ICED EARTH drummer Brent Smedley has checked in with the following European tour update:

"Hello again friends and fellow Metal Heads. Welcome to the 5th Road Rage report from The Worldwide Wicked Tour, Chapter 1: Europe.

We have come to the Scandanavian section of the tour and we begin in Malmo, Sweden. This was the first time for Iced Earth to play in Malmo. We played a place called Kulturbolaget, it looked to be a fairly old club by the look of the memorabilia on the walls and throughout the dressing room, which was located upstairs. We had a small mishap with the backdrop (it fell down) but Drum Tech Dominik was there to save me from being covered. The crowd was lively and the show was great…at one point during the set ('Declaration Day') the crowd waved around a large American flag…that is always great to see outside the U.S.

The next day we traveled to Oslo, Norway to play a place called Rockefeller. This was an amazing venue with a massive stage, an awesome light show and a very high ceiling. This was the band’s first time to play in Norway – it is always a great feeling to spread the Metal to new lands. Then we traveled back to Sweden to play in Gothenburg at a place called Tradgarn. The band played here on the Horror Show tour about five years ago. The show was amazing and one of my personal bests. Some old friends came to the show; Roger (the director of the '10,000 Strong' video, among others), and some members from Evergrey were present as well.

Today marked the departure of our light guy (Chris Mermod)…he also plays bass for Samaeland. They have a few gigs coming up, but he will return on the second UK gig. Best of luck Chris! So we welcome new light guy Paul during Chris’s absence.

We then had an off day in Stockholm, Sweden, with a gig the next day at a place called Tyrol. I am happy to report that my sickness is all but gone, unfortunately some of the other guys seem to have taken ill. It is kind of hard not to pass things around when we all travel on the same bus. The next day we played the gig in Stockholm. Tyrol is located in a very scenic part of town, which is right on the water and also right beside a carnival area. Some of the locals said that it is very active in the summer time. I was able to get some nice pictures of some magnificent statues and architecture. There were fans at the gig from the moment we arrived, which was very early in the day, until the moment we left, which was of course very late. One group in particular appeared to be a mother and her sons and another a pair of brothers, with this show being the younger brothers very first concert...you’ve got to love that. The venue was rather peculiar as well, with scenes of the countryside painted on all the walls, including behind the stage. We were told that they just started having Metal shows here and it is easy to believe.

The following day we played in Copenhagen, Denmark. We played a place called Pumphuset. It has very small stage with even smaller dressing rooms. There was another one-handed shower here (oh the glamour of it all). The crowd here was amazing. It was a packed house and the heat onstage was intense…you could feel the flow of molten Metal (I think I lost five pounds this night). It was an awesome show, with the crowd still screaming for more even after a three-song encore. With this show we are officially half way through the tour. We have five more headlining shows in Europe and then we head to the U.K. for 11 shows in support of HEAVEN AND HELL.

We finally got back our original bus, remember it broke down early in tour. Once the trailer was fixed (yes, that broke down too, actually several times) we began to travel to Hamburg, Germany for a show at the Markthalle.

Stay tuned for more excitement and news from the road!"

METAL LIVES – Brent

Iced Earth wrap up their current European headlining tour in Antwerp, Belgium tonight (November 2nd) at Hof Ter Lo.