The Crucible of Man (Something Wicked - Part 2)

They've lost a bit of power and a bit of freshness. Indeed, though the distortion always remains very thick and the riffing plays a fundamental role, the rhythmical rushes that in the past revealed a sort of thrash dependency have gone away.

Anyway, today almost all the tracks, even the best ones, show a thin dull veil that maybe comes from a chronic writing tiredness. The whole saga of "Something Wicked" remains a titanic work anyway, maybe mastodontic if we must judge it as a whole, surely ambitious even in the historical/sci-fi lyrics that try to dive us into a strongly fanciful context. Musically we often encounter wide solid melodies, due to the abundance of mid tempos and slow parts, which surely contribute in creating that heavy atmosphere that breathes thoughout of the album, while some rather simplified choirs try to increase the already high epic rate of the songs.

Said that, and having to judge the saga that here is about to end, we must say the best part is the first introduction, the faraway trilogy written in 1998; all the rest tends to drag along without excessive enthusiasm, revealing an unsurpassable solidity but without ever exciting too much. Hard to criticize this album too harsh – likewise all the late albums of Iced Earth – because we're talking of articulated works that are perfect under every point of view.

Simply, they miss the magic: no song out of the 15 gives you the goose flesh or forces you to sing along out loud. If I remember well, the last song Schaffer wrote that were able to produce these effects have been those inspired to the American Civil War, even if the final "Divide And Devour" and "Come What May" don't go too stray away from this standard. All the rest, remains ordinary. The choice to call back Matt Barlow behind the microphone, anyway, reveals the most fitting.


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