ICED EARTH: More Road Reports From HEAVEN AND HELL Tour Available

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 next day we traveled to Manchester to play at the M.E.N., which stand for The Manchester Evening News. Another massive venue, as I believed they all would be for the remainder of the tour. Soundman Chris's father was in attendance at this gig.

"The venue is located right down the street from a Hard Rock Café which some of the guys were able to visit after the gig. The nightlife was alive and well in this area. There was also another rock club in the area, which supposedly stayed open until 7 a.m. and had 5 rooms with live bands. None of us were able to venture out to this place, maybe next time.

"The show was a good one for us, once again increasing the number of ICED EARTH fans in the U.K. Biff Byford from SAXON was in attendance, and, of course, backstage on this night.

"The following day we played in London at the historic and quite famous Wembley Arena. It was quite an honor and a privilege to play this place that so many of the greats have played. Jon's wife and daughter were able to attend this night. Pretty cool first concert for his daughter to see at the age of 2. The band played exceptionally well this night, playing a flawless show with enormous energy, intensity, and emotion. I would have to say this was the best show of this part of the tour, both performance-wise and also crowd-wise. It was probably the biggest crowd so far and definitely the most enthusiastic.

"As we left the stage the crowd was calling for more...There were some other extra special guests in attendance this night — Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith from IRON MAIDEN. What a great night to have our best show yet!

"The very next day we played in Brighton at the Brighton Centre. An interesting venue located inside a conference center. This is located a mere block from the Sea, The English Channel to be exact. I was able to take a walk on the boardwalk and the seashore and sample the sites and take many pictures. The Brighton Pier is a small amusement park in its own right; complete with several arcades, a carousel, bumper cars, a haunted house, and many, many more amusement park style rides. There were also several tarot card/fortune tellers up and down the boardwalk. For blocks and blocks there were all sorts of shops. Seems like it would be a nice play to take a vacation.

"So onto the show...This night we were plagued with technical difficulties. I broke a bottom snare head (which is an extremely rare occurrence); we had problems with the wireless transmitters, and several other things. Some nights these things happen, it is amazing how much can go wrong in a half-hour. But much to the band and crew's credit, we persevered and gave it our best. I think all in all it was still a great show and moved us ever forward in our goal of gaining new fans and exposing new people to the music of ICED EARTH."

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 "Ten Thousand Strong" on November 9, 2007 at M.E.N. in Manchester (UK):