth release, coming out in 1998. This record marks the beginning of a concept that would be continued over multiple albums. A dark brooding record with addictive melodic riffage, starting off with "Burning Times". This track feels like the war march of the oncoming storm.

The next track is a stark difference, with "Melancholy(Holy Martyr)" we get a slow metal ballad, lamenting for the forces of the universe to intervene. This track shows Iced Earth's unique sound, able to mix slower acoustic parts with heavy metal breakdowns. Another great track like that is "Watching Over Me", a eulogy of sorts invoking feelings of regret and remorse.

For our first track we're checking out one of the final chapters of this album, a warning of things to come. Here is "Prophecy"

Prophecy

Horrorshow

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After the grim dark realities of the previous record, it's time for one with a bit more comedy to it, albeit still with some tragedy. "Horror Show" is a record that revolves around monsters from the horror story legends of our time. This record still has that heavy tone, but the lyrics are less focused on dark metaphors, and more on telling a story from the perspective of a monster.

The album starts off with "Wolf", a tale of the werewolf. The album has a very nice sound to it, a bit less sharp than their other records, focusing on a more full sound. The next track is "Damien", revolving around the birth of the Antichrist and the coming of the end.

For our second track today, we will be checking out my favorite track on this record, next to damien. It's time to take a trip to the opera, to hear "The Phantom Opera Ghost"

The Phantom Opera Ghost

The Glorious Burden

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For our final record we'll be checking out Iced Earth's seventh record. This time they had to replace the previous singer, grabbing Judas Priest vocalist Tim Owens to do the job. The concept this time is a look at moments of war, mainly focused on events during the American civil war and world war 1. This dedication to the USA becomes even more apparent as the American release came with an instrumental version of "The Star Spangled Banner".

For the rest of the world, the album opens with "Declaration Day", a powerful metal track showing off the new vocal sound. T. Owens is not the same as M.Barlow(prev. singer), but he definately has some power in his own pipes. Another example of this is the track "The Reckoning(Don't Tread On Me)", where you can really hear how far his voice can go, easily matching the previous singer.

For our final track today we'll be listening to the first part of a 3 track suite taking place on 3 days during the American civil war and the battle for Gettysburg. This is "The Devil To Pay"

The Devil To Pay

All right, that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed todays edition of Alphabetical Order, a blog series where I write my opinions on parts of an artists discography. If you liked it or if you hate it, let me know! And if you wanna keep up to date, you can follow me. Until next time, peace out!

You can get more info or support the artist by checking out these links:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/261489-Iced-Earth
http://icedearth.com