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CD: Iced Earth - Dark Saga	Released: 1996
Reviewed By: Dave Elder (FaceInTheSky)	Rating: (2/5)

Don't you hate it when you have some really good ideas and once you put them together something you hoped would be grand and beautiful turns out to suck? I know I hate that. But it looks like the guys in Iced Earth were OK with it enough to unleash "Dark Saga" onto the public.

The album is based on the Spawn comic books. So one would think this album has to be great. I mean, after all, it is based on a great comic book storyline. You would think it would be impossible for it to suck. But never underestimate bland sound and poor writing here and there to mess something up and turn it into an embarrassment.

After listening to their last album, "Burnt Offerings", I would think they'd try hard to make an even better album. Instead we get 1 really good song ("A Question of Heaven"), 3 good/OK songs and 6 songs of crap. Plus it was YEARS between this album and their last. This is the best they can come up with?! I've heard albums written in a matter of days that sounded much better than what is on here. Maybe if this album had remixed and produced better than the crap songs would move up to being OK or good songs. Hell, the live version of "A Question of Heaven" is great, even better than the version on this album which is saying a lot!

OK, maybe I'm getting carried away right now. This album is just flat and lifeless, yet the band did try to do something good. Unless you're a diehard fan then skip this album because they have done better and most likely will do better in the future.