Author: Rok Klemše
Location: SKC / Belgrade / Serbia
Concert date: 22.11.2011
Attendance: 800
Ticket price: 2,000,00 RSD (approx. 20,00€)
American power metal giants Iced Earth have dropped their new record Dystopia, which takes them back to their old thrash-tinged power metal roots, and the ranks have been shaken up again too. Matt Barlow has left the band once more, and stepping into his shoes is Stu Block, whom we know from the Canadian outfit Into Eternity. Sadly, this tour skipped our country, and Serbia’s capital once again proved to be the most tempting stop. Iced Earth set foot in front of a nicely packed SKC hall, right in the heart of Belgrade, for the first time ever and played a show that will be remembered for a long, long time.
First onto the SKC stage were English heavy metal trio Fury UK, part of the ever-growing crowd of new-school heavy metal bands trying to live in the spirit of the eighties and the classic heavy metal “revival”, like Enforcer, White Wizzard, Katana and many others. That’s a double-edged sword for bands like this: if they only live in the spirit of the eighties and add nothing to their version of heavy metal that even slightly smells of their own signature, they’re in trouble. Unfortunately, Fury UK fell into that trap too, even though they stormed the SKC stage furiously and with real punch. The lads command the stage and the crowd with confidence, like old tomcats, the guitar lines run like Bruce Dickinson in spandex, and the rhythm section pounds like Halford’s Harley (you caught that subtle gay joke, right?). And that’s exactly where Fury UK stumble when it comes to building on their energetic performance, because with every second riff and every second vocal line you get that déjà vu feeling of “I’ve heard this somewhere before.” The trio from Manchester leans far too heavily on the golden years of the NWOBHM and early Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and they really shot themselves in the foot by shoving a drum solo into their three-quarter-hour set, the point of which still isn’t entirely clear to me. It sounded like something a five-year-old would play on a kids’ drum kit. Fury UK were nothing special, then, but we’ve suffered through plenty of bands that weren’t even worth the name on the poster, so Fury UK could be washed down well enough with a Jelen or two.
But we came to Belgrade for one thing only anyway (well, if you don’t count the rounds of Jelen beer and the fuel of burek and ćevapčići, without which a trip to Belgrade is unthinkable)! Iced Earth, obviously! After a long time wandering in the dark, Schaffer and his boys found the light again with the new album Dystopia, which marks a return to the band’s roots, that is, the first-class blend of Iron Maiden and thrash metal influences that Iced Earth have been famous for since the very start of their career. Despite Matt Barlow’s (renewed) bitter departure, the band’s original vocalist, Iced Earth clearly got the much-needed kick in the pants with his exit and the arrival of new vocalist Stu Block (Into Eternity), after the boring, soul-crushing end of the saga of Schaffer’s character Set Abominae. Dytopia is once again an album full of rage and aggression on one side, and unforgettable melodies and fantastic choruses that get under your skin in an instant on the other. Expectations ahead of the first tour of the (again) refreshed Iced Earth were therefore sky-high. Iced Earth dedicated a big chunk of the setlist to the current album Dystopia, and it was with the title track that they welcomed us into their ranks of rebels. The guys justified the enormous expectations right from the first moments, because the band hasn’t looked this fired up since at least the Horror Show tour! Brent Smedley pounded the drums like the rebels in Equillibrium rising against tyrannical rule, and Jon Schaffer has clearly been training his mighty right hand again (what has he been doing with it, hehe?), his destructive hand raked across the strings like a tsunami, and it’s damn nice to hear that the yawn-inducing The Crucible of Man was nowhere near the band’s zenith. The new songs are once again soaked in the stormy energy we were used to from Iced Earth in the past, and the energy of the guys on stage matched it, never letting up until the very end. Much of the credit for that undoubtedly goes to the new member, Stu Block, who was something of a mystery before the show, especially how he would handle the Barlow-era songs. But the moment Stu opened his vocal cords, you instantly forgot that Matt Barlow wouldn’t be on stage anymore. Stu shone from the first vocal line to the last, brilliantly nailed even the most emotionally heavy songs, and technically blew away every doubter with a deep baritone and high falsettos that even outdo the Ripper. On top of that, he brought back a real frontman to Iced Earth, one who could teach the Ripper a thing or two about proper stage presence. Iced Earth flew high on the wings of Stu’s youthful enthusiasm and inexhaustible well of energy, with no crash landing. The top-notch performance was only improved by an excellent setlist dominated, of course, by the rebel anthems of the new album, which have already taken hold of the crowd brilliantly, with the choruses roared back at the band in our company, and Iced Earth also managed to win over even the most demanding fans with a few real gems. Angel’s Holocaust, the epic When the Night Falls and the ominous Damien speak for themselves. The explosive peak of the show was undoubtedly the seventeen-minute trip through Dante’s Hell, with the epic classic Dante’s Inferno, of course, which Iced Earth had last played as part of the cult live album Alive in Athens. What a diabolical journey that was! And to close, the hot and furious Serbian crowd delivered a unique moment in Iced Earth’s career. The guys didn’t end their set with the classic Iced Earth anthem, but had to give in to the demands of an insatiable crowd that wanted more. And for the finale, we got My Own Savior too!
So in the dystopian society of Iced Earth, there’s no Big Brother control, no totalitarian repression, no brainwashing, no dependence on technology, and no feeling that a human life is worth only as much as the dystopian regime says it is. No! In the state of Iced Earth, all that matters are sawing riffs, phenomenal and unforgettable choruses and a cannon of a rhythm section, and especially every single person on stage and every single person below it who thoroughly wrecked their neck at one of the best shows of my “concert career.” “Remember, remember the 23rd of November” will echo in the heads of everyone at the Belgrade show for a long time to come.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik and Matjaž Šter (bottom right photo in the gallery)
Setlist
1.Dystopia 2.Angels Holocaust 3.Slave to the Dark 4.V 5.Stand Alone 6.When the Night Falls 7.Damien 8.Dark City 9.The Hunter 10.Anthem 11.Declaration Day 12.Watching Over Me —encore I.— 13.Dante’s Inferno 14.Iced Earth —encore II.— 15.My Own Savior
Photo Gallery
