ASHES OF ARES, featuring ex-ICED EARTH vocalist Matt Barlow and bassist Freddie Vidales, is hitting the road to celebrate a big milestone – 30 years since ICED EARTH’s epic Dark Saga album. And let’s be real, who doesn’t love a good anniversary bash?
The Metal Voice recently had a chat with Matt Barlow about the upcoming tour, and he also spilled the beans on the new ASHES OF ARES studio album, which is dropping summer 2025. Fun fact: Matt Barlow is known for his work with ICED EARTH, but he also took a break from music to serve as a police officer in Maine – talk about a career change!
When asked if announcing a full performance of ICED EARTH’s Dark Saga would cause any controversy, given Jon Schaffer’s involvement in the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riots, Barlow said, “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 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’d rejoin ICED EARTH, Matt said, “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.”
