Horror Show

Two of the songs on this demo were on both of the previous demos, and only one is brand new. So, essentially we have another rehashing of old songs and a pretty average new one.

Because I was high when I wrote my Psychotic Dreams review, I'll restate the main idea of it here. These songs sound like Judas Priest mixed with Black Sabbath and swirled together with a touch of Alice Cooper. It sounds very little like the Iced Earth of today, and not in a very good way. Actually, the songs are pretty fun to listen to, and you can get a pretty good headbang out of it if you really try. The riffs are alright (the one in Jack sounds a little like the one in Colors), but the bass here is outstanding. That's probably the main reason to give this a listen, Richard Bateman gives a great performance on the four-string, and if you're a bassist you'll love this.

Jack is fun, but it goes nowhere. No solo and poor vocals, although the bass is nice. In Jason's Mind is a lot better. It actually has a solo, and the guitarists actually try to play more than two riffs per song. Anyway, the new one is called Dracula, and it isn't anything like the one on the Iced Earth album Horror Show. It sounds similar to In Jason's Mind, but it totally gives off that Transylvanian vibe. It's not really great, but it's alright at any rate.

So, basically, this is just Psychotic Dreams except longer. The band would get so much better after this, and they would change their style quite a bit in the following two years. Horror Show is not fantastic, but it's at least worth a listen if you're an Iced Earth fan.