22-10-2007 Iced Earth

Support: Annihilator; Venue: Rockefeller, Oslo (Norway)
By: Elvira
Visser

When I came in I still had no clue of the bands that were going to play. I did
not even know the name of the supporting band. Outside there were some fans
waiting because inside the venue it was not allowed to smoke, first thought
was that is was crowded because of this, but I think in the end there were like
500 people in there. Now I must say I am bad in guessing figures. But the venue
was quite filled up, the venue has a bigger capacity because of the 2nd and
3rd floor balconies which were not in use this evening.

So this first nameless band to me was going to play and I did not know what
to expect. They guy I was with told me it was kind of the heavier stuff and
that I would probably like Iced Earth a lot better. Well, I had to let him down.
This first band, and I will reveal the name now: Annihilator, impressed me.

New for me but apparently known for many years by many people, so it was about
time for me to finally discover them.
I like their melodic guitar play and active attitude on stage. The three front
men did not stay at their spot but changed sides and I kinda liked that. At
one point you can really call me stupid I must say, but I was not looking at
the stage but at my beer and I thought they started a tape with female vocals,
bit more classical use of the voice, but as I looked up it was still him the
singer, Dave Padden. Now that… amazed me. He can do a lot with his voice and
I think that is a strong point of this band. The vocal capabilities of the singer,
the clean vocals, screaming, howling and that more classical use of his voice
he showed us made me like the band. The band took some time for solo’s or instrumental
parts which Jeff Waters used proudly to show us his skills. This is a really
nice band and I look forward to see them again in the future. Their music might
not be that special or stand out, but it is just a real good solid band which
write great melodic songs. Besides that they are great to watch on stage!

Although it seemed that many people came for Annihilator, or the band just
pretended that they knew the people in the crowd personally to make them happy.
Which gave some great response, but damn!. “Iced Earth” just got an
overwhelming applause just when they entered the stage. The atmosphere in the
venue was kinda different, weird, like you were apart of something special.
Usually I have those moments after the gig but not tonight. But then it was
up to them to impress me, because I also never heard of this band before. Getting
rewarded with that kind of applause when just appearing would make me curious.

What I liked about the singer, Tim Owens was that he would step back next to
the drums when he was not singing some lines, to give room to the guitar and
bass players to use the stage and do their thing. He did not want full attention.

When hearing this band you might think you have heard this voice once before…you
are right, Tim was singing in Beyond Fear and he made 2 studio albums and 2
live albums with Judas Priest. Tim replaced Iced Earth’s singer Matthew Barlow
when he left the band, in 2005. Tim showed he got some amazing singing skills
and get to those high notes seemingly without any effort. Great to see a man
like that on stage.
The guitar players seemed a little older to me than the singer, they made me
think what they would look like being granddads rocking a guitar. Not weird
that I thought of that because Jon Shaffer started this band back in 1984. But
they did give their energy till the last song. And did not look older at all
when walking up and down the stage.

Though the band lost me somewhere before the ending and while I looked around
I saw I was the only one. The people around me where having a good time and
screamed and gave an applause like idiots to get a encore. And of course the
guys gave one. But for me it was enough. Maybe because it was two bands I did
not know at all (which most people do know), so no song I could sing along,
or appreciate them for playing. Iced Earth to me was a little more of the same
during the songs, less varied.