Album Review: Ashes Of Ares - Well Of Souls

For a lot of people, Matt Barlow is THE voice of Iced Earth. There was something about his baritone that was different than everything else out there, to the point where not only do many people still lionize his every uttered note, but the band themselves went out and got a singer who can basically clone his performance. Myself, I can't say I was ever that much a fan of his. He's fine, but I found his voice to be over-wrought, and his softer tones to be relatively weak. In fact, my favorite Iced Earth record has Ripper Owens on vocals, so what do I know? Barlow has been busy in his time since last splitting with Iced Earth, with this second Ashes Of Ares album being the latest effort from him.

I'll say this right at the beginning; I don't believe I ever heard the first Ashes Of Ares album, so I won't be making any comparisons between the two.

If there was any question who is the driving force here, the opening "Consuming The Mana" makes it clear very quickly. Barlow opens his song proper with a piercing wail, uses both his clean and gruff singing, and absolutely dominate the mix. His voice sits very high, and is the only bit of the music that sounds clear and punchy. The guitars especially are fuzzy and almost feel out of focus. When the record tries to get heavy, that is a real detriment, because it doesn't sound heavy at all. The instrumentals of the songs sound amateurish, frankly.

That puts Barlow front-and-center, and entrusts the entire success of the songs to him. That will probably work for the target audience, but it doesn't for me. Barlow gives it his all, utilizing every trick he has in his playbook, but there isn't any interesting songwriting here at all. He has next to nothing to work with, melodically, which turns these songs into a long drive down an arrow-straight piece of road. You'll get where you're going, but there's no scenery to look at, and no challenge to stop your mind from wandering away from the wheel.

I don't get Barlow's decision on "Soul Searcher" to sing with that warbling hint of a growl in his voice, considering the song is a ballad. The guitars are clean, the pace is slow, and he is almost barking through what is supposed to be an emotional moment. That doesn't work whatsoever, but it might be because his softer register sounds worn out when he does try to use it. There's probably a reason why many of his vocals here are layered with highs and lows together, rather than leaving him exposed. Or maybe that is another byproduct of the entire production being lackluster.

I always try to look for the positives, and that is proving hard to do with this record. Matt Barlow fans will be happy just to hear his voice, but other than giving him another opportunity to be heard, I'm not able to point to anything else encouraging. What we have here is a record that sounds tired, flimsy, and under-written. If this album is the well of souls, the water is running very low. I don't enjoy saying this, but Ashes Of Ares is one of the weaker albums I've heard all year.