I remember the review of the previous Iced Earth’s album, which was written a year ago in this section and it became even harder for me to rate the second part of the saga called "Something Wicked”. The main thing that marks the release of "The Crucible of Man" was the returning to the band of the mythological, for the power metal fans, voice and stately figure of Matt Barlow. This is the reason why we can not miss in this review everything old and new with which he contributed to the album. The fans of the group remember well that in the past Barlow has leaded the sound with his voice. Yes, of course, without the brain and the abilities of Jon Schaffer nothing that happened to Iced Earth was not going to be as successful as it is, but the vocal parts were always been important. Namely this was the main reason why many people did not endure the departure of the red-haired man off the musical order and his arrival at the order of the American police office system. Iced Earth have chosen to continue without him and Tim Owens, without any hesitation, was doing great as his substitute, succeeding to convince us that he has finally found his place. That was the situation then, but not for a long time. Schaffer decided to shock us again and he announce that the second part of his serial conceptual work will be recorded with Matt on the microphone. This confused many and a lot of them believed that this is possible only when they heard the songs from "The Crucible of Man". I won’t say, as many others did, that in this record Barlow is trying to sing as Owens, but I definitely found that he does not sound as he was some years ago – his voice is softer, more melodic, not always with a lack of power, but with a dominant place for the clean parts. If I strike off the list the intro and the outro from the last two CDs, everything else in "The Crucible of Man" is different in comparison with his predecessor. It is due to the vocals, but also to the cracked constructional decisions of mister Schaffer. This time there are no fast songs – the mid tempo, the interludes and the chorus singing predominate. I can’t say I have expected as slow as this continuation of the story which is written to be more heavier and full with brain-teasers, which should be presented with smashing guitar attacks and drum swaths, but I’m not disappointed with what I’ve heard. Now, you will probably think that my impression of the albums is mostly negative, but it’s not actually true – I’m enjoying songs like "Minions of the Watch" and "I Walk Alone". In contrast to many other opinions I will express my satisfaction that Barlow is again in Iced Earth. He is now at his right place and his present hesitatingly behavior can’t make me think of an apocalypse for the band. I’m not playing for a serial time the disc and I think that rerecording of the first album of the saga, with his voice, is not a bad idea at all. The contrast with the sound in both albums does not make them less interesting. I can not argue only for the fact that the Americans are putting us to a test again.