ICED EARTH'S JON SCHAFFER Talks About Upcoming Box Set, DVD

Metal Asylum recently conducted an interview with ICED EARTH mainman Jon Schaffer. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal Asylum: Now that Matt [Barlow, vocals] is back in the band, have you thought of going back and re recording the vocals for "Framing Armageddon"? You also mentioned a box set?

Jon: Yeah, originally the box set was something that was planned from the beginning when we knew we would be completing the "Something Wicked" story. So I asked SPV to make sure that "Framing Armageddon Pt. 1" and "Crucible of Man Pt. 2" would be released only once without those albums coming out again as some kind of special edition because we already had these plans to re release both albums in this "Something Wicked" box set. So it makes sense to have the continuity between parts 1 and 2 now that Matt is back in the band. I have my own studio so it makes this not such a hard thing to accomplish and it's really cool because I can go back and remix and fix some of the low end issues I had on "Framing Armageddon" and also something I was able to address on part 2. Part 2, I think, is a bit more punchier than part 1.

Metal Asylum: What else will the "Something Wicked" box set include aside from "Framing Armageddon Pt. 1" and "The Crucible of Man Pt. 2"?

Jon: It will include the "Overture of the Wicked" EP which has the newer versions of the original trilogy ("Prophecy", "Birth of the Wicked", "The Coming Curse" from the "Something This Way Wicked Comes" album) but Matt re-singing those songs, then it will have "Framing Armageddon Pt. 1" remixed with Matt singing, a DVD with footage from the festivals we did this summer in Europe plus behind the scenes of us making parts 1 and 2.

Metal Asylum: Recording any shows for DVD?

Jon: Yes, we are. We recorded at several of the festivals we played in Europe and we are planning to put a DVD out in January/February, but this is not going to be an ICED EARTH full-production DVD but it will be better than "Alive in Athens". But it is festivals, so it's a different situation from our show where you will get lights, pyro, our stage design. It's gonna either be the show from the Metalcamp [in Slovenia] or the Rock Hard festival [in Germany]. Those were the two that were shot pro with multiple cameras but I have not seen or heard the masters to decide which is the better show. Then you will get some behind-the-scenes stuff and highlights from Graspop [Metal Meeting in Belgium] and some of the other shows. We are gonna call it the "Summer Slaughter".

Metal Asylum: When you do record this show for DVD, have you ever considered maybe doing a history type thing where you start at the beginning of ICED EARTH's career and play songs from the first album to the present?

Jon: I don't know yet. It depends actually because I have been asked if we are going to do the whole "Something Wicked" saga live, but that really depends on the fans if they wanna see that. I want to see what the long-term feeling on this record is and if that's what they want to see then I would work to make it happen. I can't say yet. Whenever the time comes, we will do a show on the level that I have been wanting to do a DVD for a long time. Actually, I would like to do a historical-type thing, something like we did for the "Horror Show" over in Europe. It was great and I wish we taped it but Century Media didn't believe in the idea. We did three sets with no support band. For the first set, the stage looked like it was made of metal and we played only songs from the first three albums, then the curtain closed and the set changed to look Egyptian where we played songs from "The Dark Saga" and "Something Wicked", then the stage changed again with the back drop and artwork for "Horror Show" and we came back and did the whole album live. We had pyro, did a couple costume changes; it was really a spectacle and it should have been filmed and I don't understand and can't believe Century Media wasn't willing to cough up the cash to tape it.

Read the entire interview at Metal Asylum.

Professionally filmed video footage of ICED EARTH's June 28, 2008 performance at the Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium can be viewed below.