The day was February 24th, I landed at SLC International airport in the early evening. I had just gotten back from a cruise heading down to Mexico. I barely had time to put my bags in my apartment when it was time to head to a concert I'd been looking forward to for a long time: Iced Earth and Symphony X.
The show started out with the Neo-Thrash Metal band Warbringer. Warbringer - Living In A Whirlwind It was weird seeing these guys on the bottom peg of a tour again. Just last year they had been headlining their own tour, although I didn't see them because it was on the same night as another concert that I felt had priority. They are highly regarded as one of the bands at the forefront of the New Wave Of Thrash Metal that has come about in recent years. They really get the crowd moving, and are an impressive live act.
Now here is were I got a little let down: Warbringer leaves the stage, the roadies drop their backdrop and behind it is Iced Earth's backdrop. The way the ticket was printed and the impression of everyone I talked to, was that Iced Earth were to be the headliner. Iced Earth had not been to Utah for 8 years, the amount of time I've know of them and have loved their music. Now they were an opener and that meant they were going to play a shorter set than the headliners, what a bummer. Iced Earth, along with Kamelot, and Jag Panzer, are the leaders of the American Power Metal scene. American Power Metal sounds a lot different from the traditional European Power Metal such as Blind Guardian or Helloween, but the similarities are there too (Iced Earth - Birth Of The Wicked, Kamelot - The Haunting, Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side, Helloween - Back Against The Wall). But to my sorrow I realized as the band took the stage that the singer was not Matt Barlow, the voice that made me love Iced Earth in the first place. I've since learned the singer's name is Stu Block, but he sounded identical to Matt Barlow and could even hit higher notes than Matt could. The performance blew me away! A very acceptable replacement for Mr. Barlow. It was my first Power Metal show, and I really hope not my last.One thing I did notice about Power Metal concerts is that there are a lot of nerds there... maybe its because the entire genre was started on medieval themes and J.R.R. Tolkien's books.
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| Iced Earth |
Seeing Symphony X after Iced Earth was not exciting for me, like going to church on Christmas when you're a kid: I've opened my presents, got exactly what I wanted and asked for, now I had to leave it and go to boring old church. Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy Symphony X and own a few of their albums. But I enjoy them like I enjoy the band Dragonforce, one or two songs at a time; unlike other Prog Metal bands like Dream Theater, Fates Warning, and Porcupine Tree, all of whom I can listen to all day long. There is something about them that makes me exhausted when I listen to them too much, a feeling I also get listening to Yngwie J. Malmsteen for a long time. One of their best songs, in my opinion is Symphony X - Out Of The Ashes. Had they been on before Iced Earth I probably would have enjoyed them a lot more live, and surprisingly Symphony X's set was a half hour shorter than Iced Earth's. This was the first time Symphony X had ever played in Utah, and the giant crowd that turned out was a great representation of our Metal scene (for once). I definitely would see them again if they come back, it was just that they were after my beloved Iced Earth that made me a little miffed at them.
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| Symphony X |
Random After Thought: My Favorite Power Metal Bands
- Helloween
- Blind Guardian
- Edguy
- Iced Earth (Matt Barlow albums)
- Kamelot (Roy Khan albums)
- Tobias Sammet's Avantasia
- Demons & Wizards
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