Iced Earth Takes You To Dystopia

Dystopia is the tenth studio album from American heavy metal band Iced Earth and I've been spinning it now for a few weeks. It was released on October 17th, 2011 and it's the bands first album with new vocalist Stu Block. I like it, not sure if I love it yet or not. But it's definitely a solid CD and pretty much all of their CDs have had to grow on me a bit, except Horror Show.

Here's the first video, for the title track.


This features the return of the "Something Wicked" storyline and the bands mascot Set Abominae. In an update on the bands official website, Jon Schaffer told how "Dystopia" fits in to the "Somethin Wicked Saga":

"The opening song is a step back timeline-wise from the 'Come What May'. 'Come What May sets the scenario that it's up to us and the decisions we make that will determine the future of the human race. These two songs ['Dystopia' and 'Tragedy an Triumph'] take place at a time when people are in highly controlled prison-like city states, and their eventual emancipation in the closer, 'Tragedy and Triumph'."

On the origin of the idea of continuing the "Something Wicked" storyline, Schaffer said:

"I remember it hit me like a ton of bricks in '97, the whole 'Something Wicked' story did. I thought, 'Man, this is going to be so cool.' Many years later, we were on tour for 'Crucible' and we were doing an interview over in Eastern Europe. A buddy of mine said, 'You know, Jon, this whole 'Something Wicked' thing could be true.' I thought about it a moment and said, 'Well, I don't know about that. But there are some creepy parallels in contemporary life.' So as I was thinking about all of the great movies, albums, and books with dystopian themes, I remembered that conversation and it occurred to me that the 'Something Wicked' story could continue in a few tracks here very nicely"