A project by two of the most influential people in metal today: Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian and Jon Schaefer
of Iced
Earth. The two have been friends since early 90s, and
they wanted to do a joint project for a long time. The debut album
came out in late December 1999. Jon handled rhythm, solo, and bass
guitars, with Hansi doing just the singing (why wasn't he allowed to
play bass?), Jim Morris producing and playing additional leads, and
Iced Earth drummer, Mark Prator, firing the cannons. Five years
later, the duo surfaced once again, with "Touched By The Crimson
King" (2005).
DEMONS AND WIZARDS (2000)
BEST SONGS: "Fiddler On The Green," "Blood On My Hands," "Tear
Down The Wall"
An absolutely incredible album, one of the year's best. An
absolutely fantastic production from Jim Morris (who has Crimson
Glory, Iced Earth, and numerous other great bands, on
his impressive resume). This album is definitely more than a sum of
its parts, yet it's exactly what you would expect: Iced Earth with
Blind Guardian vocals. Great music and lyrics from these masters of
metal. The album starts out strong with "Heaven Denies," followed by
excellent "Poor Man's Crusade." Next song, "Fiddler On The Green,"
has also won a "The Song Of The Year" title from me. All hair rise
on my body every time I hear this one. OH MY GOD! Can a song be any
more emotional? Hardly! Hansi sounds like an entire vocal acapella
(and there are barely any choirs or dub-overs). The story is about a
girl whose best friend was taken by Death, and she begs Death to let
her join him. Holy crap, this is a performance after which you can
go deaf safely, for it's doubtful you will hear anything better. No,
this song is not loud, it's actually mostly acoustic. Next song is a
blast from both BG and IE camps: "Blood On My Hands" has the
ferocious crunch of IE and beauty and choirs of BG. Again, Hansi's
vocal performance simply kills. "Winter Of Souls" is indeed
chilling: it's dark and cold. "Whistler" and "Gallows Pole" never
grabbed me. "Last Sunset" is a mighty fine ending to a great album;
again, I don't know what is better: Hansi's chants or Jon's playing.
Overall, the mood of the album is very medieval, but not like that
of Blind Guardian's own material. I can't quite explain it, but it's
actually a lot darker. Under no circumstances one can call it
"fantasy" or "D&D." It reminds me of dark legends that I once
read as a child. "Dark" and "beautiful" are two descriptive terms
for this album. "Must have" is another.
TOUCHED BY THE CRIMSON
KING (2005)
RATING: ***1/2
BEST SONGS: "Seize The Day," "Love's Tragedy Asunder," "Lunar
Lament"
Five years after the debut Kirsch and Schaffer treated us with
the follow-up. Unfortunately, the result is so underwhelming that it
almost universally won the dubious "Disappointment Of The Year"
award, and I subscribe to that. This is definitely not the worst
album I've heard this year, but definitely the most disappointing,
simply by virtue of following a classic. The eponymous debut, while
slightly uneven, was a landmark release and a major head-turning
event, proving that an all-star collaboration can be more than just
a sum of its parts, yielding several epochal songs. Clearly, the
expectations for the sophomore album were enormously high, and when
the duo delivered an album simply full of OK music, it just did not
quench the thirst for another set of masterpieces. Now it is merely
eleven solid tracks (plus an OK cover of "Immigrant Song" and two
alternate versions of "Beneath These Waves" and "Wicked Witch,"
neither of which are all that different from the originals), none of
which are bad or even overly boring, but, by the same token, none
stand out. Everything about this album is moderate: moderate energy,
moderately catchy choruses, moderate riffing, moderate hooks.
"Terror Train," which had the potential to be another "Violate,"
sounds like it has been intentionally dulled down. "Moby
Dick"-inspired "Beneath These Waves" and "Seize The Day" are both
good but not great. One song that kind of sticks out, like an
incompletely hammered nail, is "Love's Tragedy Asunder," mostly due
to its passionate pre-chorus/chorus, evoking better moments from the
debut, as well as Iced Earth's last three Barlow albums. The debut,
at its more aggressive moments, made me want to climb the castle
wall, and at its most melancholic -- crouch in the corner and
contemplate the world's demise. By comparison, this is, insipid.
The wall-climbing moments are gone almost completely, and
the crouching/contemplating moments are not passionate enough,
mostly because the lyrics do not connect to me the way they did in
the debut. I cannot relate to the emotions that Hansi attempts to
convey in his usually emotional voice. Thus vanishes the
contemplation. But where I can relate, I enjoy the songs much more:
on "Love's Tragedy Asunder," "Dorian," and "Down Where I
Am."
Now, for the good points. It is refreshing to hear Hansi sound
fine. When he sounds fine, he is one of the world's best, and he
sounds fine here. Bobby Jarzombek is an obvious upgrade from Mike
Prator (if only they got a shredder on lead guitar, the all star
lineup would be complete). "Crimson King" has a nice bridge, with
Hansi's trademark harmonies. The acoustic strumming of "Seize The
Day" clearly reminds of "Consequences" off Something Wicked This
Way Comes, which is funny considering that "Consequences" were
originally written for D&W, not Iced Earth. I guess Jon just
liked that melody too much. Then again, I love it too. Now -- get
this! -- two of album's best songs are bonus tracks! Both "Lunar
Lament" and "Spatial Architect" are good songs with an adequate
drive. The artwork is provided by Leo Hao (Aria,
Nocturnal Rites). But, unfortunately, the songwriting is just
not as good as on the debut, consequently losing this release in the
sea of this year's releases.
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