ICED EARTH - Incorruptible (juin 2017) et fin?

Le groupe va réenregistrer ses premiers albums afin de les ressortir sur son propre label pour en récupérer les droits.

On his recent revelation that ICED EARTH was going to be re-recording some of its early albums with the band's current lineup:

Jon: "As a fan, do I want IRON MAIDEN to go back and mess around with 'The Number Of The Beast' or METALLICA to change 'Ride The Lightning' or [BLACK] SABBATH to change 'Black Sabbath'? No, I don't, because I love 'em the way they are. But we're gonna dig back in to the catalogue and we're gonna do some re-recording and we're gonna do it with the muscle and the talent that's in the band now. And that's not a dig at anybody, because I've worked with amazing people through my whole career, and everybody's contributed. Even if somebody hasn't necessarily written songs, they're contributing, of course, 'cause they're performing. And those are two separate things. Sometimes the line gets blurred in the artist's mind of the difference between performing and the difference between writing, but there is a big difference. And everybody has done the best that they can through the entire catalogue, and it's great — there's been contributions from all. So I'm not one to sit back and say that I wrote everything and I do everything, even though people have accused me of that kind of attitude; that's not the case. Am I the chief songwriter? Absolutely. Am I the driving force of this band? Absolutely. And anybody that's worked around it knows that. And if they say anything different, then they're just lying. So it is what it is.

"For whatever reason, this band… I've been married to it since the concept was brewing in my mind when it was… Well, it started off as THE ROSE, which for a very short-lived time, and then it became PURGATORY, and then it was ICED EARTH ultimately. And I've been completely married to it, completely committed to it since its inception."

On Schaffer not owning the master rights to ICED EARTH's early recordings:

Jon: "The thing is, man, I will never own the masters for [early ICED EARTH albums released through] Century Media unless, all of a sudden, they develop a conscience and say, 'Jon should own his masters.' [Laughs] And believe me, Sony Records did not buy Century Media to start giving artists their rights back. So it's pretty unlikely. And, you know, it's business, and dude, hey, I signed, we all signed it — the origina five guys from the first album, we all signed a very horrible contract. I just finished it. I went and pushed through to the bitter end."

On how ICED EARTH plans to release new music in the future:

Jon: "When we talk about the future for ICED EARTH and the model that we're gonna build for ourselves… Will I start a record label? Yes. Will it be a record label that signs bands? No. It's gonna be a record label that will deal specifically for ICED EARTH and for the projects that I'm involved in. Because through the tenacity of doing this for so many years, I've been able to build a brand, and I can protect that brand from this day going forward in a way that I've never really been able to before. I was gonna start a record company to sign young artists, the only way that I could profit is by fucking those artists over. Because the problem is now that the music industry, the way you sell music has collapsed so much — physical sales are down in everything, whether it's CDs… [they're] really on the way down. Vinyl, fortunately, for ICED EARTH, every album we've ever made has been [released] on vinyl. And the sales since probably, I'm gonna say 2011, it seems like there's a trend where vinyl sales are actually going up. It's not enough to save the music business as it was, but it is cool that people are, for one thing, rediscovering it, they're realizing how cool it is — that's great. But in the old days… back to the whole point of what I'm saying… 'cause I've had young artists and young bands ask me if I'm gonna sign any bands with this label, and I'm just not gonna do it, because I can't invest the time that it would take to run a record company. In the old days, they didn't have to fuck the artist — there was plenty of money coming in, because people were buying product. Now the majority of the income is coming from streaming, and that's a fraction of what it used to be. So you really have to take everything from the band if you're gonna make profit. Or you have to sign a hundred bands with a pretty shitty, mediocre deal, and how are you gonna staff all the people it takes to do that? You can't. That's why the indie labels are being gobbled up by the majors."

On whether he can ever see ICED EARTH signed to another record company in the future:

Jon: "It doesn't mean that I'll never work with a record company again, but it's never gonna represent anything like it did in the past — it's not gonna look like that. It would be as a distribution deal only. There's different concepts right now. It is literally like the Wild West in terms of how an established brand, which is what ICED EARTH is, can go forward and do business around the world — there's a lot of different options. And that's why we're not gonna decide anything right now. 'Cause [ICED EARTH's latet album] 'Incorruptible' has only been out for a few months, and we can easily wait a year, or a year and a half. And in that time, you'll see the physical market will crash at least another 20 or 25 percent, and you'll see more labels go out of business and you'll see more retail stores go out of business. It's changing, man, and it's changing rapidly, and it really started happening around 2008. And it's a double-edged sword, because it can be very good if you're in my position. If you're in the position of a very young band, it's never been easy to do this. But I don't even know how they're gonna get started, how a new band can actually do something and turn it into something big without just being completely raked over the coals. I mean, there will be guys that figure it out — trust me — 'cause that's the way humans work: when shit gets bad, we figure out a way. But I don't know what it's gonna look like. Nobody knows what the new model is. What I'm getting to is the only thing that I'm concerned with is preserving my brand and the projects that I'm in and how I'm gonna push forward so that the people around me are taken care of, myself is taken care of, the people that I'm in business with and, obviously, my family and these people, so that we can survive and thrive — not just survive, but thrive through the changing world of the music business. So it's an exciting time. I'm not afraid of it. I'm looking forward to it."

