ICED EARTH Drummer Checks In From HEAVEN AND HELL Tour

ICED EARTH drummer Brent Smedley has posted another couple of entries in the "Road Rage Reports" section of the band's official web site. An excerpt follows:

"The [UK tour with HEAVEN AND HELL and LAMB OF GOD] began in Newcastle, England at a place simply called the Arena. We were treated with much respect and consideration by both bands and all the crew. We were even fortunate enough to get a soundcheck on this day (probably the only one we will get on this leg of the tour). The dressing room was rather spacious, although it was up several flights of stairs and a considerable distance from the stage. The Arena is quite a massive venue. So on to the show — the sound was massive and booming. The crowd was awesome and I believe that this night many new ICED EARTH fans were made. The band was in top form and adjusted well to our change of position within the show (from headlining before to opening the show now) and also to the change in the set list.

"I must say that the security here was excellent and extremely courteous. The next show was in Glasgow, Scotland at a place called The SECC (I believe that stands for The Scotland Entertainment Conference Center). This place was so massive it made the Arena in Newcastle look small. It was located inside of a shopping center. Outside was a very peculiar structure shaped like an Armadillo. This night we had a small crisis before we went on; the monitor desk completely crashed about 20 minutes before we were set to go on stage. This would have meant that we would have gone on stage not being able to hear anything. But much to Simon's credit (our monitor man) he had it fixed by the time we hit the stage. I believe he was working on it up to the moment we began.

"The Glasgow crowd was particularly intense and once again many new ICED EARTH fans were brought into the fold. The people in Scotland have a very strong accent and even though they speak English, it is often very hard to understand what they are saying. I found myself asking them to repeat what they were saying numerous times. We were very fortunate to have Chris Mermod (our original light man) return on this day for the duration of the tour."

Check out all the reports at IcedEarth.com.

According to a posting on ICED EARTH's official web site, the band is planning on hitting the road in the U.S. in March/April 2008, to be followed by tours in Australia, Canada, Japan and Russia, among other countries. More details will be announced soon.

Watch fan-filmed video footage of ICED EARTH performing the song "A Charge to Keep" on November 7, 2007 at Sheffield Hallam Arena (UK):