Band:	Iced Earth
Album:	Iced Earth
Style:	Heavy metal, US power metal
Release date:	November 1990
A review by:	Dream Taster

01. Iced Earth
02. Written On The Walls
03. Colors
04. Curse The Sky
05. Life And Death
06. Solitude
07. Funeral
08. When The Night Falls

I want to be clear, what I'm reviewing here is the 2001's re-mixed and re-mastered version of the original Iced Earth, part of the Dark Genesis box-set [well, yes, I'm cheating in fact], but since nobody has written something about the original till today, I can at least talk about the songs, seeing that I have no clue about the original sound. In fact, I already noticed a big difference between the original Night Of The Stormrider and the version included in the box-set. Have a look at that other review for more information. But still, this record has something very attractive: that's the first Iced Earth's full-length album, following their highly-praised demo.

So, at that time, Gene Adam was the lead singer and Mike McGill was behind the drum-kit. For the rest, the core of Iced Earth, old version was present: Dave Abell [bass], Randy Shawver [lead guitar] and, of course, Jon Schaffer [rhythm & lead guitars, vocals]. In a nutshell, a different singer but the same trademark for the music. The singer has is own style, even if I would have preferred Matt Barlow's voice to enhance this album as well.

Now that debut album is something else: 'Iced Earth', 'Written On The Walls', 'Colors', 'Curse The Sky', 'Life And Death' and 'When The Night Falls' are all necessary to the basic knowledge of any fan of Iced Earth while the other two tracks are fine instrumental pieces. My favorite is the epic [8:44] 'When The Night Falls', in which, you can notice the slightly different chorus from the version sung by Matt Barlow on the album Alive In Athens. Probably the best song written by Jon Schaffer along with 'Travel In Stygian' from the following album Night Of The Stormrider. I must say that I was surprised by the qualities of 'Curse The Sky' and even more by the power of 'Life And Death'. I don't know why that song has never been played again by the band since it's one of their best compositions in my opinion.

To sum things up, Iced Earth has a lot of more than fine tunes, whose qualities could drive you crazy to have missed the "birth" of the band in the early 90's. Despite the shortness of the record, what you're searching is on that album. This debut album makea a remarkable duo with Night Of The Stormrider, I'm sure you don't want to miss it!