J'ai eu la flemme de lire, mais ça couvre quels albums?

Les 6 premiers, donc jusqu'à Horror Show inclus.

Ah ouais quand même!

Mouais... ils l'ont déja plus ou moins fait sur Days of Purgatory, pour d'autres raisons.

La première partie de la tournée d'Iced Earth sera assurée par Sanctuary en hommage à Warrel Dane, avec Joseph Michael de Witherfall au chant.

SANCTUARY guitarist Lenny Rutledge comments: "SANCTUARY has decided to continue on with the ICED EARTH tour to pay tribute to our brother Warrel Dane. We have enlisted the help of our friend Joseph Michael from WITHERFALL. The set will consist of many old and some newer songs performed with the utmost respect and quality to honor our friend. Please join us in this farewell as we celebrate Warrel's musical legacy with SANCTUARY. We look forward to sharing this tribute with all of you."

SANCTUARY To Tour With ICED EARTH As Farewell To WARREL DANE; Guest Vocalist Announced

Ça va faire bizarre, le groupe de Dane sans Dane... Mais c'est un bel hommage, je trouve! Non?

La tournée était surement prévu avant son décès, et perso je trouve que c'est lui rendre un bel hommage d'y aller quand même. Pour boucler la boule.

Ouaip, je suis d'accord avec vous.
Au passage c'est assez cool Witherfall (le groupe du chanteur qui remplace Warrel Dane). J'avais écouté leur album et c'est une sorte de heavy un peu prog et sombre, pas mal du tout.

Sur les premières notes, on sent qu'effectivement, il peut avoir un timbre assez proche.
Il y aura sans doute pas mal d'émotion sur cette tournée, je pense...

Matt Barlow est passé dire coucou sur scène:

J'aime toujours autant le timbre de Barlow!

Jon Schaffer va sortir une sorte de livre audio compagné d'un CD. Les extraits sont en fait des pistes atmosphériques sur lesquels il lit les paroles des chansons en question. Pas trop compris le délire...





On the heels of the announcement of his first-ever book "Wicked Words And Epic Tales", ICED EARTH founder, songwriter, guitarist and producer Jon Schaffer has released the second lyric video from the audio CD that accompanies the book. The video for the track is a compilation of footage from early day "Wolfman" horror films that provides the perfect visual bed for the haunting re-imagining that Schaffer has created for the song. The original version of "Wolf" can be found on ICED EARTH's 2001 concept album "Horror Show". The video is the second of three that Schaffer will release as part of his Kickstarter campaign to promote "Wicked Words And Epic Tales". The video can be seen below.

"Wicked Words And Epic Tales" is the debut release from Schaffer's new publishing company Wicked Words, LLC and is the first of many original concepts planned for future release by Schaffer.

"Wicked Words And Epic Tales" is a collection of lyrics, interviews and pages of artwork that Schaffer's work has inspired throughout the years. The book is an anthology of lyrics from Schaffer that span his 35 years in making music in various projects, including ICED EARTH, DEMONS & WIZARDS, SONS OF LIBERTY and PURGATORY. The book comes in two unique covers: one created by Jonboy Meyers, and another by Jim Balent and Roy Young, and is over 200 pages. The coffee-table art book also features original drawings from some of the most notable artists, including Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo, Monte Moore and numerous others. The book also features an audio CD of 15 tracks that is exclusively available with the purchase of the deluxe edition book. Dubbed "A Narrative Soundscape" by Schaffer, these recordings are a completely re-imagined delivery of the lyrics of ICED EARTH songs created exclusively for this release. Longtime collaborator Jim Morris worked with Jon Schaffer of these versions.

Fans can pre-order "Wicked Words And Epic Tales" at this location.

"I wanted to put something together that would be a truly unique experience not only for the fans of my bands, but for newcomers as well," explains Schaffer.

