Jon Schaffer's Call For Dynamic Range

Iced Earth history was remade last week when they released their latest EP, I Walk Among You. Popular vocalist Matt Barlow is back, and sounding just as good as ever did. The lead single for September's Something Wicked Part II (officially entitled The Crucible of Man), "I Walk Alone", is a mighty stomp which pleases even though it doesn't exactly stun the listener with anything unexpected.

Also on the disc are reworked versions of "Setian Massacre" and "The Clouding". Poor Ripper: it's like he never existed. These songs are more or less like the original, sans Owens. "Massacre" gets some flanger added to the guitar, and "Clouding" has Barlow holding a note longer before the big metal flourish. And if you wanna really erase poor Tim from memory, feel free to buy the iTunes exclusive of "A Charge to Keep".

An unexpected spiffiness about the release is this liner note from Schaffer:

This is a dynamic metal record! Play it loud!!! (We refuse to ruin our production by compressing the hell out of it so that it's mastered at ridiculous volumes! That kills the vibe and dynamics of the mix. Just turn it up on your stereo!)

Confusingly said, but kudos for the heart being in the right place, even if it's still a bit loud for my tastes. It definitely sounds better than a lot of other modern CDs, but when compared to most from the early 90s, well, someone apparently forgot to tell the mastering engineer how Jon feels....