Jon Schaffer is back et il est en colère. Il annonce qu'il va travailler sur la suite de la trilogie Something Thiw Way Comes. En sus, il ajoute qu'il n'y aura pas un album, non, pas un album, mais deux !!! Et tout ceci pour 3 heures de musique !!!!

Le bougre est remonté comme un coucou et il annonce déjà le meilleur album groupe.

Voici l'interview...Moi je lui dis bon courage mec :

On Track Magazine recently conducted an interview with ICED EARTH/DEMONS & WIZARDS guitarist Jon Schaffer. An excerpt from the chat follows:

On Track Magazine: How are you doin' health-wise?

Jon: "Well, I had another procedure this past November which is the third surgical procedure that I've had on my lower back in the past couple of years, and I think that we're on the right track here. It's been really frustrating, because it's just one of those things. It wasn't like with my neck. I mean, I had a lot of problems. I injured it in '96 onstage in Berlin and basically ignored it and didn't take care of it and went on stage and thrashed like an idiot every night, getting cortisone shots to get through the gigs, bla, bla, bla. By the year 2000, actually it was the DEMONS & WIZARDS headline tour of Europe, I had three epidurals just to get through the tour. The day after I got home from the tour I was on the operating table. But after that I was so much better, my neck was doing so much better; the relief was huge. And then a few years ago this lower back problem starts, and basically the first two procedures I had were just a f*ckin' waste of time and that was very frustrating because any time you have surgery it's a hassle, from the time it actually takes to do it to the recuperation period and everything. But I think we've finally pinpointed what the deal is and a lot of it actually stems from the years that I took martial arts. I was really into that stuff and I haven't been stretchin' in the last few years like I'm supposed to so I've got a lot of problems in my hips that are influencing the lower back. I used to do full splits and put my chest to the floor and all that stuff and I'm still very limber, but not like I used to be. I haven't been doin' that kind of stuff so my body's trying to go back to its normal position and some nerves are not and so they're gettin' pinched off in the hip areas and it's just creatin' a lot of problems; that's what we finally have come to determine from it. So basically I'm doin' physical therapy, too, and we've decided that ICED EARTH is not gonna tour again without a physical therapist. Even if we get this thing nailed and I'm feelin' great and I go six months with no problems, I'm still gonna take somebody out on the road because it's not the performing — that's the easy part — it's the traveling that really causes problems. You're livin' in a bus bouncin' around all day and you get from point A to point B but it's not very restful and it's tough on a person who has a bad back. It used to be brutal in the mid-to-late '90s with the neck problem because every bump, I felt; I never got any sleep until the tour bus would stop. And that's kind of how it was on this last one, when the bus was stopped would be the only time I could crash and that may be 10:00 the next day after the show. Anyway, I think we're on the road to recovery here. I'm feelin' better and I'm still workin' at it, and with everything that's goin' on and the big news that just came down for ICED EARTH and where we're headed, I feel more determined and pumped than ever before — more inspired. And I have my daughter to thank for a lot of that and I'm just like ready to come back with a f*ckin' vengeance. Man, I'm pumped! I'm very excited about what's comin' up and it's gonna be awhile because we're finally gonna do the 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' story on the most awesome concept record that we've ever done. So I'm gonna start writing that very soon and Tim's [Owens, vocals] excited about it and we're just gonna come back with a vengeance, man."

On Track Magazine: Very cool, awesome.

