I Walk Among You

Matt Barlow's triumphant return, what most fans have been waiting for, what we've been dreaming of for ages now. His return is summed up with something equivalent to that of the revenge that took place in that fucked up movie, Hostel. When at the end, that prick was owned on the toilet. Yeah, when you saw that part you were yelling, "Hell yeah!", and this is the same effect.

Jon Schaffer has recruited Matt Barlow back and with the sacking of Tim Owens, Barlow has come back on the single song I Walk Alone, as well as two Schaffer-famous re-recordings of previous material sung by a different vocalist, this time Owens on Framing Armageddon. We all know Tim Owens and a lot of people probably think this was a bad idea getting rid of him so fast and abruptly, while I prefer Barlow, it's a shame to see Ripper leave so soon and best of luck to him, I love his vocal performance on The Glorious Burden especially. So continuing now with the ginger metal god, Iced Earth gives us a treat from the next album from the Something Wicked theme, The Crucible of Man, with this single, I Walk Among You.

Starting with I Walk Alone, throughout the song I have noticed the awesome drumming, with just an overall great sound production-wise, reminding me of some mid-era work like Something Wicked This Way Comes or Horror Show most. The overall production as well reminds me of some late era-Barlow work minus the guitar approach which brings an overall interesting sound here; the inclusion of Barlow's singing, the drumming (thanks to Brent Smedley good to see him back), harkens the semi-olden days of Iced Earth but the guitar work here whilst being good, is more along the lines of the sound of mid-tempo work found on The Glorious Burden and Framing Armageddon, which is the biggest complaint of the last two albums.

Here on the newest song, the song is a mid-tempo, hard-striking riff attack and powerful drum slamming song. Barlow doesn't even need to be mentioned, he hasn't lost his touch, he's still got it all and has the power, the vigor, the emotion, and most important he still commands your ear and takes over the sound like he should. Why? Because he's MATT FUCKING BARLOW! The chorus here on the newest song is great, lyrical theme still about mankind's fall, mankind's hypocrisy and such, and Barlow singing this all again brings me chills reminding me of the glory days of Something Wicked This Way Comes. The vocal layering is kept to a slight minimum, only in the chorus does it appear with different vocal layering of sentences, whispering and such but still proving he has one of the best voices in metal.

The re-recordings here aren't really necessary, more of just Schaffer's way of showing how he is never really happy with who does what or who the hell knows. As much as I will always love Jon Schaffer, I wonder what his motives are for all the re-recordings. Honestly I don't care, because most of the time I enjoyed all the attempts, with Barlow on Days of Purgatory and Owens of Overture of the Wicked. I think for the most part, it is showing off the singing ability of the vocalist and letting the fans get more of a taste of the new vocalist and getting everyone pumped for the new album while at the same time not giving away too many 'new' songs, like having only one actual new song, so it makes some sense to me. It doesn't matter who is better, that's not the point, it's just showing more of Barlow's vocal ability. He does a fine job on Setian Massacre and The Clouding, with the former being one of the faster numbers on Framing Armageddon and where Ripper shined, as Barlow does the same. The Clouding is better for Barlow, allowing himself to show he's still got all his power, especially since it's a slower and more drawn out song with him showing his emotional voice.

I can't really find much that is 'weak' on this single. I Walk Alone is a good song, but I can tell it won't be one of the better songs on The Crucible of Man, at least I hope not. Not that it would be a bad thing, it's just one of those songs you can tell is 'good' but not one of the 'better' songs on the album. I suppose it'll be something similar to Frankenstein and the Frankenstein single that was released before Horror Show because Frankenstein is a great song, but by no means is the best on the album.

People doubt Jon Schaffer's ability to write inspirational and creative riffs or songs in general, which I fully disagree with. Framing Armageddon was a good outing but was by far the weakest Iced Earth album to date, so with this recent bringing back of Matt Barlow, I have much faith in the overall sound of The Crucible of Man. The single here is an enjoyable and fun mid-tempo sing-along song that will probably be one of the 'good' songs on the newest album. Iced Earth once again never let me down and I will be highly anticipating this release and will buy it like I have bought everything else. Matt Barlow is back, praise the metal gods, for another has joined their ranks once again!