ICED EARTH: The Glorious Burden

Produced by Jim Morris and Jon Schaffer

Released: 2004

A friend of mine told me they were disappointed with this album, and being the die-hard Iced Earth fan they are, I can understand why. The Glorious Burden was built up to be a complete triumph, introducing a new singer and a new beginning, utilising orchestral arrangements and featuring an epic track the reflects band leader Jon Schaffer's passion for American history. Of couse, Schaffer builds up all Iced Earth albums as being the greatest recordings ever, so that's nothing unusual. Unfortunately this album doesn't even come close to being Iced Earth's best, never mind the world-changing masterpiece it was claimed to be. Most of the tracks aren’t up to the standard that Schaffer has set for himself over the years and most of the lyrics are worse than some of the worst stuff Steve Harris comes up with from time to time.

The enormous three-part US Civil War epic “Gettysburg (1863)” is the real reason to get hold of The Glorious Burden, where the band is joined by an orchestra that really helps to set the mood for a musical saga that stands so far above the rest of the album it could well have been released on its own without all the filler like the horrible “When the Eagle Cries”, perhaps one of the worst songs in the history of American metal. “Hollow Man” is merely a reworking of previous Iced Earth ballads like “Melancholy”, with different lyrics, but the likes of “Attila” and “Red Baron/Blue Max” do stand out nicely despite that typical repetitive three-part riff that Schaffer has used on every song he’s ever written.

Ex-Judas Priest vocalist Tim Owens does a fantastic job with the material he’s been given, but as gifted a singer as he is, even he has trouble making something like “There were 45,000 wounded or dead when the fight was finally through/On a three-mile square battlefield near a town named Waterloo” sound like lyrics instead of a paragraph from a modern history textbook. Far too often also, The Glorious Burden wavers perilously close to German power metal territory, with Blind Guardian-style multiple vocal harmonies in the choruses as well as being less heavier overall than previous efforts. Ultimately, The Glorious Burden is rather a flawed album that didn’t stand up to the hype that preceded it in the wake of Matt Barlow’s departure and Schaffer’s long-held dissatisfaction with his previous label.

This isn’t a terrible album by any means, but with the exception of the “Gettysburg” trilogy, it is a significant step down from most of their previous releases.

1. The Star-Spangled Banner
2. Declaration Day
3. When the Eagle Cries
4. The Reckoning (Don't Tread on Me)
5. Greenface
6. Attila
7. Red Baron/Blue Max
8. Hollow Man
9. Valley Forge
10. Gettysburg (1863) Pt 1. -- The Devil to Pay
11. Gettysburg (1863) Pt 2. -- Hold at All Costs
12. Gettysburg (1863) Pt 3. -- High Water Mark

Rating: 68%