Riff Police! Pull Over! #136: Iced Earth Vs Metallica!

August 1990 saw Iced Earth enter the iconic Morrisound studio (Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Morbid Angel) to record their seminal self titled debut full length record with the man himself, Tom Morris. Listening to that record 30 years on and flavours of Thrash, Power Metal and Speed Metal with influences in Iron Maiden and Dio are air apparent. A mighty fine record indeed, it sees arguably the best line up of the bands history with Jon Schaffer at the forefront of it all…

…Released a year later in Los Angeles California was another seminal release in “The Black” album from Metallica with the recording sessions starting just three months after the release of the Iced Earth record. Metallica got Michael Kamen to write the orchestral arrangement for “Nothing Else Matters” but you may notice that the riff credited to James Hetfield isn’t too far away from that of “Life And Death” by Iced Earth. It could be that both bands share the same influences or it could be that Hetfield simply heard something he liked, certainly the guitar tone of the leads is very close, but not close enough to have any lawyers sharpening their pencils…