I entered this discussion lately, but I think it´s time to tell my opinion to this guy called IcedInFlames:
Everybody here knows that opinions are like assholes....!
I do not want to offend anybody, but when I read this shit I could get...no matter!

uke:
When I saw Ripper playing live with Priest in Cologne I thought:
"Uh well, nice songs, two really bad guitar players(I know now that this isn´t true, but that evening they didn´t even get the intro of Victim Of Changes played tight), some static and silly posing, but this singer really made the best of it." He did a great a job back then and he was the only one who convinced me not to leave the show after half an hour.
His voice is damn cool!! AND... HE IS NOT MATT BARLOW. HE IS THE FUCKING RIPPER OWENS and now hopefully does HIS job. Matt was great and Matt was different. I admit he had a very emotional voice, but Owens is simply ... Owens. And because he is Owens he is different.
And if somebody doesn´t like him, OK, but then FUCK OFF!
You needn´t tell everybody how much you dislike the new material 213455890 times, you needn´t tell how much you would like to see Matt back in Iced Earth 213455891 times and YOU needn´t call names, as you did with that 14 year old kid in the other thread, who said he liked Red Baron!
I am thankful for every 14 year old kid who is into heavy metal and doesn´t support Britney Spears.
Every band wants to be successful and I think nobody, and I am really sure about this,will say: " Oh well, we shouldn´t get any more fans now, because our old die-hard fans might think we sell out!!!!" BULLSHIT
But then there are people like you. You think you are a metal fan and you tell everybody, but many metal fans have one great sickness: I call it the yesterday-everything-was-better-syndrome: Look to the future, not the past. Owens should get his chance. And I can imagine some of you guys hanging around here in several years when Ripper left the band and say:"That new one sucks, Ripper was so cool!"
But as you, IcedInFlames, are god and the center of the universe and the reincarnation of Criss Oliva and Cliff Burton, I bet you will soon tell me and all your immediate environment your opinion about that annoying sucker (me) who wants all the good bands to sell out, and about how bad everything is NOW and how good everything was yesterday.
But as I said...
Opinions are like assholes! And everybody should be able to show his....