Featured tracks in "Wicked Words And Epic Tales" are:

01. Dystopia (A Narrative Soundscape)
02. Declaration Day (A Narrative Soundscape)
03. Wolf (A Narrative Soundscape)
04. Dante’s Inferno (A Narrative Soundscape)
05. Melancholy (Holy Martyr) (A Narrative Soundscape)
06. Dracula (A Narrative Soundscape)
07. Raven Wing (A Narrative Soundscape)
08. Angels Holocaust (A Narrative Soundscape)
09. The Clouding (A Narrative Soundscape)
10. Something Wicked Trilogy (A Narrative Soundscape)
11. Watching Over Me (A Narrative Soundscape)
12. Seven Headed Whore (A Narrative Soundscape)
13. Damien (A Narrative Soundscape)
14. A Question of Heaven (A Narrative Soundscape)
15. Come What May (A Narrative Soundscape)

Artists that have contributed pieces for "Wicked Words And Epic Tales":

Jim Balent
Jonboy Meyers
Roy Young
David Newman-Stump
Todd McFarlane
Greg Capullo
Tim Vigil
Monte Moore
Danny Miki
Sun Khamunaki
John Gallagher
Emile Levaique
Richard Ortiz
John Giang
Felipe Machado
Jamie Tyndall
Dylan Andrews
Lucio Parrillo
Travis Smith
Nathan Perry
Leo Hao
Eliran Kantor
Axel Herman

Il devait se faire chier pendant le confinement...


Le même genre d'exercice avec des textes de grands auteurs, ça pourrait être intéressant. Mais là, le niveau des lyrics, ça fait un peu de la peine...

Nouveau projet: Schaffer collabore à nouveau avec Matt Barlow... sur une sorte de disque de Noel.      



ICED EARTH founder, songwriter, guitarist and producer Jon Schaffer has reunited with former ICED EARTH vocalist Matt Barlow to celebrate the holiday season as only they can! The duo returns as the SCHAFFER/BARLOW PROJECT and this time are putting their unique spin on five Christmas classics and two ICED EARTH songs.

"Winter Nights" was born out of a long-standing desire between Schaffer and Barlow to work together again. The idea to work on holiday songs was interesting to both guys. The EP features holiday classics like "Silent Night" and "Little Drummer Boy", as well as new interpretations of the ICED EARTH classics "Watching Over Me" and "I Died For You".

"Winter Nights" is available in numerous configurations on Kickstarter and every CD purchase comes with a second bonus 5.1 Surround Sound mix of the EP. The artwork was created by Sun Khamunaki. The SCHAFFER/BARLOW PROJECT plan to release all versions of the EP in time for the holiday season barring any delays due to recent global events. Regardless of the global situation, backers of the campaign will receive their album in 24-bit digital audio as a download on November 15.

Schaffer and Barlow's first collaborative recording since 2008 will feature the following songs:

01. We Three Kings
02. Silent Night
03. Do You Hear What I Hear?
04. Little Drummer Boy
05. I Died For You (Winter 2020)
06. Watching Over Me (Winter 2020)
07. Silent Night (Traditional)

In a video message announcing the project, Barlow said: "This is something that Jon and I had been talking about for many years. It just so happens that it's the right time. These are some Christmas classics that we've decided to do, and also add some reimaginings of some ICED EARTH songs in there with it. So it's really gonna be pretty damn cool, man."

Schaffer added: "The idea, for whatever reason, popped in my head, and I called Matt. And I was in the middle of another production, so we had this short window of time; we couldn't bring you, really, a full-length album at this moment. But if you guys are into the idea, we definitely would like to do more of this in the future. There's other classic songs that we can rework from our past and from holiday songs and new originals and whatever. So, basically, everything's on the table; we just wanna see if you guys are into where we're going with this. And as weird as this year has been, hopefully it will give you guys some hope. So it's gonna be really awesome.

"We're taking some classic big holiday songs and doing our thing with it — making it very theatrical and epic sounding, and heavy in some parts and spooky in others, beautiful," he continued. "We have two versions of 'Silent Night' — one more traditional and one very much something we would do, kind of what you would expect from us."

ICED EARTH played its final show with Barlow at the 2011 edition of the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany.

Barlow announced his departure from ICED EARTH in March 2011. In a heartfelt statement, he cited his commitment to his family and the need for ICED EARTH to tour more as the reasons for his retirement; however, he committed to performing with ICED EARTH on all 2011 European festival dates, including Wacken Open Air.

Au secours. Et l'annoncer en août, steplé.

Premier extrait

Ma foi...
Et sinon la typo SDA devrait etre interdite...

Et une version acoustique de I Died For You:

Mais quel intérêt?

Barlow, moi, je ne peux plus, depuis longtemps. Son chant, que j'ai pourtant adoré, m'ennuie désormais. Ses manières... - Mais alors punaise, "Silent Night", il ne faut pas avoir honte, hein. C'est mignon, mais qu'est-ce que c'est nunuche.

J'veux de la cavalcade moi, pas ces bons sentiments.

Je pense que le concept même d'album de Noël est un truc beaucoup trop américain pour nous.

.

Surtout que ça semble être plutôt dans le créneau de Schaffer!

Et sinon Barlow sur la conclusion du dernier Pyramaze m'a bien fait plaisir!

Il y a aussi le 1er album qui ressort en édition anniversaire, remixé et remasterisé :