The Concert Reader Reviews:

Iced Earth with Jag Panzer and In Flames

There are currently 1 Reader Reviews of this tour.
Average Rating: 5
Go to Judgment Committee Reviews of this tour

Submitted by Tony Davis (4/22/02, The Lab, St. Paul, MN):
I'd like to start off by saying I immediately knew this was going to be a special night when I got to the venue (which is convieniently three blocks away from my apartment!) and saw the biggest line outside the door I have ever seen in the five years I've been going there! I kind of figured it would be somewhat crowded but we waited in line for about an hour! I didn't mind too much though since the cheesy (in my opinion!) Jag Panzer was opening and I wanted to have a couple Captain Cokes before the REAL music started!
After achieving a pleasant buzz and buying an In Flames "Empire Strikes Back" type logo shirt as well as an Iced Earth Horror Show shirt I went into the packed to the rafters stage area. In Flames were in fine form as usual and even played "Gyroscope" which was a welcome surprise! A slight drawback was Anders holding the mic out to the crowd a little to frequently... I know they want crowd participation but I don't want to hear a drunken crowd sing the choruses I want to hear from Anders! Other than that small complaint their set was fantastic and they closed with "Colony" which is easily my favorite track by them and was my first appearance in the pit of the evening!
After their great set I started thinking about the fact that they are a tough act to follow and since I'd never seen Iced Earth before I was wondering if they'd be up to the task... I was in for a surprise because Iced Earth turned out to be one of the best live bands I have ever seen! I had been somewhat of a casual fan, only owning The Dark Saga and Something Wicked This Way Comes and Horror Show before this show, but after seeing them absolutely crush like they did on this night I have to say I am hooked! Some of the highlights for me were "Watching Over Me," "The Hunter," "Wolf," "Jack" (the pit was frothing during this one!) and "Melancholy!" I was pleasantly surprised to see that Richard Christy was playing drums because I was kind of unsure if he would be with them on the tour or if they were just going to use him in the studio. I wasn't surprised that Steve Digorgio wasn't there because he seems to be somewhat of a hired gun if you will and on top of it I have heard that he didn't get along with the band although I have no clue as to why. Anyway they played the ENTIRE "Something Wicked" trilogy which I feel could not have been executed more flawlessly! They closed with their namesake Iced Earth and cemented the fact that I will go see this band anytime if they come within 300 miles of me!
If you are a metal fan you owe it to yourself to catch this tour because this was easily not only the best show I have seen this year, but one of the best I have seen in my entire life! A nice bonus was meeting Richard Christy after the show and chatting about his work with Chuck Schuldiner (RIP). He mentioned that the second Control Denied album is fully recorded and will be released later this year after Schuldiner's mom irons out some legal issues. He signed a dollar bill for me since I somehow managed to lose my ticket stub. I also chatted with Bjorn from In Flames who I have actually met before and he was cool as usual. Great show, great tour, I couldn't think of anything better to do on a Monday night!

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