Special report by Mark Gromen

Morrisound, quickly becoming my home away from home in Florida. With ICED EARTH mixing/mastering the mammoth two-part Set Abominae concept at the fabled studio, this marks my third privileged visit to hear the music, hot off the press (so to speak). Initial reaction? Apart from the obvious fan-approved return of vocalist Matt Barlow, it’s the heaviness and guitar-oriented nature of the Part II material. Granted Framing Armageddon needed to set up the story, the main character’s birth only comes to fruition on this record’s first proper track, ‘Behold The Wicked Child’. While the anticipated and prophesized annihilation of mankind is not forthcoming (“It goes right up until now,” claims its creator), the new album IS more aggressive and intense, without sacrificing the choirs, orchestral instrumentation and world music elements (hand drumming, etc.) that characterized the initial platter.

“This is only one medium for the story,” says mainman Jon Schaffer, having previously hinted at comic books/graphic novels and/or some sort of visual treatment. “So I didn’t want to end the story. There’s so much more that can be told. Howard, who works here at Morrisound, was able to assemble a 16-person choir. He works with a church group and they were able to come in over Memorial Day weekend. They’re singing in Latin (on ‘In Sacred Flames’), so those parts had to be written out for them. I’ve wanted to work with a choir since ‘Angels Holocaust’ off (Night Of The) Stormrider. In a perfect world, I would have gone to Prague (Czech Republic) to work with a full orchestra and choir, but at least we didn’t have to take a slice of the Conan soundtrack and build it up, like we did on Stormrider!”

In March, when BW&BK; visited Schaffer in the studio, he mentioned something about Barlow writing lyrics for a couple of tracks, as the lyrics for part II were still a work in progress at that point. Turns out, Barlow contributed to at least five songs! Over a dinner of Carrabba’s Chicken Bryan (an excellent recommendation) we discuss the songwriting process.

“Matt’s a good lyricist,” says the understated guitarist. “There’s no one else I would have trusted with lyrics. We’re on the same wavelength and he knows the story. He asked questions back in the old days. You can’t do this if you don’t ask questions. I gave him directions. ‘This is what the song’s about. These are the bullet points, things that need to be mentioned, time lines,’ whatever. He came up with some great stuff and cool vocal melodies as well. Yes, this is my story, but lyrically, I don’t feel I have as much to say as I used to. I need someone to help out with that. If a song says ‘Jon Schaffer’ on it, that means I wrote what you’re hearing; music, lyrics, vocal melodies, cadences, whenever there’s a scream… It’s all mapped out. It’s not like I only do the guitar parts and say I wrote the song. Some bands do that, but that’s not how it works in Iced Earth. I played 95% of the guitars, lead and rhythm, on these (two) albums, as well as most of the bass. Because my rhythm playing is such a recognized part of the Iced Earth sound, people assume I don’t play the lead melodies on the albums. False. If I stopped playing rhythm to go to single note melodies live ,the power of the band drops dramatically so the lead guitar plays about a quarter to half the notes I’m playing on the fast stuff and then brought up in the mix during the melodies. Troy (Seeley) did two solos on the album that are really cool, but it’s better for the guy who wrote it, to play it. I can’t force stuff. I have to be passionate about it. We don’t write shallow shit like ‘Let’s go party. Let’s go fuck chicks’ or, ‘Let’s be metal, raise your fist,’ cheesy shit.”
“The songs were titled,” continues Schaffer, dismissing any notion that record #2 was in any way compromised or altered due to the shifts in lineup or feedback garnered from Framing Armageddon.

“That had nothing to do with it. Things outside the band don’t influence my work, or who I am. ‘Come What May’ (with extra studio time, a radio edit was concocted, just in case)… I knew that one would end the record. I write music to fit the title of the song. It wasn’t like I wrote 15 extra songs without any direction in mind. I’m covering 10,000 years of storytelling in part 1, so I needed to have more segues,” warding off criticism of the “non-metal” moments within the plot.

“Actually, it’s right around the same number this time. If you don’t like ‘em, fast-forward through it. This is a theatrical record. It’s not something you’re supposed to half-assed pay attention to. Sit down, listen to it, absorb it! From my perspective, that’s what this record is. I don’t think there’s a lot of fluff on either one of them.”

Yet, over the two days in the studio, he re-thinks the validity/necessity of the segues, altogether. “I have to think about it tonight, decide if I’m going to edit some stuff down or leave it the way it is. It’s different when you’re working on bits of individual songs than listening to it as a whole. I have the order in my mind, but when it’s done, did it come out as I envisioned, the flow of the record?” Upon my departure, he planned to have two alternate mastered versions of the album, one with segues, the other not (“I want the flow to be like a sharp kick in the nuts.”) which he would take with him to Indiana, to “live with” for a week or so, before deciding.

Sometimes the vision changes. Case in point, ‘A Gift Or A Curse?’, Set Abominae’s self-evaluation, which began life quite differently and not even as part of the concept album.

“That song was going to be a Demons & Wizards song, part of it,” contends Jon. “I wasn’t happy with where it was going at that time. Instead of having the acoustic play every part, we arranged it so there are other instruments. Jim (Morris, producer) is the one who turned me on to Peter Gabriel, which is the inspiration for the arrangement of the ‘mellow’ parts of the song. Jim got a co-writing credit because he plays all the Strat guitar, while I play the acoustic and Dennis (Hayes, departed bassist) is playing bass. It does have a different vibe. The lead guitar style I wanted Jim to play, as the song fades, is kind of a David Gilmour style, of which we are both huge fans – ‘70s is a good way of putting it. Vocally, we’ve harmonized before, Matt doing lead and me tucked behind him. This is the opposite (Schaffer singing lead, or backed by Barlow!), although the turnarounds and heavy sections, that’s Matt. It’s got a tragic feel to it, very melodic.”

The use of hand-drummed percussion and multi-voice choir make ‘Harbinger Of Fate’ similarly melodic, if not ethereal. “Iced Earth has always had songs that sound like that. I’ve used clean guitars with weird effects (to say nothing of tolling bells) many times through the years. It’s dynamics. I think of a title or a theme of what the song’s going to be about, get it in my head and let it grow. The choir on that one, the bridge part, came out pretty cool. The only way you can get 16 people to sing in Latin, is they have to be sight-readers. That’s not my world. I write the stuff, but it comes from within. I don’t know what I’m doing, by theory. There’s a program called Syllabus, which takes the MIDI (keyboard) files from your computer and prints out sheet music. Again, that’s where Howard comes in.”

Even though European festival dates will be devoid of any new material, except perhaps ‘I Walk Alone’, Schaffer isn’t unfazed by the difficulty inherent in possibly bringing these songs to the stage. Just the opposite, in fact.

“I don’t worry about that. We won’t play anything off Part II until it’s out. We’ve got time for that. The summer is focused on Matt coming back and the classic Iced Earth stuff. Live performances are here and gone, but a record is for posterity. I don’t want ‘How we gonna do this live?’ to hinder something that will outlive me. Iced Earth music is hard anyway. Anyone who says otherwise is a moron and not playing it right. Rhythmically it’s very difficult stuff. Not all of it. ‘I Died For You’ certainly isn’t, but ‘Travel In Stygian’ is. There are ways to do this live. When we did Gettysburg, we couldn’t take a 55-piece orchestra with us, so we had to use tapes. We’d have to have the budget of PINK FLOYD to pull it off with live musicians, but in the fall, we’ll do several things off the new album.”

The album hits stores at the end of August, just in time for the North American tour, scheduled to begin in September. For a track-by-track synopsis of the new disc, click here.