If you’ve never heard of Iced Earth the best way I’ve heard them described is they are the American Iron Maiden. In my opinion they’ve surpassed Maiden lately since Maiden hasn’t put out a decent album in 12 years.
They’ve had some great front men too with the likes of Matt Barlow, Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, and now Stu Block. I don’t care what the haters say but my favorite era of Iced Earth is when Ripper was at the mic. Glorious Burden and Framing Armageddon are my two favorite Iced Earth albums.
Because of Ripper we can just borrow from his degrees to connect Iced Earth to Dio.
Ripper was in Iced Earth, Vinny Appice appeared on Ripper’s solo album Play My Game. Vinny was also the drummer for the Dio-era Sabbath and Heaven and Hell and in Dio.
Here’s my favorite Iced Earth song of all time A Charge to Keep. For the Barlow fans I’ve included his version as well.
