Iced Earth - The Dark Saga
| Release date: | 1996 |
| Style: | Heavy metal, US power metal |
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Owners: |
948 have it 45 want it 2 trade it |
01. Dark Saga
02. I Died For You
03. Violate
04. The Hunter
05. The Last Laugh
06. Depths Of Hell
07. Vengeance Is Mine
08. The Suffering
1 - Scarred
2 - Slave To The Dark
3 - A Question Of Heaven
Top 20 albums of 1996: 17
02. I Died For You
03. Violate
04. The Hunter
05. The Last Laugh
06. Depths Of Hell
07. Vengeance Is Mine
08. The Suffering
1 - Scarred
2 - Slave To The Dark
3 - A Question Of Heaven
Top 20 albums of 1996: 17
Reviews 
Lyrics The last three songs make up "The Suffering" trilogy.
The limited and numbered digipack version includes a cover of Judas Priest's "The Ripper" (2:42), which is also available on "The Melancholy". This album is based on the story of Todd McFarlane's Spawn comic book.
Although Dave Abell recorded all the bass tracks for this album before leaving the band, Keith Menser's picture is featured on the back cover and in the liner notes (although Abell recieves credit as the bassist). This is because Keith was intended to help the band on tour, and Century Media demanded the touring lineup on the back cover. However, Keith did not know any of the songs on the touring setlist, so he was forced to leave. James MacDonough and Brent Smedley ended up playing bass and drums, respectively, on the following two tours.
The limited and numbered Digipak was limited to 6,666 copies.
Also released on gatefold LP, limited to 2,000 copies.
Reissued by Century Media in 1998. The first standard edition has a CD painted violet. The standard reissue has a CD with a picture on it.
Staff review by
Sephiroth
Sephiroth
Rating:
8.5
8.5
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Rating: 8.5 |
Todd Mc Farlane is a genius. He has created the best american comic of all times and his character, Spawn, has became a legend. Sadness, evilness, violence, love?.are all inside the dark stories he lives in. So, who could grasp this feelings and put it into music? Jon Schaffer obviously! And who can sing with the voice of the tormented Hellspawn, suffer with him, making us hear deep melancholy or pure evilness through the notes of his throat?? Matthew Barlow of course. Read more ›› |
Rating:
8.8
8.8
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Rating: 8.8 |
'The Dark Saga' is a classic metal album, and is without doubt one of Iced Earths best albums. The album is based on the comic Spawn as the concept behind the music. The album depicts the story of a man who sell's his soul to the devil for love, an irony that few seem to grasp. 'The Dark Saga' represents also the coming of age of Mat Barlow, the emotive and charismatic vocalist of Iced Earth. This is an album of class by a band who's suffered numerous changes too their line up including three vocalists. The Dark Saga was the first time Iced Earth had produced an album with the same vocalist as the previous album and it truly paid dividends for the band as a final product. Read more ›› |
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Comments
Comments: 16
Visited by: 821 users
| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020  |
This shood be opening album whit Mat not Burnt Offerings, werry good powerful, exelent album whit great singing, Iced Eartish guitar riffs and also one beautiful ballad , this is when real Iced Eart era starts even 1th 3 albums was great for me us metalhead, but this is concert sell outer, when band reach HM heaven ..... a killer album
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675  |
This is an album that has some truly outstanding moments. The heartfelt emotion of "I Died For You" highlighted by a wonderful, impassioned vocal from Matt, is one of the highlights, as is the melodic power metal surge of "The Hunter", and the explosive "Slave To The Dark" too. Not to mention the tragic and searing finale, "A Question Of Heaven"... I do feel as a whole, it doesn't quite stand up to their previous 2 albums which are absolute classics. But it's still a mostly great album, and I love the whole Spawn concept. 
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| IronArkadius666 Posts: 107 |
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| MichaelAngeloT Posts: 70  |
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| _deepblack Posts: 211  |
Great fucking riffs ... Matt Barlows voice .. thrash and power themes ... great lyrics ... what else do you need from iced earth this is pure metal \m/
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020 |
Written by deadone on 05.03.2014 at 04:48 I agree but still its great journey, and rest until last one still are decent albums
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| majormalfunction Posts: 1507  |
The final track is sheer brilliance, a tragic epic that basically pinpoints what's so great about Spawn. The rest of the album does not reach the same level but there's many excellent tracks to find here, and just the fact that we got a metal album based on Spawn is fantastic!
---- Everything's twice as bright with money in your hands
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| JOPE OF STEELE Steelemeister Posts: 3333  |
IMO the vocals are on a higher level than the music as whole. I'd give it 6 unless Barlow didn't save this one, especially with these slow song performances of #2 and #8.
---- My vision is augmented
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| Metalheart35 Account deleted |
Metalheart35
Account deleted
Best Iced Earth album in my opinion. Perfect melodies, perfect riffs & perfect voice. Classic for me. 
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| Metren Dreadrealm Posts: 1410  |
Written by JOPE OF STEELE on 22.07.2016 at 23:05 Pretty much how I feel. I know they "simplified" their style on purpose for this one, but it only sort of worked. A couple of the songs too sort of meld into one and the songwriting isn't anywhere near as strong as Barlow's vocals. That dude's a beast, one of my all-time favorite vocalists.
---- My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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| Redel Moderator Posts: 2250  |
Great album, in particular for its consistency (in a sense that almost all songs are really good). For me, it primarily lacks originality. Back at the time, it had just happened that I deeply fell in love with the album's two awesome predecessors. Came along TDS, I was a bit disappointed at first (and never overcame this first impression). Still, from today's view, no IE after TDS could ever keep up with it.
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| musicalkaratekid Posts: 1506 |
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| DeathMetal Posts: 396  |
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020 |
A new video of former ICED EARTH vocalist Matt Barlow performing an acoustic version of the band's song "I Died For You" can be seen below. The track originally appeared on ICED EARTH's fourth album, 1996's "The Dark Saga". Video https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/former-iced-earth-vocalist-matt-barlow-performs-acoustic-version-of-i-died-for-you-video/
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Ellrohir Heaven Knight Posts: 8669  |
From time to time I come across a song that finds a way deep under my skin. I can't stop listening to it over and over again for some time and getting goose bumps each time I hear it. "A Question Of Heaven" is such a song. One of the best ballads I have ever heard. I am aware of Iced Earth for a long time, but took me long before I found this one.
---- My rest seems now calm and deep Finally I got my dead man sleep 
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| AndyMetalFreak A Nice Guy Contributor Posts: 5311  |
Indeed a good album, but "I Died For You" has to be one of the cheesiest metal songs of all time, but the vocals are incredibly passionate, so I will give Barlow that, there are some cool riffs in this album, but it's nothing particularly special.
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