Thu 1 Nov – Iced Earth, Annihilator, Turisas

This was the fourth time I'd seen Iced Earth and the first time in five and a half year. Four concerts and four completely different experiences. The first time was at the Waldrock Festival back in 1998. It was soaking wet and the band were throwing out promo cassettes from the stage, one of which I caught and still have. Later in the same year they headlined in Zaandam with Wicked Angel, Brainstorm and the mighty Sentenced as support. That one stands out as the concert with the most apathic crowd I've ever seen. After that it was waiting until 2002, when the band came over with a massive show to support the Horror Show album and acted as their own support act, doing older material before the break and new material after.

Which brings us back to 2007. Completely skipped first support Turisas and missed half of Annihilator. What I saw/heard from Annihilator was pretty good and in fact tons better the previous times I'd seen them, even when the new singer is no Randy Rampage. Which I suppose in a way was a central theme this evening : current singers vs previous singers.

Iced Earth's setlist was solid and varied. Quite a few songs from The Dark Saga were played (I Died for You, Violate, The Hunter and Vengeance Is Mine), but what surprised me was the few songs of the original Something Wicked album that were played. As the new album supposedly is based on the trilogy on that album, I was kinda expecting the whole three songs to be played, but none of that. It was My own saviour and nothing more. At least the really old stuff wasn't forgotten as the title tracks of both Iced Earth and Night of the Stormrider were played.

Stormrider was one of the stronger tracks this evening, no doubt fueled by the fact that Tim Owens had disappeared off the stage for a while. Hiring him was in my opinion the worst thing Jon Schaffer did. It was like Iron Maiden replacing Bruce Dickinson with Blaze Bailey. I mean, Owens is technically far superior to Bailey, but it's one of those unforgivable singer replacements. Mr.Owens annoyed the hell out of me with his constantly insisting on people clapping and screaming along. Several times he shrugged as if to say 'is that all?' and one time he even reacted to an applause with the words 'is that the best you can do?'. WTF?!? Whatever happened to earning your applause, earning the energy of the fans? It turned what could have been a great concert into something with many downsides. Also in the parts where a little bit of emotion got into the lyrics rather than straight power, Tim clearly looked uncomfortable. The emotion is for sissies type of uncomfortable.

Anyway, back to the music. Horror Show also had to do with just one song, Dracula and thus the emphasis was on the last two albums, The Glorious Burden and Framing Armageddon. Understandable, of course, but not my personal preference. What struck me is that the songs of the new album they played actually suit the The Glorious Burden story more than the Something Wicked This Way Comes story. A Charge To Keep and Ten Thousand Strong perfectly fit the civil war theme.

What was left is many moments thinking back of that concert five years ago. A band as a unit with Matt Barlow walking up and down the stage like a caged lion, posing with his fellow band members and giving away a stunning vocal performance.