Iced Earth - Hellrider / I Among You, CD

Fans of American metal act Iced Earth have long hoped for a new sign of life from their icons. On 28 April 2023, the wait will be over at last: Guitarist and founder member Jon Schaffer has announced the release of two new EPs on ROAR! Rock Of Angels Records. Entitled ‘Hellrider’ and ‘I Walk Among You’, these releases will include rare recordings from the transition phase between singer Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens' and predecessor/successor Matt Barlow in 2007 and 2008, a particularly exciting and eventful period in Iced Earth’s band history. The ‘Hellrider’ EP consists of the songs ‘Prophecy’, ‘Birth Of The Wicked’ and ‘The Coming Curse’, originally from the album ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ (1998), voted one of the best power metal records of all time by Metal Hammer. In late summer 2007, all three tracks were re-recorded, featuring Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens. The second EP ‘I Walk Among You’ includes the studio tracks ‘Setian Massacre’, ‘A Charge To Keep’ and ‘The Clouding’ from the 2007 album ‘Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked Part I)’, which were remixed and remastered in 2008 and feature the recently-returned Matt Barlow. In addition, there are the live tracks ‘Dark Saga’, ‘Pure Evil’ and ‘Iced Earth’, cut at the 2008 Graspop Metal Meeting and also featuring Barlow. Schaffer: “Before now, these releases hadn’t been issued on anything other than CD. Now they’ve been remastered, with new artwork, new mastering, new formats on vinyl, picture disc, and they’ll be available for digital download for the first time.”