General Zod
Ruler of Australia
Understood. Though it seems you perceive more emotion in this release than I do. Doesn't make either of us wrong... just a different perspective.That's why I categorized this as "Iced Earth Lite."
Not quite sure if your defending the lyrics, the vocals or both. To me, as with any project, you bring on board a vocalist who believes in the project. I dig Jon's music... I just don't think he's suited to sing lead.These lyrics are his personal beliefs and feelings. In some instances, the project may be better if he's not forcing someone to sing about his beliefs, which could be somewhat awkward. I agree that Jon's not a high caliber vocalist, but I think he sounds really good on this.
I guess it's just everything and everyone conspiracy theories have become associated with....I guess I was hinting at what makes it have the negative connotation of being one, specifically. People automatically hear those two words together and either they kind of nod to acknowledge that they are in line with your beliefs without making it too obvious (unless they aren't embarrassed by this), they laugh it off as being absurd, or they want to hang you for it, heh.
To clarify a bit, my favorite Iced Earth performances came during the Horror Show tour... when Matt was in perfect form. However, Tim's performances on the Glorious Burden tour were some of the finest live performances I've ever witnessed by a vocalist and they were vastly superior to Matt's performances on the most recent tour.You said that you enjoyed Ripper a lot more live than Barlow. That was the main reason it seems that Jon had for why he got rid of Ripper that he didn't feel he was with the program live.
I have no real insights into Tim's departure, beyond what Jon said and what I perceived, the two times I interviewed him. I suspect he pulled the plug on Matt when the opportunity presented itself, thinking Tim's Judas Priest background would shine a brighter spotlight on Iced Earth. When that didn't happen, and when Tim's presence conversely began to erode the Iced Earth fan base (because of their fondness for Matt) he quickly discarded Tim.
Like I said, this is pure speculation on my part. I simply think Jon used the "live vibe" thing as an excuse to fire Tim. Had there truly been an issue with Tim's live performances, he would have dismissed Tim at the conclusion of the tour, not as Tim was packing to leave to record the next disc.
Zod