Iced Earth
The Dark Saga

THE REVIEW

Tired of the usual Power Metal? Looking for something different but don't want to give up the main features of the genre? Don't worry, here's your Defender85 with a golden suggestion: what better than the American Iced Earth? Among the albums that have not yet been re-reviewed, I decided to talk about the beautiful "The Dark Saga" from 1996. I imagine you all know the band and the genre they propose: a very original Power Metal with strong influences in the rhythm section from Metallica's Thrash.

John Schaffer and company offer us a record of hard, fierce, and incandescent Metal, a concept album inspired by the "Spawn" comic saga: in fact, the songs tell the story of a man who sold his soul to the Devil to save the people he loved, but when reborn and enlisted in the infernal armies, he discovers that his girlfriend is now with his best friend: the whole album unfolds along this logical thread, telling part of this story, but above all describing the protagonist's inner anguish—servant of Satan and forced to obey his orders, yet still possessing a glimmer of good in his soul, a glimmer that makes him hope for God's help and fear the wrath of the latter.

The album opens with the title track "Dark Saga", which immediately sets things straight and defines the sound of the entire album, oriented toward darker, indeed more dark, sounds, but without losing sight of the unmistakable style that characterizes the band. Next is the semi-ballad "Died For You", which expresses the protagonist's inner turmoil as he discovers the relationship between his girlfriend and his best friend, but he is forced to obey the orders of the Demon, unleashing his power on them, which is worthily conveyed by the violent Thrash of "Violate". Here our hero begins to fear the wrath of the Heavens, described in the following "The Hunter", with Matthew Barlow at his most expressive and confirming once again as a great vocalist. The following tracks "The Last Laugh", "Depths Of Hell", and "Vengeance Is Mine", which address the protagonist's rebellion against his infernal master, are excellent Heavy pieces—hard, incisive, with an indestructible rhythm section (Dave Abell on bass and Brent Smedley on drums) and solos not filled with unnecessary showmanship but rather brief and incisive. But one of the best pieces of the lot is undoubtedly the next "Scarred", from the concluding triptych called "The Suffering": it is a dark track loaded with a shadowy and sulfurous atmosphere, so much so that it borders more on Doom in the initial part, with Barlow at the peak of suffering and a melancholic guitar chiseling the song marvelously, which in the concluding part takes off and launches into a highly compelling solo. "Slave To The Dark" continues the melancholic theme of the previous one in the initial part, only to plunge headlong into a strong and powerful ride (the style here is very reminiscent of Iron Maiden). When the protagonist's hopes seem lost, a glimmer of salvation hope arrives with the concluding "A Question Of Heaven", slower, at times acoustic, at times powerfully swept by the guitars of Schaffer and Shawer and Barlow's rough voice, and interspersed with angelic female choirs.

In conclusion, a great album, recommended to all lovers of a powerful and structured Metal, yet melodic; in short, one of the finest expressions of Heavy Metal in these years.