Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer has produced somewhat of a solo project here, inspired by the global banking crisis, Sons of Liberty tells stories and makes social comment about the biggest balls-up in recent financial history. The band name comes from the secret underground group of patriots formed in 1765 whom resisted tyranny and exposed its ideas that ultimately led to the American Revolution.
Musically, Iced Earth fans will rejoice, well what did you expect!? Jon is the main song writing force in IE, and SOL is no different. You have the galloping rhythms, anthemic chorus lines and riffs upon riffs. This time, Jon handles the vocal duties himself, whilst no Matt Barlow, there is a strong performance and he actually does himself real justice. The production lends itself to Ripper era Iced Earth and the conceptual teachings that brought us, lyrically, it gets more interesting. Although that sounded harsh, musically there is nothing really to stand out from the other tunes penned by this great man, however, fused with lyrical tirades in ‘Jekyll’s Island’ and ‘False Flag’, you really get a quality overall arrangement on balance. This album grows on you, my first listen did not do anything for me, it just passed me by, but now, I am in league with the Sons of Liberty. This is also helped with the ripping guest appearances of guitarist Troy Steele (Iced Earth) and bassist Ruben Drake. Producer Jim Morris also gets in on the act for three of the tracks.
Whilst the CD is due out any minute, the album is still available for free download at the sons of liberty website. Iced Earth fans will rejoice and enjoy this release, for the occasional fan, I am not so sure, but that is just my opinion at the end of the day. A strong release, it takes a while to get into, when you do click, its business as usual in quality metal terms, but I am still holding out for the next Iced Earth release.
http://www.sons-of-liberty.net
http://centurymedia.net
