Iced Earth's - Dante’s Inferno with Stu

From the IE facebook page:

Some bands release mere snippets of songs to preview their upcoming tours. Some release a single song. In typical balls-to-the-wall Iced Earth fashion, the legendary metal band has re-recorded the entire 17-minute fan-favorite epic “Dante’s Inferno” – and will give it away free on their official web site.

“If there’s one song fans have asked us to play live more than any other it’s ‘Dante’s Inferno,’” Iced Earth main man Jon Schaffer said. “The simple reason why we haven’t is because the original click track was erased, therefore requiring a keyboard player to do the parts live. That’s OK for a special event like when we recorded Alive in Athens, but to hire a keyboard player for a full tour, for one song, just isn’t financially feasible.”

This summer, during the recording of Dystopia, Iced Earth’s soon-to-be-released 10th studio album, the band entered the studio for the express purpose of remedying that situation – and emerged with a powerful rendition that’s (if possible) even more monumental than the original, which was the closing track on the band’s 1995 album Burnt Offerings.

Schaffer and new vocalist Stu Block talk about the recording of “Dante’s Inferno” in this exclusive video clip just posted to the band’s Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmaHmhstVZo.

“Dante’s Inferno” can be downloaded – free – from Iced Earth’s web site here: http://www.icedearth.com/dantesinferno

“Dante’s Inferno” (which is based on Inferno, the first part of Dante’s poem The Divine Comedy) hasn’t been played live since 1999’s groundbreaking Alive in Athens album.

“We wanted to say ‘Thank You’ to all of our loyal fans who have waited so long to hear us play ‘Dante’ again,” said Schaffer. “So, we decided to give this to them, free. It’s because of our fans we’ve been able to make music all these years. This is a way to show how much we appreciate them.”

Schaffer promises “Dante’s Inferno” will be back in the band’s set lists for all upcoming shows on the 2011-2012 World Dystopia Tour.

The European leg of the 2011-2012 World Dystopia Tour has been posted on the band’s official web site, and all official social-media sites. The tour begins October 30th in Bochum, Germany.

Dystopia is scheduled for release in Europe on October 17th, and in the U.S. on October 18th, both via Century Media. Two bonus tracks have also been recorded for inclusion on special editions of the album.

The release of Dystopia will be followed by the most extensive world tour Iced Earth has ever undertaken.

http://www.icedearth.com/DantesInfernoFREE.mp3

Link no workie.

Sweet! Listening to it now.

*EDIT* Me likee thus far. Doesn't sound radically different from Barlow. Maybe a bit more "snarl" but I'm impressed.

Yea, I'm digging this. Thanx Rex

I agree with what you said Freddy. Sounds great, but not really any different from the cut with Barlow.

Ooh. One of my favorite IE tunes. Downloading now!

The quality of the vocals far exceeds the quality of those guitar riffs.

I remember why I traded this album now.

great song from the last album i liked by them all the way through. i have high hopes for the new one though.

mc666 wrote:

great song from the last album i liked by them all the way through. i have high hopes for the new one though.

Burnt Offerings is certainly a great album and Dante's Inferno is my favorite IE song (though the live version on Alive In Athens is superior to the origional IMO).

Stu sounds great, but...are they playing faster? Something is different. Maybe the drums, because they sound awkward, aside from the crappy tone of the kick. Drum machine? Schaeffer and Morris are terrible at using Pro Tools.

But yeah, Stu sounds excellent. He has Barlow's tone down at times, but he's still very different.

The solos sound much better than I remember them being.

This may be the cheesiest "epic" song I have ever heard.

Temple of Blood wrote:

The solos sound much better than I remember them being.

This may be the cheesiest "epic" song I have ever heard.

Pffft! Manowar takes the first ten slots on that list. Haha.

Gotta say, though, I never thought I'd hear anyone say this song is cheesy.

The middle part is totally cornball. The ending is a big dud too, some boring floundering on scale repeated way too many times. Schaffer is one of the least creative people in metal ... as far as "visionary band leader/songwriters" goes.

He should never write a song longer than 5 minutes because he doesn't have that many good ideas.

Abandon all hope... indeed

Just downloaded, listening now...

Vocalist sounds real good. But I do admit I will probably need time to adjust to the 'yelling' voice he uses in the harder parts.

Anyway, it's not like I needed convincing to get behind Iced Earth again, I was going to buy the new album regardless.

I just hope they put this song as a bonus track or a single b-side. While this works with headphones and computer speakers, compressed MP3 sounds like smurf poo on my stereo. That's also why I cannot play Manilla Road on the stereo - it exposes the bad production. Better off playing their CD's off a boombox!

Wow, Stu sounds great! Maybe there is hope in IE.

GrandNational wrote:

Wow, Stu sounds great! Maybe there is hope in IE.

Got that right! Any doubts that Stu can handle the IE material (from that, the Barlow stuff and since I know how good of a falseto he has, the Ripper stuff) is out the window as far as I'm concerned.

I am little surprised - I kinda like this.

ok - but it does go on waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long though...

Have you never heard that song before?

Eyesore wrote:

Have you never heard that song before?

yeah but it still goes on too long...

This was a mixed bag for me. I think Stu sounds great, but I didn't care for how he sang on certain parts. But, that's also because I'm used to how Barlow sung it. The solos definitely sound way better.

Joe wrote:

This was a mixed bag for me. I think Stu sounds great, but I didn't care for how he sang on certain parts. But, that's also because I'm used to how Barlow sung it. The solos definitely sound way better.

same here. i figured that he would nail that end section about lucifer, seeing as he has a better growl than Barlow. he did it more clean sounding though which was a disappointment. took some of the aggression out of it. i'm sure he'll sound better with new unfamiliar material though.

The original had an atmosphere that really made it unique. They should have left it alone IMO.