Iced Earth's amazing rare stuff!

This is really good songs you wont find anywhere else. Iced Earth are the kings of true metal. The EP starts with Melancholy, possibly the best ballad off Something Wicked This Way Comes, and possibly the best Iced Earth song yet. Then there is an amazing Bad Company cover of Shooting Star. I've heard the original before, and Iced Earth's version burns it too the ground. Then there's the very emontial Watching Over Me, which is the best Iced Earth song in concert. Great solo, great lyrics. It RULES! Then the classic Black Sabbath cover Electric Funeral from 1970's Paranoid. I never thought that they could do this, but it's amazing. I died for you is a great balld from The Dark Saga. Excellent intro! And, the Judas Priest classic, The Ripper, from sad Wings Of Destiny. Just perfect! And finally, the best way to hear them live, the live version of Colors from their first album! Such a great E.P.! I hope you like it too!

Unnecessary

This CD is composed of three ballads, three cover songs and the live track "Colors". The ballads "Melancholy (Holy Martyr)" and "Watching Over Me" are taken from the Something Wicked CD and the ballad "I Died For You" is taken from the Dark Saga CD.

The live track "Colors" was recorded from the concerts that produced the Alive in Athens CD. Frankly I am a bit disgruntled that it was not included in the three CD version of Alive in Athens. The song itself comes across very well live. It has an extra measure of energy that is not present in the studio version.

The ballads are very good songs in their own right but I think they are more effective when they act as a change of pace to the heavier songs from the CD's they were taken from. That said I am particularly fond of "Watching Over Me" off the "Something Wicked" CD. The use of acoustic guitars at the start of the song is quite effective. The song is a tribute to a friend of John Schaffer's, Iced Earth rhythm guitarist and main song composer, who died in a motorcycle accident. As such the lyrics are quite touching and Matt Barlow, the lead singer delivers a heartfelt and flawless vocal performance.

As to the covers there is nothing earth shattering here. I did not like the original "Shooting Star" just your generic classic rock song. Iced Earth rendition although technically perfect does nothing to change that. The cover of Black Sabbath's Electric Funeral is nice but does not improve on the original. That said it's the best of the three covers included here.The same can be said for the cover of Judas Priest's "The Ripper". It is rendered perfectly but is no improvement on the original, especially on the "Unleashed in The East" version.

In closing let me say that I am a huge Iced Earth fan. Heck I even own the Dark Genesis box set but I feel that this CD was completely unnecessary. If you are a completist than you'll do like me and purchase it and enjoy it for what it is. If you are a casual fan then don't bother buy the original Iced Earth CD's and the Alive in Athen's CD.

Unnecessary, but still entertaining

Melancholy (2001.) Iced Earth's first EP.

Over the years, Iced Earth has been more of an album-oriented band than a singles or EP-oriented one. In fact, the band hadn't even released an EP until 2001 - not until after the release of their sixth album, Horror Show. And even then, the EP was not released domestically (and by domestically, I mean in America.) Read on for my review of Melancholy.

Seven tracks make up this EP, and of them, three of them were previously released on the band's albums. Melancholy, Watching Over Me, and I Died For You were all previously released on earlier albums (the former two from Something Wicked This Way Comes, the latter from The Dark Saga.) So, rather obviously, the highlight of the EP is the unreleased material present. There are two cover songs. The covers are of Bad Company's classic Shooting Star, Judas Priest's The Ripper, and Black Sabbath's underrated classic Electric Funeral. The latter is good, but fails to improve on the original. As for the former, I must admit that the band did a pretty decent job - better than I was expecting. The Ripper, well, rips. Judas Priest's masterpiece gets new life in Iced Earth's hands. The last of the tracks featured here is a live take on Colors. The Alive In Athens sessions spawned this little live masterpiece, and it's a shame it didn't actually appear on that album. In the end, this is a good EP, but it's not worth hunting down unless you're a die-hard fan.

To date, this EP has not been released in America. Hopefully it will be eventually, so that all of the band's American fans can finally get a chance to enjoy it.

In the end, this is a good EP, but it was an unnecessary release. In fact, while good, I don't recommend hunting it down unless you're a die-hard fan of the band. There's too much previously released stuff, and the new stuff here is nothing revolutionary. Final verdict? It's for die-hard fans only.