Dark Genesis

What a fantastic gift the band has done to me ... oooppss sorry ... to us !!! 5 CDs inside a wonderful box set, including the fantastic CD, Tribute To The Gods. I will essentially talk about Tribute To The Gods as the remaining 4CDs are Enter The Realm (Iced Earth first demo elected "demo of the year" by RockHard's readers at that time), Iced Earth (first album, containing 4 songs from Enter The Realm), Night Of The Stormrider (second record, best Iced Earth seller in Japan) and finally Burnt Offering (third record, sees the arrival of Matthew Barlow as vocalist). I will talk about these records in our classic section in due time. Even though this 4CDs have been remastered and entirely repackaged, Days Of Purgatory (best of first three albums "revised" by Jon and Matthew) was already doing the job. Anyway, thanks for these 4CDs : beautiful new artworks for each CD plus a 32 pages booklet containing the history of the band, photos and lyrics. But above all, thanks for this fantastic cover CD : Tribute To The Gods !!! Creatures Of The Night (Kiss) opens this tribute and I am on my knees : if you know how Paul Stanley sings on the original version, you will simply don't believe the vocals of Matthew. Congratulation Matthew, you did it !!! Second track is a classic amongst the classic, The Number Of The Beast (Iron Maiden) : I think it was risky choice, but Iced Earth did it quite well at the end, even though it is not the best cover. Next track sees the arrival of Highway To Hell (AC/DC) and this one simply kills. Bunin' For You (Blue Oyster Cult) is simply amazing, thanks to Matthew ... who sing again like Paul Stanley : quite a weird song as this one doesn't belong to Kiss and after many spins, your mind believes it is a Kiss song. Simply unbelievable !!! God of Thunder (Kiss) is OK, but next track, Screaming For Vengeance (Judas Priest), is perfect and Matthew sings again like a God (I know, this "joke" was easy). Alice Cooper, Dead Babies, is a good song version as Black Sabbath ... from Black Sabbath is too. But the best songs for me are It's A Long Way To The Top (AC/DC) & Hallowed Be Thy Name (Iron Maiden). I can tell you that these two songs alone justify the buying of this limited box set. My mind is blown away !!! At the end, as I grew up with the same bands Jon did, it is normal to "headbang" on each track ... but Iced Earth added their own sound to each song, which makes this Tribute To The Gods a MUST have !!! Now if you still don't know this band :-((, this limited 5CDs box is the best starting point you could ever dream of. "Iron Maiden is my favorite band" says Jon Schaffer (guitarist - main songwriter). When you listen carefully to Iced Earth and when I see the packaging of Iced Earth's release since Days Of Purgatory, Jon knows how to please Iced Earth's fans and he follows the same road Iron Maiden opened twenty years ago. Thanks again Jon for this wonderful Christmas gift !!!