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There is not one second of this marvelous album that I don’t like. This is THE BEST FUCKING ALBUM EVER MADE! This album is the darkest, angriest, most epic album I ever heard. Every time I hear this album, it sends chills down my spine, always. This album doesn’t need all that “Night of the Stormrider” riffage to make it any better, this is as perfect as it gets. How could Jon Schaffer hate his best album he ever made?
I must admit I didn’t like this album at first. True, it might be something that takes a lot of time (4 months for me) and patience to get into. When I first heard this album, I thought “Oh. It’s just an average release that can be topped easily”. Now, I feel like killing myself for saying that about this album. I have both versions of this album, the original 1995 version and the remastered 2002 version. I have a hard time figuring out which version is better, because they’re both so damn good! In the original version, the album’s production wasn’t all that good. But that was a good thing because it gave the album an epic/evil/angry feeling (which is what this album is known for) that was terminated when they remastered it (but it was still pretty epic). However, the remastered version has a perfect sound quality, and has this awesome crushing sound that the original version didn’t have. In this version, the guitar/drum/vocal parts are so much cleaner and they also have a better sound. So really, I have no idea which version is better. How I see it is there are some songs on this that I prefer in original and some that I prefer in remastered version.
This is the first album with vocalist Matt Barlow. In my opinion, he is the best vocalist Iced Earth ever had (Tim Owens doesn’t fall far behind him). Unlike Adams and Greely, Matt adds emotion to his vocals, which adds to the epic feeling this album has. I couldn’t imagine Greely or Adams singing a note in this album (thank you Jon Schaffer), but I can perfectly imagine Tim Owens singing in this album. Matt Barlow just has the perfect voice for this album; I don’t think anyone can do it better.
Only eight (eight!, but I can say the same thing about “Ride the Lightning” by Metallica) songs make up Iced Earth’s best album, and two of those songs are pretty short. But then again, we also have long songs too (i.e. Dante’s Inferno, the title track), but all eight of those tracks are complete masterpieces, and give the best heavy metal experience EVER!!! Every song in here is epic, well thought out, and what else do you need, IT RULES!
The first masterpiece is called “Burnt Offerings”, which is the title track. It starts off with an epic keyboard intro that always sends chills down my spine. The next part of the song (when Barlow starts singing) is unforgettable. Those first words he speaks will be stuck in your head for weeks. The rest of the song is very heavy (probably IE’s heaviest song) and very epic along with being very demonic. The lyrics talk about hell, which was what Schaffer was going through during his layoff. I must say I prefer the original version better than the remastered version because in the remastered version, when that high-pitched voice says, “You’ll see the things I see”; they added some sort of noise that messes up the line. Matt’s vocals also get off-key a little, so I prefer the original version better. This song is very angry, and it is the second best song on this album.
“Last December” is the second shortest song in this album, but that doesn’t mean shit! This song starts off with a nice acoustic intro and thrashes its way to an awesome song. This song has some great riffs and a very catchy chorus, but not much more can be said about this song (probably because it clocks under 3 ˝ minutes). At first I couldn’t decide which version was better, but when I heard the part between 2:28 and 2:32 of the remastered version, it easily told me it was the better one.
Next we have “Diary”, which is a perfect example of what about the remastered version being great because of that crushing sound. The crushing sound makes this song extra special, because it adds some sort of personality to this song. This song has that epic sound put in the background that is very easy to like. I love this song because it changes speeds very quickly, making it very unpredictable, add that awesome crushing sound, and we’ve got ourselves a very strong Iced Earth song. The only thing I must say is; this song kind of proves Jon Schaffer writes better lyrics than Matt Barlow.
I consider tracks 4-6 to be some sort of trilogy, about the Catholic/Christian religion because the lyrics are based on that religion and their teachings.
One of the first IE songs I ever heard was “Brainwashed”, and there are a lot of people who seem to dislike this song because it’s too slow for this album. The reason I LOVE this song so much and consider it to be the third best song on this album is probably because it’s the first song on this album that I heard, so I got used to it and liked it first. Really, this song may be a little slow, but it still is a very fun song. This song has irresistible vocal lines (i.e. “Lies, foolish lies behind your brainwashed eyes”) that are very hard not to sing along with. The drums are pretty catchy too, especially after the solo. Matt Barlow sings off-key in the remastered version of this song, so I prefer the original version better.
“Burning Oasis” has got to be the most underrated song on here because it’s the song that takes the most time and patience to get into. I remember that I almost gave up on this song because I hated it at first, but then I really took the time to listen to it, and it became on of the most epic songs ever made! If you don’t like this song, please just keep listening to it, it’ll all be worth it in the end. This song is probably the most complex song on this album because it changes the tune about three or four times. Every time the song changes its tune, it gets even more epic, until it releases all of its epicness at the end of the song. It’s a truly amazing song. I like the remastered version of this song.
One of Matt Barlow’s greatest vocal performances has got to be on “Creator Failure”, because he alternates his pissed-off vocals and his awesomely nice vocals perfectly. The lyrics give a very nice message to the listener, but this song isn’t much of a standout from the others, but it doesn’t mean it’s a weak song, trust me, Matt’s vocals will blow you away on this song. To tell you the truth, I prefer this song on the “Days of Purgatory” album instead of both “Burnt Offerings” albums because instead of just blasting your music into your ears, we hear the symbol crash three times.
“The Pierced Spirit” is a beautiful little song, and it’s preparing us for the grand finale of this album.
Here we have it! The grand fucking finale to the best album ever made, “Dante’s Inferno”. This song is a lot like the “Call of Ktulu” by Metallica, not because it’s the longest song on the album, but because it is the best song on this album and the best song ever made by that band. That’s right; “Dante’s Inferno” is the best song on this album and the best Iced Earth song. This song has everything this album has; the epicness, the evil, the anger, and everything else you can think of that this album has. And its 16 muthafuckin minutes long. When something is more than ten minutes in length, it starts to get really boring and has a lot of filler parts in the song, BUT NOT IN THIS SONG! Schaffer keeps this song extremely strong throughout its playing time, without getting boring and without any unnecessary parts added in. “Dante’s Inferno” is a goldmine, it is the cream of the crop, it is the king of the kingdom, and is actually very easy to like. What we got here is the “everything-you-could-want-out-of-Burnt-Offerings” song on this album. If you think the original version is good, just wait till you hear the remastered version.
Overall, it’s very hard to believe this was released in 1995. I hear most music coming out with year was complete shit, but what we’ve got ourselves here is a fucken masterpiece. If you like dark heavy metal albums that sound very very evil, this will probably the best album you’ll find. Other than that, this album is for everybody who is a fan of heavy metal and who is truly dedicated to it.
If you are just beginning to listen to this album and you don’t like it, just please, for the love of god, don’t give up on it. IT’LL GROW ON YOU. IT’LL GROW!
