As a fan of the crushing Metal that the band Iced Earth consistently puts out there, it was great to hear the news about their re-issuing their crushing live album “Alive In Athens” for its own 20th Anniversary. Take a look down below for the full press release about it.
The Press Release:
American heavy metal group ICED EARTH announce the first vinyl edition of the classic 1999 live opus Alive in Athens out on December 6th, 2019 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the recording.
Originally released as a 2CD, 3CD and picture LP set, Alive in Athens came out slightly flawed two decades ago, which then turned into a gigantic success for ICED EARTH and was certified Gold in Greece, where over thirty different songs had been recorded on two nights at Athens’ Rodon Club on January 1999.
The original release lacked the live version of Colors and the picture LP was a fairly careless CD to vinyl transfer interrupting Matt Barlow’s stage banter several times and split up tracks that had been performed back-to-back (for example the “Something Wicked (Trilogy)”). Together with the help of Jon Schaffer, this anniversary edition was created, offering a partially revised sequencing and fully dynamic vinyl mastering by Patrick W. Engel / Temple Of Disharmony as well as many additional extras.
“Alive In Athens has been called one of the greatest heavy metal live albums of all time. For me, it was one of the high points in a long and eventful journey that carries on to this day,” states Jon Schaffer. “I’ve experienced some of the best memories of my musical and personal life in Greece and these two nights in Athens are certainly no exception. I am honored and humbled by the passion of ICED EARTH fans in Greece and all over the worldand hope you will all enjoy this ultimate edition of ‘Alive in Athens'”!
Alive in Athens (20th Anniversary Edition) includes five 180gram LPs, a 12-page LP-sized booklet with liner notes by Jon Schaffer and Matt Barlow as well as Hakos Pervanidis (Metal Hammer Greece) who also contributed additional visual content, and 60x60cm poster.
Black and various colored vinyl editions are available for purchase now!
200x transparent yellow + transparent red – www.CMDistro.de
200x blue + white – www.NuclearBlast.de
200x purple + orange – www.EMP.de
200x transparent orange + transparent blue – https://centurymedia.store
Order your copy here: https://icede.lnk.to/AliveInAthens20thAnniversary
Side I:
1. Burning Times
2. Vengeance Is Mine
3. Pure Evil
4. My Own Savior
Side II:
1. Melancholy (Holy Martyr)
2. Dante’s Inferno
Side III:
1. The Hunter
2. Travel In Stygian
3. Colors
Side IV:
1. Diary
2. Blessed Are You
3. Violate
Side V:
1. Dark Saga
2. The Last Laugh
3. Last December
4. Watching Over Me
Side VI:
1. Angels Holocaust
2. Stormrider
3. The Path I Choose
4. I Died For You
Side VII:
1. Prophecy
2. Birth Of The Wicked
3. The Coming Curse
Side VIII:
1. Stand Alone
2. Cast In Stone
3. Desert Rain
Side IX:
1. Brainwashed
2. Disciples Of The Lie
3. When The Night Falls
Side X:
1. Slave To The Dark
2. A Question Of Heaven
3. Iced Earth
*** end of transmission ***
PiercingMetal Thoughts: This is for sure a fantastic live album that captures a band doing what they do the best in front of a sold-out audience. I’ve only ever owned the CD version of this and am not the biggest collector of vinyl releases anymore since I am looking to downsize just a little bit more these days (not really being effective at it of course but I digress). If you are a fan of Iced Earth then you should be joining in on the celebration and making sure to order a copy of this album straight away. My hope is that we will also find a remastered CD edition being released so I can replace my now ancient copy of the thing. Who knows, maybe even the live video “Alive In Athens” can be issued on Blu-ray or digital copy. That would be nice and if I can toss in a shameless plug, I reviewed that DVD Release way back in 2006 when I was still honing the journalistic craft. I had done it for “Metal Edge” magazine and then expanded my thoughts for use on PiercingMetal.com and you can examine that review by clicking HERE. I’ll close up for the moment and ask what you readers think about this anniversary edition. You can chime in down in the comments section below. See you next time.
Official Websites:
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialIcedEarth
http://www.icedearth.com/
https://www.instagram.com/icedearth_official/
https://www.centurymedia.com/