Plagues of Babylon

I'm going to start with a bold yet very true statement. Iced Earth is my favorite band of all time. I've been listening to them since 2001, I have every album, EP, live album and DVD they have ever released. I've seen them live 3 times with a different singer each time. I've never been disappointed in what they've released and Plagues of Babylon is no exception.

Plagues of Babylon was released exactly a week ago and I've listened to it 6 times since its release. I will probably listen to it another 10 - 15 times before the month of February is over.

If you aren't familiar with Iced Earth, they are a progressive thrash/ power metal band. Their instrumentation is very heavy and fast, but slow it down for ballads and well crafted choruses. Their singer has always been the focal point. They've have some amazing talent leading their charge. Matt Barlow, Tim "Ripper" Owens and now Stu Block. Block's range is quite dynamic and gives this album some depth. It's his second album with the band so you can tell he finally feels comfortable as their front man. Their last effort, Dystopia, was a triumph in of itself.

Plagues of Babylon is definitely their most unique sounding album. Iced Earth usually puts out concept album that revolve around a certain topic. Some songs on Plagues fall into that category, but as a whole its just a plain old awesome heavy metal album.

The album starts with the title track and in epic Iced Earth fashion. The first three tracks are definitely the heaviest of the bunch. Democide and The Culling are a throw back to old Iced Earth fans, especially fans of the very underrated Burnt Offerings. Among the Living Dead is a very cool track about zombies and I'm a sucker for zombies. Track number six, The End? is where the album really took off in another direction. Its the first sign of slowing down, but don't get too comfortable because there is some killer guitar work going on in this tune. If I Could See you Now, sounds like your traditional Iced Earth ballad but adds to that lighter side of the album. Peacemaker is one of my favorite songs on the album and it sounds like nothing Iced Earth has put out before. It sounds like a song that Bon Jovi would put out if they had some brass, but they don't so Iced Earth wrote it.

The album concludes with a cover of Highwayman. It was originally written by Jimmy Webb who was an american song writer. They Highwaymen, consisting of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, made the song popular. Iced Earth's version actually contains four different singers on it from the metal genre. Stu Block (Into Eternity, Iced Earth), Russell Allen from Symphony X, Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth and Michael Poulson from Volbeat. The song isn't very metal, but the talent involved makes it a very unmissable song.

Give Plagues of Babylon a listen. Its a damn good album. I'm so glad that Iced Earth continues to make the music they want to make.

I give Plagues of Babylon by Iced Earth 5 out of 5 Burning Lariats.