Ex Iced Earth Singer Matt Barlow: Jon Shaffer Has Given Us His Blessing To Perform The Dark Saga, We Are Celebrating The Music

The Metal Voice recently spoke to former Iced Earth and Ashes of Ares Singer Matt Barlow about the bands upcoming Euro Tour celebrating 30 years of the Iced Earth's classic Album 'The Dark Saga'.

Barlow also talked about the upcoming Ashes of Ares new studio album that will be released in the summer of 2025.

ASHES OF ARES, the band featuring former ICED EARTH members Matt Barlow and Freddie Vidales, will celebrate the upcoming 30th anniversary of ICED EARTH's third album, 1996's "The Dark Saga", on a European tour in September/October 2025.

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When asked if his announcements to go out and perform Iced Earth's 'The Dark Saga' in its entirety, with Ashes of Ares in Europe caused any backlash from Jon Shaffer's involvement of Jan 6

"We don't live in a tube of silence here. I think at the end of the day it's the music and I hope that everybody's respectful because I'm going to celebrate Jon (Shaffer) and what he's done .You know (Jon) he's written some F- amazing music and I've been fortunate to be a part of that. So outside of that I'm not going to get political with anything. We're just talking strictly about music and it's for the love of the music and I hope that everybody understands that. If Jon wants to tour again and play this music again I wholeheartedly look forward to that. If that's a possibility. We're just going to go out there and celebrate this music that is very special for a lot of people. We've been given the blessing to do so by Jon. So that's super important to us as well."

When asked if he would rejoin Iced Earth

" Well it's not on the table. Something like that would be entirely up to Jon, that's Jon's band 100%. So that would be something that Jon would have to decide. Whether I would be a part of it or not either way but whether Iced Earth goes out and does it I look forward to that. Whether it would be me involved with it or some somebody else if that were to happen and I can't speak to it."

When asked if there is a new Ashes of Ares studio album coming out

"We got a new record coming out called New Messiahs. I think there's some really really good music in this record, we've been sitting on it for a while. As far as the release times, we got pushed back a little bit but the record has been in the can for about a year.

We've been sitting on it for a while and it's really tough man. It's really tough to sit on music that you're really excited about people hearing. It'll be out this summer 2025. We're getting ready to release some promotional videos and stuff like that too. So that's that's coming. It's amazing

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A dream of many fans is now coming true, as the European audience will have the opportunity to hear and witness the entire epic "The Dark Saga" album on stage.

The monumental 1996 album that has brought so many memories and joy to metal fans will be played from start to finish, yes all 10 songs, along with songs from our forthcoming album

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