New Iced Earth guitarist announced

[Cheiron]

An interesting choice..

ICED EARTH mainman Jon Schaffer has sent the following announcement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:

"The new ICED EARTH guitar player is an absolutely fantastic player from the U.K. named Tim Mills. Tim is the owner/founder/visionary of Bare Knuckle Pickups, which is an incredible company providing state-of-the-art handwound pickups from England, which is how I met him. I highly recommend any and all serious players to check out his website and try a few of his pickups; they absolutely rule. The web address is www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk. As for his playing, it's awesome, very melodic, very tasty and he has great original ideas and songwriting abilities as well. He's here now and we're really inspiring each other and coming up with some great parts together. It's been a very long time since I've felt this kind of chemistry and I'm very psyched about it. It's an ingredient that's been missing for a very long time, so it should bring some very cool results.

 

[Braxil]

Let's hope this one isn't facing any rape charges.

 

[Flavio CotM]

No we only need Jon to tell us for xmas that Barlow is coming back!!!!!

 

[BlackenedDawn]

I am so confused. So the one dude that Jon was all gung ho about earlier in the year is not in the band? and he is a rapist and crazy violent fuck? And he is a guitar teacher here in md? LOL. And I assume he isn't in the band anymore. That's just so funny; I remember reading about how he was the greatest guitar player Jon had ever heard and he is this whack job nut case. What a way to enlist a band!

 

[angrarox]

Don't know crap about these guys but I thought it was wierd that he made the announcement to blabbermouth or whatever the crap it is before it was posted on their own website.
JOE

 

[TBJ]

This never-ending revolving-door thing with Iced Earth has made me like the band less and less as the years go by. I wanna say they totally lost me when Barlow left.

But I am willing to give them another try when the new album(s) come out. I hope its not all regurgitated triplets.

 

[mëtålspëd]

Why would the members in a band make you dislike them (aside from an obvious vocal change)? I can understand a vocal swap, but anything else???? If the music kicks ass, does it matter who is playing it?

 

[TBJ]

Why would the members in a band make you dislike them (aside from an obvious vocal change)? I can understand a vocal swap, but anything else???? If the music kicks ass, does it matter who is playing it?

Thats the thing, the music doesnt kick ass anymore(imho), one of the reasons i dont like them as much anymore( and I use the term 'them' loosely) is because the music is not up to par to standards set by their past albums.

Listen to Burnt Offerings or Dark Saga, read the credits.

Listen to The Glorious Burden, read the credits.

The older albums sound layered, and more complex, which I would attribute in part to bandmember's input. Yet the last one sounded tired, samey, simple song structures, simple riffs.

I think that bandmembers 'do' influence the quality of music, hence why I feel a band suffers when there is a revolving door policy. Listen to the bass in Horror Show, best bass ever in any Iced Earth album. Listen to the drums in the Richard Christy albums, vs the older ones. There is a difference, albeit small. Sidenote- i wished Jon would have let Christy go nuts like Chuck used to do in the DEath Albums.

I know this is probably not Jon's fault(though some reports say otherwise) but at the same time, I guess he needs to really look at who he's hiring and maybe see if they can contribute to the song-writing. It's his baby but me, as well as a lot of people I know, are getting tired of the triplet overload.

Or maybe I just like to identify with the "band" not the "individuals".

Either way, I am hyped about the Something Wicked continuation. I hope he can write layered, complex shit again.

 

[Braxil]

I personally think Iced Earth did their best stuff on Stormrider, glad they recorded a bunch of that stuff again with Barlow later.

 

[longshot9]

Band just ain't the same without Barlow. IMO. Ripper is a great singer, but he should be fronting his own band where his style becomes associated with that band.

 

[PureXul]

Don't know crap about these guys but I thought it was wierd that he made the announcement to blabbermouth or whatever the crap it is before it was posted on their own website.
JOE

Their site has been pertually out of date for at least 5 years now, probably longer. Jon has never fully embraced how valuable their online presence can and should be, especially during downtime for the band. There used to be a great fan site that filled the void (IcedRealm.de for those who remember it), but the webmaster decided to close down.


As far as the Ripper/Barlow debate...I want to see how Ripper sounds on an album that Jon wrote with his voice specifically in mind, rather than just an album where he came in after it was written with Barlow's style in mind. I don't think he'll ever fit the band as well as Barlow did, but there were some moments on TGB and Gettysburg especially where I think Ripper's delivery sounds better than Barlow would've. Either way, I'm very much looking forward to the Something Wicked concept albums.

 

[Mooseknuckle]

The older albums sound layered, and more complex, which I would attribute in part to bandmember's input.