Jon: "Yeah, we're for sure gonna do that, and it wasn't that it was given to me, but it's been somethin' that I've been pitchin' to SPV that I had to have certain commitments from them in order to carry on with it. Believe it or not, after all these years, especially around the writing process for 'The Glorious Burden', I was thinkin', 'Man, you know, I've gotta finish the 'Something Wicked' thing one of these days.' And I wonder if, after all these years, if I'm still gonna be inspired enough to want to do it; to really get into it and to tell the story the way it needs to be told. And I think, because my daughter being born, I'm finally able to…. I don't know man, I feel psyched, I'm totally pumped and ready to attack this thing. And SPV's goin' along with my plan — the decision was made Friday that we're gonna do it. It's gonna be two albums: it's gonna be a Part I and then Part II will probably be released six months later. Part I will come out as we're finishing up Part II and then we'll probably kick off the world tour with the release of Part II. So it's gonna probably be three and a half hours of music and I mean, I'm tellin' a story that is sci-fi kind of horror, conspiracy theory, but it's based over twelve thousand years of human history; there's a lot to tackle in this thing. The trilogy was just a teaser to the whole story and what we're gonna be gettin' in to is so much bigger. And that's actually the big news, I know there have been a lot of people that have been wantin' that to happen for a long time."

On Track Magazine: Yeah definitely, definitely sounds fantastic.

Jon: "It has to be our 'Operation Mindcrime' or our 'The Wall'. This is it — this has got to destroy everything we've ever done. I'm feelin' the pressure, but it's a good thing, it's got me, like, energized and just ready to attack. I spent last week with Tim… I actually just got back from Sweden last night ‘cause we did the video for 'Terror Train' over there for the DEMONS album. But I spent last week with Tim because he just had a daughter too; she was born a month after mine was, and both families got together and spent the week together over there and just had a great time. Y'know, he's workin' on his side-project thing now, but he's really gettin' excited and ready to come back into this world and get on with it, so it should be very cool. Y'know, we're not gonna tour at all unless some big opportunity comes, and I mean big. It's gotta be like METALLICA big, IRON MAIDEN, that kind of a tour, and then we would go back out, it would be worth it. But otherwise, anything else is just gonna take away time from us gettin' the next record done."

Pourvu que ces suites soient valables et digne du tome 1, mais franchement ça m'inquiete un peu, wait and see

Hum, j'espère vraiment que ça me permettra de ne plus regretter Barlow, mais j'en doute.
Enfin on verra bien, si c'est du même niveau que le 1er SWTWC, ça sera énorme.

Le p'tit Schaffer m'a l'air bien remonté. Que ça se traduise par des compos dignent de la première trilogie. Et puis j'aime bien le Owens, donc je vais suivre ça avec intérêt. Mais si on a encore le temps de voir venir.

Comme je vois que tout le monde est intéressé, j'en remets une couche.

En gros Schaffer dit que Owens est sympa mais il ne va pas beaucoup composer pour cet album. D'une part parce que l'histoire est torchée depuis belle lurettes. D'autre part (et c'est Schaffer qui le dit), il n'a pas une grosse expérience en tant que compositeur et donc s'il merde ça peut ruiner sa carrière (sic). Mais il espère qu'il sera plus actif dans un prochain album d'Iced Earth.

ICED EARTH guitarist/mainman Jon Schaffer recently spoke to LocalMetal.com about his decision to record a concept album based on the "Something Wicked This Way Comes" story first touched up on the 1998 album of the same name. Asked what made him decide to do a second part of "Something Wicked This Way Comes", Schaffer replied, "It's not really a second part. The 'Something Wicked' album, at the end of that record, there's a trilogy, and it's called the 'Something Wicked' trilogy. And that was a teaser to this entire story that I've written. The plan was always to follow up and do a full concept album based on that story that I've written. The problem was I didn't feel like the time was right, and I didn't feel that Century Media at the time was the right label to do it. And, of course, after we had signed with SPV… I always follow my heart, my gut instinct, and at the time I felt it was right to do something like 'The Glorious Burden' — that's what was coming out at the time. And for me as a writer, it just felt like the way to go. Now it feels like the time is right for me to do it, and it will be by far the most ambitious undertaking for me as a songwriter ever, because it's a very complex story, it spans the course of about 12,000 years of human history. It's a science-fiction horror story, conspiracy story. There's so many different elements in it that it's a trip. And what people heard on the trilogy is just really a teaser to what this whole thing is about. It's gonna be awesome."

