Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked - Part 1)

I was awaiting this album with thrilling curiosity and also real anxiety. Iced Earth is one of my favourite bands and after very weak 'Glorious Burden' I hoped that its successor could be only better. I have heard already song 'Ten Thousend Strong' which promotes that album and I hoped for the best, but something deep in me was continually telling me that I am terribly naive. Unfortunately it occurs to be truth.

Certainly 'Framing Armageddon' is better than 'Glorious Burden'. Nevertheless I can't say anything good about this release.

I was bored stiff listening to this garbage. Schaffer shouldn't make a music album if he wanted to write sci-fi novel. Idea with this story about men and setians is quaint and good but the execution fails completely. Lyrics are bland, guitars are lacking spirit, strange choirs, everything here is poor and unfortunately boring as hell! This is not Iced Earth! This is not even average metal band! Iced Earth failed again! Almost everything here is irritating (except album artwork) even Ripper's vocals. Tim Owens is a magnificent vocalist, but he also is always in wrong band in wrong time. He doesn't match here as well he didn't match in Judas Priest. Returning to topic: Framing Armageddon has nineteen tracks and most of them are poor as hell! Only one that keeps pretty good is 'Ten Thousend Strong' - the only good song on this album. There are a few tracks that got potential and good ideas and could be also good songs but they are only barely average (I mean here 'Retribution Through the Ages', 'Motivation of Man', parts from 'Something Wicked (Part 1)' and 'The Domino Decree'). Everything else... is just awful. I know that many tracks there are intros but this is not excuse for their poor sound.

This album had loads of potential to be ambitious and epic. It has failed to achieve that. Repetitive senseless chanting, idiotic interludes, boredom, boredom, boredom and even more glorified boredom. Bland, uninteresting riffs doesn't help either.

This is a distinct impossibility to high rate this album. Seriously. I tried very hard to get accustomed with this LP. Sadly, I can't still treat this album nothing more than a very poor and "half-baked" creation. Of course, Iced Earth fans should listen to this album, but you will never return to this album later. It is just weak.