Ashes of Ares
Ashes of Ares
Nuclear Blast
2013
What do people do when they depart their man bands? Well, call up their buddies in their arch-nemesis bands or other bands that they have toured with that have also been ousted and form a new band. Singer turned cop, but still awesome vocalist Matt Barlow did just that, after departing Iced Earth for the second time, only to be replaced by the cheap shot sound-alike (that however has to mix 2 vocal lines in the studio to sound remotely like Barlow and hardly has any comparable high notes) Stu Block. (if you want any justification just watch the live at Kourion, with Block butchering a good number of old songs, live) He picked up one Freddie Vidales, some guy that Jon Schaffer had picked up in Iced Earth’s later reincarnations and turned him from bassist into bassist & guitarist and also enlisted the services of ex-Nevermore member Van Williams on drums to complete the lineup, (which suggests that they would probably acquire some touring members as well).
So what does their debut album, that Nuclear Blast was so fast to sign, sounds like? To my ears, they don’t dare, to directly imitate the Iced Earth riffs, but because, of Barlow’s distinct vocals, the comparisons are instantaneous. Vidales, is probably better than Schaffer, many guitarists could easily claim that, but the problem is that Schaffer has a couple of signature riffs and has managed to write a bunch of songs that were proven to be quite classic, even if in recent times he did seem to hit a writer’s block, prior to the coming of Stu. (excuse the double pun). So while Vidales, is sufficient for his role, his riffs are very generic and uninteresting, while his solos are weak, often short and unimaginative. Van Williams is OK, just pretty much following through with what he has to do, not really sticking out, positively or negatively. The production handled by J. Morris is pretty good too. The cover is also too unimaginative and reminded me of a chap rip off of the “American Angel” logo.
“The Messenger” is not particularly bad and has a nice main riff, bringing to mind the more epic, mid tempo moments of, Barlow’s Former band. Think some parts of “The Hunter” crossed with “Dante’s Infernto”…
“Move the Chains” is a slower, bludgeon of a track, but its riff is derivative from one of the previous ones and it’s not really, much to talk about, mostly impressing towards the end… but really sort of casting a shadow of doubt, already about how good the songwriting might be…
“On Warrior’s Wings” is quite a mess, while it begins as a slow song, it then becomes faster, via some lyrical passages and when songs sort of meddle with religion and warfare… I prefer to keep away… there’s no glory in massacre, and no gorging of idols in blood, only money to be made for the rich and only fools to expire.
“Punishment” would have liked to have been – punishing, but it’s just too mid-tempo to be anything of the sort...
“This is My Hell” is a little reminiscent of Iced Earth around “Dark Saga”, not entirely stylistically – but I’m wondering if they lyrics are sort of trying to elude to sort of continuation of that “story” of “Spawn...
“Dead Man’s Plight” actually is one of the more interesting songs on offer, because it’s somewhat softer, prog, almost... and it turned out to be the lead single of the album. I suppose Iced Earth had an era that they sounded a bit like that, but because of the different membership here, this sounds somewhat different too.
“Chalice of Man” tries unsuccessfully to be theatrical, with its choral vocals and everything... mainly because of its lame chorus...
“The Answer” is a ballad, which is not bad, but cannot be compared with the pretty good numbers that Barlow did with Iced Earth. Obviously, he still wins hands down or even w/o using his hands when compared with Block, who can’t sing a ballad to save his life.
“What I Am” is a pseudo-macho song, with quite the extreme vocal performances, from Barlow, but all in all, it doesn’t quite hold up, compared with the “old glories”…
Finally “The One-Eyed King” supposedly about Odin? Is a pretty good mid tempo that never however, really manages to become GREAT!
I suppose that’s also a good parallelism about the band, not greater than the sum of its parts and I’d have to say it’s probably down to the lack of a good guitar player/songwriter. Maybe next time they’ll come up with something better, for now it’s Iced Earth “light”, not that the Iced Earth themselves are really focused on putting out quality albums – I mean their last good album – was “Something Wicked” after all – and I mean THE ORIGINAL one! (and that was AGES AGO)
So what does their debut album, that Nuclear Blast was so fast to sign, sounds like? To my ears, they don’t dare, to directly imitate the Iced Earth riffs, but because, of Barlow’s distinct vocals, the comparisons are instantaneous. Vidales, is probably better than Schaffer, many guitarists could easily claim that, but the problem is that Schaffer has a couple of signature riffs and has managed to write a bunch of songs that were proven to be quite classic, even if in recent times he did seem to hit a writer’s block, prior to the coming of Stu. (excuse the double pun). So while Vidales, is sufficient for his role, his riffs are very generic and uninteresting, while his solos are weak, often short and unimaginative. Van Williams is OK, just pretty much following through with what he has to do, not really sticking out, positively or negatively. The production handled by J. Morris is pretty good too. The cover is also too unimaginative and reminded me of a chap rip off of the “American Angel” logo.
“The Messenger” is not particularly bad and has a nice main riff, bringing to mind the more epic, mid tempo moments of, Barlow’s Former band. Think some parts of “The Hunter” crossed with “Dante’s Infernto”…
“Move the Chains” is a slower, bludgeon of a track, but its riff is derivative from one of the previous ones and it’s not really, much to talk about, mostly impressing towards the end… but really sort of casting a shadow of doubt, already about how good the songwriting might be…
“On Warrior’s Wings” is quite a mess, while it begins as a slow song, it then becomes faster, via some lyrical passages and when songs sort of meddle with religion and warfare… I prefer to keep away… there’s no glory in massacre, and no gorging of idols in blood, only money to be made for the rich and only fools to expire.
“Punishment” would have liked to have been – punishing, but it’s just too mid-tempo to be anything of the sort...
“This is My Hell” is a little reminiscent of Iced Earth around “Dark Saga”, not entirely stylistically – but I’m wondering if they lyrics are sort of trying to elude to sort of continuation of that “story” of “Spawn...
“Dead Man’s Plight” actually is one of the more interesting songs on offer, because it’s somewhat softer, prog, almost... and it turned out to be the lead single of the album. I suppose Iced Earth had an era that they sounded a bit like that, but because of the different membership here, this sounds somewhat different too.
“Chalice of Man” tries unsuccessfully to be theatrical, with its choral vocals and everything... mainly because of its lame chorus...
“The Answer” is a ballad, which is not bad, but cannot be compared with the pretty good numbers that Barlow did with Iced Earth. Obviously, he still wins hands down or even w/o using his hands when compared with Block, who can’t sing a ballad to save his life.
“What I Am” is a pseudo-macho song, with quite the extreme vocal performances, from Barlow, but all in all, it doesn’t quite hold up, compared with the “old glories”…
Finally “The One-Eyed King” supposedly about Odin? Is a pretty good mid tempo that never however, really manages to become GREAT!
I suppose that’s also a good parallelism about the band, not greater than the sum of its parts and I’d have to say it’s probably down to the lack of a good guitar player/songwriter. Maybe next time they’ll come up with something better, for now it’s Iced Earth “light”, not that the Iced Earth themselves are really focused on putting out quality albums – I mean their last good album – was “Something Wicked” after all – and I mean THE ORIGINAL one! (and that was AGES AGO)