Iced Earth- I Walk Among You

Ol' Barlow is back.
So, if you haven't heard, this album was pretty much 3 covers of old Iced Earth songs, with Matt's vocals. Which you'll either love or hate. But I'm in review mode, so I gotta be neutral.

Track 1: I Walk Alone
So this song starts out slowly, with Matt's powerful vocals kicking in about 15 seconds in. They fit in quite well with the song. Everything is the song stays pretty simple. The chorus is pretty catchy; saying "Mankind's dishonesty lays them to waste. I am the truth, And I walk alone. Human hypocrisy, exacting their fate I am the truth, And I walk alone." It has slightly deep backing vocals twice in the chorus saying "I will devour" and "I will destroy". All in all, this song has a pretty slow style, which, again, I think fit Matt's voice very well. The songs goes instrumental from about 2:30 to 3:00, and with the rest of the song, keeps the same slow style, then comes back with Matt's deep, baritone voice. Then ends with the same, short, instrumental shown in the beginning.
Score: 4/5
Track 2: Setian Massacre
It starts out with a fast, cool sounding, guitar intro with some impressive drumming. Then, during the intro, comes some really nice high pitched backing vocals. Then Matt's deep voice comes in saying "Screaming in agony. . ." The drumming and guitar keeps the same appeal, until a few parts when Matt says "All that they ever loved/known/dreamt is dead. It does this three times before the chorus. Oh, yes, the chorus. "Yet there's a glint of hope if the chosen can survive." A really nice chorus with some more good backing vocals, which makes me wonder if I like Matt's vocals better or the backing vocals. Haha. I don't know what it is, but the beginning of that chorus just sounds really good. And then, right after the chorus, the solo comes in. A really nice, short solo. Then comes the backing vocals doing what they did earlier in the song. After another chorus, comes another really nice solo. Then after that, everything fades out. A really nice song. After debating with myself, it's my favorite on the album, personally.
Score: 4.8/5
Track 3: The Clouding
Now, it's time for the long song, right? It starts out with a really nice and slow guitar intro. Matt's vocals seem to fit with every song, which shows how good Schaffer is as a musician, and Barlow's vocal range. When he says "As I awake, I have no memory of this", I realized how much different his voice sounded. The "slow chorus" (you'll see what I mean in a sec, haha) sounds pretty simple. It keeps this slow mood until it gets faster, and the lyrics start sounding really good. Saying things like "Never trust in the motives of mankind". It does this for a short time until the song ends. It's probably my second favorite song on the album.
Score: 4.5/5

Overall Score: 4.5/5
I definitely recommend this album if you like Barlow more than the Ripper.

Keep in mind this is my first review, and that I probably made plenty of mistakes. So if you can, go easy on the criticism, if you can. Thanks.

Well, I don't like Matt more than the Ripper so yeah,

Nah, just kidding, great review, I've heard the whole album is a serious letdown? People don't like it for some reason (can't say it for myself, haven't looked it up yet).

This is an album you either love or hate. I either see good or bad reviews for it. I really didn't think it was that bad, but I'm really open minded so unless it's really obviously bad, I'm not one to give ridiculous criticisms.

My lord, I'm brain dead after reviewing this.

AJ190 wrote:

This is an album you either love or hate. I either see good or bad reviews for it. I really didn't think it was that bad, but I'm really open minded so unless it's really obviously bad, I'm not one to give ridiculous criticisms.

My lord, I'm brain dead after reviewing this.

People blame the Ripper for "draining Schaffer's musical songwriting ability" because of the somewhat failure-albums of the Ripper with Iced Earth (Not talking about Framing Armageddon, love that album). Is that true to an extent?

Meh, it could be. I'm not so sure, myself. I think it is up for the listener to decide.
A lot of their albums seemed to be... a bit lackluster with The Ripper, though.

I love Iced Earth... And I love this single... That was a pretty good review!!

Thanks. I really didn't like my review much, myself.
As Stephen King once said; artists are oftentimes the worst judges of their work.