Carl Begai

Back in 1996 I attended seven shows on Iced Earth’s first European tour in support of their fourth album, The Dark Saga. I wasn’t a huge fan of the band, but having Nevermore on the bill as a support / co-headlining act made the tour time well spent. Admittedly, even though Nevermore dominated every night Iced Earth put on a solid show and The Dark Saga grew on me in spite of being the trendy album of the moment. Overall, a great touring package and some pretty incredible experiences over that two week period.

A couple shows in, however, I noticed that there was an unusually large number of women in the audience. “Unusual” because Iced Earth’s traditional metal sound and Nevermore’s neo-thrash insanity wasn’t known for attracting large numbers of the fairer sex. But there they were, night after night and boob to elbow, headbanging and screaming their approval at the stage. At which point I realized what it was that had a large majority of the ladies hanging around the backstage door, the tour bus, and crushing into the first few rows for a closer look.

The hair.
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