Metal Heads Assemble!!

[AppleQueso]

Pretty sure that's just the Set Abominae stuff.

[BurningDoom]

Burning Times is about repentance of sins.
Holy Martyr is about Jesus dying for us.
Disciples of the Watch is about the church.
My Own Savior is about a guy going to hell.

And other songs are about similar themes on the album. It always came off as very religious to me. Maybe it stood out more to me, because I am a church-going Christian.

BTW, if you guys like Iced Earth, then you HAVE to check out Demons & Wizards. They've only put out 2 albums, but those 2 albums are absolutely amazing metal masterpieces. The band is a supergroup mash-up of members of Iced Earth and Blind Guardian.

[AppleQueso]

I like Demons and Wizards more for the BG half than the IE half, but yeah it's very good stuff.

[BurningDoom]

I recommend checking out this song first:

Demons & Wizards - Love's Tragedy Asunder

From their 2nd album: Touched By the Crimson King.

It starts off kind of soft, then builds up into pure awesome as the song goes on.

[Gamerforlife]

I guess viewing Iced Earth's work on Something Wicked as gospel is a valid view. I just think that Christian themes are so common in a lot of pop culture that I didn't immediately assume that that album is some sort of Gospel story, though I won't deny there's some Christian influence. I'm not a church goer, gave up on that years ago. So maybe that has something to do it

When I look at the album Something Wicked This Way Comes, we have a song about a dead friend (Watching over Me), the band's love for its fans(Blessed are You), the hypocrisy of the church(Disciples of the Lie), the American Revolution (1776), a fictional Sci Fi character who wants to kill humanity for wiping out his race as detailed in later albums( Prophecy/Birth of the Wicked/The Coming Curse)

There's a lot of stuff there that has nothing to do with the Bible, except Disciples of the Lie, which is actually putting down the church. Melancholy Holy Martyr is the only song that jumps out at me as being Gospel as it's about Jesus on the cross if I remember correctly

[TheBrick]

When Iced Earth releases an epic, it's freaking epic. No questions asked. Travel in Stygian, Dante's Inferno, The Coming Curse, Phantom Opera Ghost, Gettysburg, etc.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Anyone else see Name that Tune – Metallica on Cinemassacre? Pretty neat! You don't have to be an AVGN fan (or Metallica fan, for that matter) to appreciate it. There's also Black Sabbath and Elvis episodes.

Are there any bands whose riffs you know this well?

[MyNameIsVince]

Anyone else see Name that Tune – Metallica on Cinemassacre? Pretty neat! You don't have to be an AVGN fan (or Metallica fan, for that matter) to appreciate it. There's also Black Sabbath and Elvis episodes.

Are there any bands whose riffs you know this well?

I saw that as well and played along. Let's just say I'm ashamed of myself because I knew damn near every Metallica song known to man by 2000-2001, but in 2013.....not so much anymore. Still James did really well. He missed 2-3 that I got, but he got a good 7 or 8 that I didn't get (to be fair, most of those were off of Death Magnetic and St. Anger, the only 2 records by Metallica I don't really know all that well).

As for what bands whose riffs I know this well......I want to say Talking Heads, but I wouldn't be able to guess with those very short samples like the ones Mike used in the video. I'd say Norma Jean also but unfortunately they sometimes have unwieldy song titles that are never mentioned in the song so I'm less inclined to remember the name when I hear it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'd say Norma Jean also but unfortunately they sometimes have unwieldy song titles that are never mentioned in the song so I'm less inclined to remember the name when I hear it.

Oh I have the hardest time remembering album and song titles. I mainly think in terms of "album 1 track 3", for instance.

I think it's a habit I picked up when I started listening to black metal years ago, as many bands don't have English lyrics or song/album titles.

[AppleQueso]

I could probably do that well with Devin Townsend, Sigh, and Death.