Iced Earth Vocalist Talks About Re-Recorded Songs

Marko Syrjälä and Arto Lehtinen from Metal-Rules.com recently conducted an interview with ICED EARTH/BEYOND FEAR vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens.. Here are some extracts from the conversation:

Metal-Rules.com: You just released your new EP "Overture Of The Wicked"; it came out last week or something, with the exception of brand new track, what was the reason you decided to re-record a couple of old songs for it?

Tim Owens: "Because it's what the story is about, the next two records are about. So Jon (Schaffer) wanted to just re-release that, put that out there so that people kind of start getting familiar with it again. I mean, he wouldn't have done anything else, it just fit what we were doing and since the album was coming out, he thought while we're here let's do the 'Something Wicked' trilogy, re-record it. Start the story off again; familiarize people before a couple of times."

Metal-Rules.com: When will the actual tour start?

Tim Owens: "We're probably looking at starting in October or something I would probably think? Because we do have the HEAVEN AND HELL tour we're doing in the UK with HEAVEN AND HELL, so we'll probably go out before that and do a headlining tour. Once you get close to the album coming out, we'll probably start then and work it hard. We're going to try, I mean, hopefully his back will be good. Obviously this time we're going to start in Europe and not start in America."

Metal-Rules.com: Well, after finishing your European tour, you're probably going back to the States, do some tours there. What kind of following do you have in the States, because as far as I know that classic albums/classic Metal is not that big thing there at the moment?

Tim Owens: "Well, we did rather well. We sold out places, House Of Blues and theaters that we would play here as well here. We did well, and we had a good package on it, we had CHILDREN OF BODOM and EVERGREY, so it was a nice package. So really, it's obviously not the same over there. One thing they don't have is the festivals, which are the thing. I mean I guess they do have big festivals that tour; they have Ozzfest that tour and it will probably have 10 to 15 thousand people every night."

Metal-Rules.com: Some old school fans of ICED EARTH still keep on asking why Matt (Barlow) isn't in the band, is Tim as good as him and 'blah blah blaa'?

Tim Owens: "Well you'll always get it. I mean there are still fans that liked the singer before Matt. I actually still hear that. That's how it is, Matt was a good singer, and a good guy and people should do that. I think people should always want Matt, but they have to still look to the future, and open their ears up and listen, come to the concert and listen. But you're always going to get it..."

Metal-Rules.com: Did you manage to put your own input to the songwriting process of the new songs, because the last time, you basically came in and did the vocals for the previous album?!

Tim Owens: "It was hard with this one as well, because this is Jon's story, it's in his head, so it's hard to come in, you know and... the advantage to this record is that there wasn't somebody singing on it before me, so it was wider open for Jon's ideas, to write material that he knew could even branch out something a little bit different. But it's a story, that's the great thing about it; I said that the whole time. It's a pretty complicated story, so it's hard to write melodies for something you don't write by yourself... It's complicated for Jon to talk about, so you can imagine."

Source: Blabbermouth