The Glorious Burden has seen the light of day and after a very long listening session I’m finally ready to shed some light on Iced Earth’s latest release. Grab a seat and pour yourself a hot cup of coffee because it’s going to be a long ride.

A little while ago I received an email with a link to the audio streams of the new Iced Earth album The Glorious Burden. Along with the link came the notice that I had the huge number of 48 hours to listen to the songs before my permission would be revoked. Great. Record labels have taken another step forward to protect their new top priority albums from leaking out on internet. Recently Metal Blade delivered a couple of promos with random bleeps in the songs and now SPV gives me 48 hours to listen to some second rated quality audio streams.

I can safely say that I was far from pleased. Add to that the pretty disappointing single release and my expectations were pretty much subzero. Or were they? Well, not really. The moment I logged on and noticed the track list, I saw the album opened with “The Star Spangled Banner”. For all of you who don’t know, that’s the national anthem of the United States of America. Great. Has Iced Earth now also turned into a bunch of unredeeming patriots? Truly, my expectations couldn’t get much lower at that point. Thank god that at least the European version doesn’t feature that intro. I’m still shuddering at the sheer thought of it.

At that point I decided to at least get some satisfaction out of this whole tragedy of absurdity and I hooked my PC up to my stereo and taped the whole album on my minidisk player. Before I will even start to reveal any information about the album I will briefly explain Iced Earth’s situation because it is important in many ways.

It all started on that infamous September 11th. That incident changed the minds of Matt Barlow and Jon Shaffer in a very profound way. The continuation of Iced Earth was uncertain; both men felt that they should serve a higher purpose than to waste their lives on the creation of metal. For Jon this was just a transitory phase in his life, he grew over it and became mentally more resolved to continue his work, to envision his metal future and to take Iced Earth another step forward. For Matt however this was not a transitory phase and he decided he wanted to do something with his life, apparently singing in a pretty damn famous metal band was not enough to satisfy his needs to help his country in a time of need. He decided to start studying law and quit his singing career, to dismay of all Iced Earth fans for his vocals are the best the metal scene has to offer.

Unfortunately for Matt, the story doesn’t end there. Jon felt that Iced Earth needed Matt and bugged him to sing on The Glorious Burden.

He felt that he had written the best material up to date and Matt’s vocals were needed to complete it. Unfortunately, Matt agreed and added his vocals to the album. Needless to say it turned out to be a disaster, for his heart was not into it. Jon quickly took reign into his own hands and ‘kicked’ Matt out of Iced Earth, for he felt that his best work should not go to waste. In search for a new singer he met Tim Owens and the rest is history. Tim has done an excellent job and has managed to totally replace Matt. After listening to the album a couple of times you simply get used to the fact that Matt is gone and that he has been replaced by a man who is maybe less talented but certainly more spirited.

That’s enough history for one day and it’s time to let the music do the talking. The Glorious Burden is simply a fantastic album. Iced Earth have taken their heavy metal to a new level. It is definitely heavier than Horror Show while still retaining that same melodic vibe. The single painted a bleak picture, simply because it featured all the (semi) ballads that are on the album. What we hear on the real thing is Iced Earth getting in touch with their roots; heavy songs with good riffs and great melodies. All the fancy stuff that made Horror Show too poppy is gone, replaced by true metal, straight from the heart.

While Jon always has been an excellent songwriter, his latest work hasn’t been close to the sheer brilliance of The Dark Saga. The Glorious Burden however comes pretty close. Songs like “Waterloo” (sorry but the American version doesn’t feature this excellent song), “Declaration Day” and “Attila The Hun” are fabulous. Jon has managed to write powerful songs with great sing along choruses that finally manage to challenge songs like “The Hunter” and “Slave To The Dark”. Don’t get me wrong, it still isn’t as good as The Dark Saga, but it comes pretty damn close.

Hell yeah, with one powerful blow Iced Earth have managed to convince me again: They are simply one of the best metal acts around, but unfortunately and shamefully highly underrated. No matter how often I listen to this album it just keeps on interesting me. My only true point of criticism is the level of patriotism. Sure, Jon has tried to write stories about European historical events too, but the message is pretty clear: “We are Americans and nothing will take our freedom.” To a certain degree I can understand those sentiments but I’m afraid that many Europeans might not share that same view. All I can say is forget about the lyrics, “When The Eagle Cries” in particular, and concentrate on the music because it will simply blow you away.