With regards to how much input vocalist Tim Owens (ex-JUDAS PRIEST) will have in the songwriting process for the new album, Schaffer said, "Probably not that much, because the story has been there for awhile. Tim doesn't have experience as a songwriter. He's never really been given that opportunity. However, he WILL be given that opportunity in ICED EARTH. It's just that with this, it's kind of a done deal, and he's very aware of that. Also, just because somebody is a great singer doesn't necessarily mean they're a great songwriter, and you can basically ruin your career very quick if you're not careful about the way the writing goes, and Tim is aware of that also. He's doing a side project right now in which he has… It's him and another guitarist, it's a friend of his that's writing most of the material, but Tim is writing and he's gaining experience by doing that, which is a good thing. So we'll see… I mean, obviously, if Tim comes up wit hideas and they're really strong ideas, they'll get used and he'll get credit for it, and he knows that. But he also knows the importance of the decisions in songwriting, and if you're not careful, you can ruin your entire career. We have to be careful… It's funny to me. It blows me away how the human mind works and how people think that just because a guy plays an instrument he must be a songwriter, and that's so far from the truth, it's unbelievable. In all my years of being a professional musician, I've probably met two or three guys that are actual, real songwriters, and there's quite a difference."

Jon Schaffer est toujours remonté...

Ouais, cette suite était prévue depuis Horror Show, si je me rappelle.
Il arrive à faire des trucs sympa ("the Phantom opera Ghost") mais trois heures...ça risque de gaver un peu, non?

Bof, ça fait quinze ans qu'il joue le même putain de riff alors 3 heures de plus ou de moins...
Sinon j'adore la phrase sur l'expérience de la composition. Y a qu'à écouter le D&W pour apprécier la sienne.

J'ai l'impression (enfin, c'est pas une impression, on sait tous que Jon est toujours très content de lui) qu'il est atteint du syndrôme "ce que je fais c'est mieux", donc le pauvre Owens, s'il arrive à placer trois notes d'affilée dans les compos de Jon, c'est vraiment que ce dernier voudra mettre un bouche-trou...

Les mêmes riffs? Possible mais moi je me dis que tant qu'elles dégagent une ambiance et qu'elles fonctionnent, ça me va. Je me souviendrai toujours de ce que Cazu "Lead Guitarist de Stonecast" m'a dit une fois.

La technique n'est pas un argument infaillible et la simplicité tue.

Pour ce qui est de ce gros concept, je l'attend depuis bel lurette et j'ai bien hâte de voir ce que sa va donner.

C'est sûr que Stonecast c'est une référence.
Ma critique de Shafer n'est en tout cas pas lié à l'éventuelle simplicité de ses riffs.

HR : J'aime bien ton ironie qui vise à ce foutre de la gueule de quelqu'un qui va dire une "supposé" annerie. J'en ai strictement rien à foutre que Stonecast soi une référence ou pas, je connais le mec en question et c'est quelqu'un de bonne foi qui sais de quoi il parle.

Pour ce qui est de la personnalité de Schaffer, je trouve ça bien facile cette campagne de salissage qui sévit à son sujet. On peu lui envouloir pour bien des trucs comme l'annulation des concert et des trucs dans le genre mais pour le reste, on est pas en face de la personne concerné ni même dans sa peau. Vous pouvez vous baser sur ce qu'il dit mais moi sans vouloir jouer l'avocat du diable, je lui laisse une petite place pour le bénéfice du doute. Aprés quoi, j'attend sa prochaine livraison et je verais bien. Si j'aime pas et bien que voulez vous? J'attendrai le prochain c'est tout...

Enfin tu parlais de Bush récemment avec clairvoyance, essaye de voir que Schaffer est pas loin de ce gars là humainement, et c'est un fan de Iced Earth qui le dit

Euh j'ai dit ca moi ?? En tout cas pas comme ca...

C'est gentil de me citer mais bon c'est vrai que les citations de "Cazu lead guitariste de Stonecast" ca fait un peu craignos pour appuyer une argumentation...à la limite t'aurai pu dire "un pote pense que..."

J'vais passer (encore plus sur ce forum) pour un monte segue apres....

