Yeah, it’s still together. It went really good actually. Obviously we can’t do anything now being extremely busy with Iced Earth. It’s probably going to be a year or two years before we put something out with Beyond Fear. We’re still writing. John Comprix and myself get together when I’m home and we come up with some ideas and put some things down so I think whenever Iced Earth ends, Beyond Fear will start. Hopefully our CD will be recorded by the time Iced Earth is done as well so Beyond Fear will be able to get right back on the road.

The last time I had talked to you was when you guys released your record and I really enjoyed that record. That was in my CD player for the longest time.

Well, thank you. It was a very well received CD and it’s pretty exciting to me that people liked it as much as they did.

I got Overture Of The Wicked in the mail and listened to those four tracks. They’re in my iPod now.

Good. Very good.

To take to the gym with me because I’m thinking that’s going to be some great workout music.

There you go. Perfect.

You guys came out with Framing Armageddon. What led up to the idea behind that record?

Well, Jon Schaffer did the Something Wicked This Way Comes album back in ’98.

Yeah, because that was the first Iced Earth record that I actually owned.

It’s definitely a great record and it’s a classic but he had written the Something Wicked story on it, the trilogy, and he always wanted to make it a whole album. That was just a quick overview of the story. He wanted to really tell the story and get into the details. He just had to wait for the right time and make sure he had the right label behind him and I think he finally felt it was the right time to do it.

This has been described as sort of a sci-fi thriller.

Yeah, it definitely is. I’m here not being a giant sci-fi guy but the story is so great and the album is so great that it’s definitely something…I guess it’s like the last record. If somebody wasn’t a history buff but then they hear “Gettysburg“, they’d become a history guy. They’d be interested in history. This is kind of the same thing. It’s a pretty amazing story.

I’m not really too big on history myself. I remember when I was in school, all it was ever about was dates and people’s names and the wars they fought. I always thought there had to be something a little bit more to history than that. I thought The Glorious Burden was a great record.

Yeah, it definitely was. It was with “Gettysburg” and then the history of that war was quite amazing. We wouldn’t be talking on the phone if the outcome wouldn’t have happened the way it did. We wouldn’t even be here talking like we are. We could be German for all that matter but this new CD is something else really.

I thought that was kind of a leap going from American history to a sci-fi thriller.

The last record was just history in general. Everybody kind of said it’s an American history album but it was actually a world history album. It had Attila on there and the Red Baron and Waterloo. Obviously most of the subjects were American history because we are American. Jon is American so that’s what he knows about. Iced Earth has always done this. They had Something Wicked This Way Comes, they had The Dark Saga CD which was based on the Spawn thing. You had Horror Show which was all about horror show characters. “Gettysburg” which is based on wars throughout history so really it’s about everything. Whatever Jon is in the mood to write about, he’s going to write about it.

I think Horror Show is my favorite CD because I’m a total horror movie buff.

Yeah, it was a pretty good one. I liked the CD.

Next year you’re going to release Something Wicked Part 2.

Yeah, it comes out probably around April or so we’ll shoot for. It’s just going to be the continuation. It’s quite an amazing thing to do the two albums at once. We’re pretty excited about it.

I’m pretty excited about it too. How long did it take you guys to do the record?

Well, Jon’s been working on it for quite a while. A year and a half or whatever and he’s really went at it. It’s an ongoing process and once we get the vocals done for Part 2, then we’ll have everything done and then it seems like it just never ends.

You’ll be releasing it on September 11th.

Yeah, that’s the label’s date to release it. September 11th in the States. I think it’s September 9th in Europe. Whatever that weekend is or week is, that’s the release date in America.

Yeah, they always release stuff on Tuesdays.

Always on Tuesday.

Are you guys thinking about doing any videos for the record?

Yeah, we have one out there now. We have “Ten Thousand Strong” the single that’s out. We have a video. It’s been all over YouTube and everybody’s been getting a hold of it so it’s on the Net. People can find it on YouTube or wherever. Just type in Iced Earth “Ten Thousand Strong”. It’ll probably be out on TV pretty soon.

I absolutely love YouTube. I think that’s the greatest thing anybody could have come up with. I find all these old videos that I used to love when I was a kid.

Yeah, it’s really good.

What kind of touring are you guys going to be doing for the record?

We do the Europe tour in October and go to November with Heaven And Hell and then hopefully the U.S. in January/February.

That sounds exciting. I hear the Heaven And Hell thing has been going pretty well.

Yeah, it should be good and they sound great so I’m looking forward to touring with them.

Some of my friends got to see them.

It was awesome. It was great. Ronnie is just a great singer.

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been hearing. When Jon Schaffer writes the material for the record, does a lot of that stuff just come out of his head or does he sometimes like to do research?

He definitely researches it. He knows what’s going on. This odyssey story is out of his head. He knows about religions and knows about things but obviously the story that’s got this much in it is definitely something that he’s got in his head. The last album, he knows a lot about history. He’s a history buff but this one is pretty unique.

I just think that’s amazing when people can dream stuff like that up.

Yeah, it really is. I don’t think even Jon is this ultra giant sci-fi guy. Obviously he enjoys it but I don’t think he’s this over the top sci-fi guy so it’s even more amazing when someone like that does that.

Did you have a big hand in writing the lyrics for the record?

No, I couldn’t because it was being his story. It’s one of those things that’s in his head so I don’t know the story enough of what he wants to do. It was definitely something that he had to do on his own.

When you got the lyrics and read the story, was it pretty easy to totally immerse yourself in the whole storyline?

Oh yeah, it definitely was easy. His stuff always is lyrically and it’s always fun to sing so it definitely wasn’t very much of a challenge to get into the stuff.

Once you guys are done touring, what do you have planned outside of releasing the next part of the record?

We’re going to be touring probably for a long time on this record. It’s the hope so I really don’t see anything else to do. In the meantime I come home and have some time off. I’ll try to work on some Beyond Fear stuff and get that album done. Iced Earth is going to take quite a bit of our time right now.

Do you guys see yourselves releasing some more videos for the record?

Oh yeah, we’ll probably release at least one more off of this one we hope and maybe a couple off the next one. We’ll release as many videos as we can.

It seems to me that the material on this one is definitely ripe for video footage.

It is and the new video is pretty awesome. It’s got this comic book thing to it so it’s pretty cool.

I can’t wait to watch that. I’m going to find that today so I can see it.

Yeah, it’s definitely a really cool video.

Any other thoughts or comments?