I don't know if I agree with this. Jon has said in countless interviews that he is the sole musical contributor in the band. He writes all the music and the other guys play what he tells them to. I agree that a musicians personal style can affect the way a song may come out, but the only one we can blame for Iced Earth's lackluster songwriting is Jon.

As for the Owens/Barlow debate, I think we need to hear the new album before I make my decision. I saw them live on the last tour and Ripper was absolutely amazing. Even on the Barlow songs, his delivery was awesome. The Glorious Burden was not written with Ripper as the vocalist, so I think when Jon recorded the vocals, he just wanted to "show off" how powerful Owens' voice is. Let's see what an album written for Ripper sounds like. Of course, this is all a moot point since Barlow doesn't seem to have any intention of coming back to music.

 

[TBJ]

I don't know if I agree with this. Jon has said in countless interviews that he is the sole musical contributor in the band. He writes all the music and the other guys play what he tells them to. I agree that a musicians personal style can affect the way a song may come out, but the only one we can blame for Iced Earth's lackluster songwriting is Jon.

As for the Owens/Barlow debate, I think we need to hear the new album before I make my decision. I saw them live on the last tour and Ripper was absolutely amazing. Even on the Barlow songs, his delivery was awesome. The Glorious Burden was not written with Ripper as the vocalist, so I think when Jon recorded the vocals, he just wanted to "show off" how powerful Owens' voice is. Let's see what an album written for Ripper sounds like. Of course, this is all a moot point since Barlow doesn't seem to have any intention of coming back to music.

check songwriting credits on some of the old albums... Jon gave Randall shawver credit for some reason.

 

[Bryan316]

I'm just excited to hear that Jon likes this new guy's songwriting ideas! That means he'll allow some input, which I heard he never really used with Tarnowski.

I don't care how good of a songwriter you are. If you allow your band members to help out with ideas, you can only make a song better. I can't imagine writing any of our songs without the four of us sitting together and bouncing ideas back and forth for hours. Hell... that's how we've come up with our most outlandish, over-the-top ideas!

I just wish Jon would do this. Don't get me wrong... I love his riffs. I love his style. But I wonder if some input with the songwriting and flow and structure wouldn't help out more than he'd expect...

 

[TBJ]

I'm just excited to hear that Jon likes this new guy's songwriting ideas! That means he'll allow some input, which I heard he never really used with Tarnowski.

I don't care how good of a songwriter you are. If you allow your band members to help out with ideas, you can only make a song better. I can't imagine writing any of our songs without the four of us sitting together and bouncing ideas back and forth for hours. Hell... that's how we've come up with our most outlandish, over-the-top ideas!

I just wish Jon would do this. Don't get me wrong... I love his riffs. I love his style. But I wonder if some input with the songwriting and flow and structure wouldn't help out more than he'd expect...

i agree with you 100%. yes there are songwriting geniuses out there, but the difference between good and great is usually attributed to more than one person's contribution to a song.

 

[Tanelorn]

Wow -- I have learned a lot about IE in this thread.

Personally, I like their stuff (for the most part) -- all 3 singers.

I had no idea about the guitarist's past. Which one was that? (The one from GB?)

-Tanelorn

 

[Bryan316]

From Glorious Burden was Ralph Santolla.

Before him, Larry Tarnowski on Horror Show, Alive In Athens, Something Wicked.

Randy Shawver on The Dark Saga and everything before.

 

[Pellaz]

I've picked up a lot of info about Iced Earth here, too.



BTW, Tanelorn, not sure if I've mentioned this before, but it's cool to see another MM/Elric fan on the Forum. I ran Mike's international fan club for about 5 years and am still good friends with 'im. I was first turned on to Queensryche (and therefore, prog-metal) by an early Seattle-based member of the club, so it was a life-changing event.

 

[Tanelorn]

Thank you, Pellaz. Cheers!

(sheepishly) I learned of MM from Blind Guardian...

-Tan

 

[Braxil]

I'm just excited to hear that Jon likes this new guy's songwriting ideas! That means he'll allow some input, which I heard he never really used with Tarnowski.

I don't care how good of a songwriter you are. If you allow your band members to help out with ideas, you can only make a song better. I can't imagine writing any of our songs without the four of us sitting together and bouncing ideas back and forth for hours. Hell... that's how we've come up with our most outlandish, over-the-top ideas!

I just wish Jon would do this. Don't get me wrong... I love his riffs. I love his style. But I wonder if some input with the songwriting and flow and structure wouldn't help out more than he'd expect...

He did allow plenty of input from Barlow though.