Iced Earth Live: Barlow vs. Owens

[CFH]

As much as I love Tim Owens' voice on the albums he did with Judas Priest, his Beyond Fear album and the two discs he's done with Iced Earth, I'm beginning to wonder if his voice is right for the band's older material. For instance, here are two performances of "The Hunter," one with Owens and one with Barlow, and even though Owens did a good job, it's safe to say that Barlow truly owns at the very least "The Hunter." What does everyone else think?


Alive in Athens w/Barlow

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Wacken Festival 2007 with Owens

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[tbhride]

I gotta agree. I saw a clip with Owens doing Dracula, and it was a fucking travesty. His lower register is just so emotionless.

I did give Owens a fair shake but its just not working for me. I like him, but he is not a good fit for Iced Earth. That combined with the fact that Jon Shaffer hasn't written a real riff since Horror Show makes tbhride a sourpuss when it comes to the current state of Iced Earth.

[Mark Carras]

I do like Tim Owens in his own band, but when trying to fill big shoes he just has had bad luck.

[CFH]

I gotta agree. I saw a clip with Owens doing Dracula, and it was a fucking travesty. His lower register is just so emotionless.

As much as I hate to say this about Tim Owens since he's one of my favorite vocalists, his voice in general sounds emotionless and flat when he sings any of Iced Earth's older songs. On top of that, I've never actually seen him perform live, but he seems to have zero stage presence based on the clips of him performing those songs. With that, I'm beginning to wonder what Jon Schaffer's definition of "his heart wasn't in it" is since he decided not to release the version of Glorious Burden with Barlow's vocals for that reason. Speaking of Barlow, the dude has nothing but energy both vocally and in terms of stage presence, and the scream at the end of the Alive in Athens version "The Hunter" is unfucking real! I really need to get that now.