Demons & Wizards? (The band)

to NaturalScience

This is a risky thing to do now, because this means this thread will move to another forum. But, let's do it anyway.

I am in a minority (of one) who thinks Night of the stormrider (2nd release) is the best IE release. The first s/t isn't bad as well. They are both 80's metal sound, speedy guitar riffs with high pitched vocals. Night... is a concept album (a feature that keeps coming up in IE albums) and the music is very energetic and you can't help but move along with the songs. The first track (Angel's holocaust begins with an edited version of a sample of Carmina Burana and slides excellently into a spped metal song. The last song (Travel in Stygian) is a short epic song, revealing the more emotional and melodic sides of the band (Jon Schaffer).

Another excellent album is The Dark Saga, another concept. The trilogy of songs ending this album are the best songs by IE till now - The ending song has beautiful music and an excellent performance by Matt Barlow (vocals).

Burnt Offerings is a usual metal release, nothign special about it. THe Horror Show is very mediocre. As is the first CD of The Glorious Burden. The second CD containing the 3 part epic Gettysburg is quite good, particularly the first track - The devil to pay.

IE is essentially a one-man band (much like Death of Chuck Schuldiner R.I.P).

IE and Blind Guardian have been friends for many years (you can see the reciprocal gratitudes in the booklets of both bands cd's. THere have been many comparisons between them, and they were often called Blind Earth and Iced Guardian. This comparison is not valid IMHO. While they are maybe in the same metal camp (power, heavy, speed etc) there is not much resemblance.

As they are friends Hansi and Jon decided to collaborate on an album that will combine their sounds. And suprisingly they did it - The first album sounds like Blind Earth or Iced Guardian. Sounds from both bands are there. The recognizable speedy riffs of IE and the voice and musical tone of BG.

Again, good but non-essential.

Not prog either.

Didn't see how old this thread was... but basically if you like both Iced Earth and Blind Guardian you SHOULD have the Demons And Wizards albums.

Also, if you haven't gotten any Iced Earth, there's always "The Blessed and the Damned". Basically one of those cheap record company "best ofs", but actually has a GREAT tracklist!