Au fait les gars :


MAAAAAAAANOOOOOOWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR !!!!!!

tiens ça faisait longtemps mr Angel, on parle de toi et tu rapplique cash,

Angel.Holocaut : Ohlala mais c'étais pas mon but.

dsl sinon...

Tu vois même lui le dit... "lead guitarist de XXXX" c'est un truc qui m'a toujours fait marrer (je dis pas ça pour t'emmerder AH) mais bon.... quand on joue dans les bars et qu'on porte son matos à trois heures du mat dans sa caisse pourrie... heu... on se sent pas trop "lead guitarist de Fuckzeworld".

Je vais mettre des points sur les "i" parce qu'il me semble que j'ai vraiment du mal à me faire comprendre.

Cette histoire avec Angel.Holocaust ce n'étais strictement pas dans de mauvaise intention ok? Pour moi c'étais tout à fait normal de le préciser. Demander moi pas pourquoi, je trouvai ça normal de le préciser c'est tout. J'ai ni fait ça dans de mauvaise intention ni même dans l'intention de choquer ou de faire passer quelqu'un pour un con. J'ai fais ça dans un coup de tête avec l'idée que ceci n'avais rien d'anormal. Rentrez vous ça dans le crâne une bonne fois pour toute. Appare de ça je me suis excusé alors je ne vois pas ce que l'on peu rajouter de plus.

On peu changer de sujet maintenant? Allez quoi merde, j'amène de la bière si il le faut!

Bon allez changeons de sujet alors...

Ripper nous livre un "droit de réponse", non pas, d'après ce que j'ai compris, à Jon, mais aux personnes qui ont vraissemblablement cru les propos de Schaffer concernant les capacités d'Owens à composer.

Il dit en substance qu'il a déjà pas mal composé pour des groupes comme Brainicide, Winters Bane ou pour son propre projet solo, Beyond Fear. Evidemment rares sont ceux qui ont pu écouter ses talents au sein de ces groupes. Les gens ne se focalisent que sur sa période Priestienne (et pour cause) ce qui fausse le jugement selon lui.

Ceci dit il est bien conscient qu'il n'aura pas une grande influence sur le "Something Wicked..." car c'est une histoire de Jon et qu'en plus c'est de la science-fiction, genre guère apprécié par Owens.

Responding to fan comments made on his official message board in regards to the above interview, Owens wrote, "Saying I'm not a songwriter is WRONG. You don't say anything unless you know what you are talking about. Take BRAINICIDE; if you haven't heard it, then you can't say anything. Take WINTERS BANE; if you haven't heard it, then you can't say anything. Take BEYOND FEAR; if you haven't heard it, then you can't say anything. Also, I have written on every song on the BEYOND FEAR CD and I have written seven of the songs myself. So to say that somebody is doing all or most of the writing is wrong, John Comprix [BEYOND FEAR guitarist] has written with me and still has put in 50 percent of the writing not all of it, And his stuff is just amazing. It makes me very angry that people say I can't write, when they don't know that anything about my past and then just bring up PRIEST. To me, Glenn [Tipton] was probably one of the best songwriters I've dealt with, and If you agree or not, I don't care...See, I can put my foot in my mouth also! As for the next ICED EARTH CD, Jon and I knew that it was going to be the 'Something Wicked' thing, and there really isn't anything I can do on it but add some input and sing. This is a story in Jon's head, and me not being into science fiction stuff at all, I really won't be that much help. But it will be a killer CD, and I really look forward to making it."

Maintenant que tu en parles, ce sont des groupes que je ne connais absolument pas. D'où question : Ripper compose-t-il bien, alors?

Ben...entre Brainicide dont je n'ai jamais entendu parler et Beyond Fear qui n'est pas sorti, il reste Winters Bane...mais je crois que c'est le guitariste (machin Saint Paul je crois) qui a composé. Ripper a participé à l'écriture des textes et du concept.

L'album en lui même est sympa dans le genre power metal qu'il a toujours fait. Mais heureusement que Ripper chantait dessus, car force est de reconnaitre qu'il chante très bien le bougre.