Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer's new solo project - Sons of Liberty
- Thread starter Rycher
- Start date
booB
Señor Member
I suppose I'll have to be the first person to say it...
Isn't Iced Earth already pretty much a solo project, with a bunch of hired musicians?
Isn't Iced Earth already pretty much a solo project, with a bunch of hired musicians?
Iced Dog
The Stormrider's Pooch
Hmz, interesting...Alex Jones, I've heard him a few times as a guest on Coast To Coast AM (best radio show ever BTW)...free downloadable album, this all seems odd...I wonder just WTF this will sound like 
I'm guessing that it will probably sound a little like Iced Earth, only more accessible, and less heavy, intended for a wider audience. It sounds like this is a vehicle for sharing his political views, which is why he's disseminating it for free.
Reading the comments of that article made my head hurt really friggin bad. Ugh, time for an aspirin then bed.
AMBR
Metal Grandma
Thanks for warning me. I won't go look. I think adaher is right, it will have the IE flavor, but not the bite and is intended to be a vehicle for his political views. While a bit skeptical, (I hate being preached to) I'll still check it out. Might be good; never know.
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
I suspect he doesn't want to damage the Iced Earth brand with the lyrical content he's about to unveil.I suppose I'll have to be the first person to say it...
Isn't Iced Earth already pretty much a solo project, with a bunch of hired musicians?
Given the name of the project, the mention of a "movement" and the fact that he's chosen to first speak in detail about the project on the Alex Jones show, means the whole album is likely about how Obama is a secret socialist/communist/fascist Kenyan Muslim, who wants to institute Sharia law and kill all of our grandmothers. The disc will go on to explain how Obama is a puppet of the New World Order, who are all Free Masons and Illuminati, who are responsible for the Kennedy assassination, the faking of the moon landing and the attack on the towers.
By the way, the above description of the forthcoming disc is not at all meant to be sarcastic. It's not meant to be a jab at those who actually believe all of that. I'm merely speculating as to what I think he's up to. The shame of it is, Obama "taking his country away" from him (queue the crying red state woman) has probably pissed him off enough to write good songs again.... or at least songs not built on mid-paced triplets.
Zod
The Invisible Guest
Member
edgeofthorns
24 Hours Ago...
You know, I was going to write an opinion about this, but I remembered how much I didn't care...
~Brian~
~Brian~
drmetal8
Graphic Design
I suppose I'll have to be the first person to say it...
Isn't Iced Earth already pretty much a solo project, with a bunch of hired musicians?
You took the words out of my mouth. That's what I was going to say after I read the headline.
Honestly, I don't care what Jon does, I support him and his bands. Just get off the Something Wicked story line for a while!
The Invisible Guest
Member
I'd like to see the next IE disc consist of 10 or 11 ripping tunes .. outside the constaints of a concept.
Britt
Britt
AngraRULES
Member
THANK YOU SO MUCH! OMG I'll be the first to say that I, not necessarily hated, but rather was extremely disappointed and let down with the last Iced Earth record. I HOPE that either A) this project has better riffs than the last Iced Earth album or B) since people think it will be a little "softer" for this project, that it will make the new Iced Earth better, faster, almost back to the roots. It took me a while to get into Framing Armageddon but after a while I loved the record for what it was, but the last one was just terrible. Sad to say my favorite track was the Intro which Howard and Jim at morrisound completely composed.
Jon Schaffer has probably had the biggest impact, musically, on me as a guitarist. Just listen to the song Seven Kingdoms. I love all that cool gallpoy stuff, but like Zod said, I've had enough of the watered down, slow horse. And not to mention that I was really disappointed with Matt Barlow's performance live last year, and also on the album. Part of me wants Ripper back unless he can pull together like the Horror Show or Something Wicked days.
HAHA lets see if the Obama slogan "Change we can believe in" works for his music. I hope it pisses him off enough to bring back his edge.
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
This.
Agreed. Tim was way better live in support of Glorious Burden than Matt was on the last tour.
Zod
skyrefuge
Member
Jon's a really smart guy, so I'd be surprised if it was anywhere near that extreme. I take him at his word that he thinks it's not "politically biased". So I guess I'd be expecting stuff more along the lines of "Sacrificial Kingdoms" or "Come What May" off the last album, but made more explicit and extracted from their sci-fi environment. Then again, I haven't talked politics with him in years, so I guess it's always possible that he's become unhinged since then.
Either way, it sounds like a pretty smart idea from a business perspective. Would be interesting to see if he makes any references back to the "Something Wicked..." mythology. Also cool to see that he's experimenting with the Radiohead model (free album with an upsell) which seems like quite a progressive leap from what I remember with Iced Earth album releases.
Neil
There was a beta version (I'm assuming it was beta at least) of the Sons of Liberty site live mid-day yesterday with links to various political blogs, talk show hosts (largely conservative), youtube documentaries, etc. One of the links went to the Loose Change documentary - if people want to believe the things in that video, great, but that link alone really made me wonder what kind of content we'll be seeing in these songs.
I'll still give it a listen in hopes that it's pissed him off enough to write some angry, Burnt Offerings-style songs as Zod said, but I'm keeping my expectations pretty low on this one.
skyrefuge
Member
Ah, that's discouraging then. I was holding out hope that maybe he was just leveraging Alex Jones, etc. for the promotional opportunities, but maybe not. Though the Jon I knew was never one for reading blogs and stuff, much less creating websites that link to them, so I'll continue to cling to the small hope that the website-creation was just outsourced to Angry White Man Productions who gave it their standard template.
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how "metal" he made things...does the general Angry White Man audience require something more gentle than Iced Earth, or would they actually be able to get into something just-as- or even-more aggressive?
Anyhow, I don't think Jon's written a great angry song since Burnt Offerings, but he's certainly continued to write some great songs. So I wouldn't mind at all if it was fairly wussy. Though if he somehow truly recaptured the anger from Burnt Offerings, I wouldn't mind that either! I guess the worst would be if he wrote some great music but the lyrical content prevented me from enjoying it!
Neil
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
What promotional opportunities does someone like Alex Jones offer a Metal project? The only way Alex Jones could help Jon sell records, is if the lyrical content appeals to the people who listen to Alex Jones. And the folks who listen to Alex Jones, often subscribe to the conspiracy theories I listed above. Feel free to check out http://www.infowars.com for a sampling.
Zod
skyrefuge
Member
Not that it's relevant, but I guess we don't actually know if it's a "metal" project or not, right?
Anyhow, the album doesn't need to contain Alex Jones's wildest theories for it to be embraced up by his audience. All it needs is the right cues, along with his endorsement. Surely housewives who otherwise would have vomited upon reading Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" lapped it up lovingly once it became an item in Oprah's Book Club. So I don't think a more-mainstream libertarian viewpoint would be outright rejected. Many believed that "The Glorious Burden" was a political manifesto, even though the lyrics indicated nothing of the sort, so clearly people are happy to flesh out any gaps with their own assumptions and beliefs.
Yup, I'm well-aware...that's why I'm curious if he'll make any references to the "Something Wicked..." story. Surely there are people out there ready to embrace the Setian conspiracy as a work of history rather than a work of fiction! And if Jon can switch from selling heavy-metal CDs to selling Setian Bibles, then he'll have hit the jackpot!
Neil
end
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This is probably going to be horrible, but I'll listen for a good laugh if nothing else. Can't really fault him for what he's doing, even if I disagree with his points though.
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