The Glorious Burden

The Glorious Burden is the seventh studio album by the American heavy metal band Iced Earth. It is a concept album, which explores various moments in military history, such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolutionary War, and Waterloo. It also pays tribute to world events such as World War I, the World Trade Center attacks and the ravages of Attila the Hun. See the track list for links to the historical context of the songs.

The Glorious Burden
Studio album by
Iced Earth
ReleasedJanuary 12, 2004
StudioMorrisound Studios, Tampa, Florida
GenreHeavy metal
Length78:47
LabelSPV
ProducerJim Morris, Jon Schaffer
Iced Earth chronology
Tribute to the Gods
(2002)		 The Glorious Burden
(2004)		 The Blessed and The Damned
(2004)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Metal Storm(8.1/10)[2]

The album includes a trilogy entitled Gettysburg (1863). Each of the three songs represents one day in the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle ever conducted in the Western Hemisphere and considered the turning point in the American Civil War.[3]

This album features the debut of lead singer Tim "Ripper" Owens, formerly of Judas Priest. Owens, who at that time was still in Judas Priest, was asked to do the vocals as a side project. However, he joined the band full-time after Judas Priest reunited with Rob Halford. The album was first recorded with Matt Barlow on vocals, but band leader Jon Schaffer was not satisfied with his performance. Due to the events of September 11, Barlow became more interested in law enforcement than the music business, and according to Schaffer "Matt's heart was not in it and it showed in his performance."[4] As a result, Matt left the band and the album was shelved until a new vocalist could be found. However, some of Barlow's initial recordings remain on the record as backing vocals, and he is credited with co-writing two songs.

This record is the only Iced Earth album to feature Ralph Santolla on lead guitars. This was the last studio album for bassist James MacDonough and drummer Richard Christy.

The album was released in three different formats: a limited edition two-disc version in digipak format, and single-disc American and European versions.[5] See the track list for the differences.

"The Reckoning (Don't Tread on Me)", "Declaration Day", and the acoustic version of "When the Eagle Cries (Unplugged)" were all released as music videos.

Controversy

The Glorious Burden received widespread praise from the metal press but was immediately controversial upon its release due to the heavily apparent American exceptionalism in Schaeffer's lyrics. The album was released only a year after the United States invaded Iraq and was engaged in a larger War on Terror since the 9/11 attacks, wars which were viewed as largely unfavorable outside of the United States. During that time opinions about the United States around the world reached a low point and many reviewers were highly critical of the album's lyrical content, including those who lauded the high quality of the overall song composition and production of the album. The criticism around the album's lyrics was so great that at one point Schaffer refused allow Iced Earth to tour countries where unfavorable articles about the album were written, articles that he saw as anti American. Many of these articles came from European countries where a larger, more passionate, and thus more profitable portion of Iced Earth's fanbase resided, meaning the band could lose out on hundreds of thousands of dollars by not touring the continent.

Schaffer's move backfired when drummer Richard Christy and bassist James MacDonough threatened to leave the band, neither of them willing to forgo their salaries to not tour because of Schaffer's political leanings. He later relented and Iced Earth toured Europe the following year. The band however did not play any songs from The Glorious Burden. After the arrival of frontman Stu Block and the release of their album Dystopia, Iced Earth began to play songs off The Glorious Burden at European venues to great fanfare, first doing so on the Live in Ancient Kourion album. In a 2017 interview Schaffer said he regretted the controversy over The Glorious Burden, saying that while he's proud of the album and its content he regretted holding whole fanbases of countries responsible for the content of their press and that the protest he waged ultimately "went against his values".

Track listing

Disc 1
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."The Star-Spangled Banner"(instrumental)John Stafford Smith1:14
2."Declaration Day"Jon SchafferSchaffer4:59
3."When the Eagle Cries"SchafferSchaffer4:06
4."The Reckoning (Don't Tread on Me)"SchafferSchaffer4:57
5."Greenface"SchafferSchaffer3:03
6."Attila"Matt Barlow, SchafferBarlow, Schaffer5:36
7."Red Baron/Blue Max"Tim OwensSchaffer4:05
8."Hollow Man"SchafferSchaffer4:25
9."Valley Forge"SchafferSchaffer4:46
10."Waterloo"Barlow, SchafferBarlow, Schaffer5:50
11."When the Eagle Cries (Unplugged)"SchafferSchaffer3:35

Disc 2: Gettysburg (1863)
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."The Devil to Pay (July 1, 1863)" (references "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Dixie")SchafferSchaffer12:13
2."Hold at All Costs (July 2, 1863)"SchafferSchaffer7:06
3."High Water Mark (July 3, 1863)"SchafferSchaffer12:36

American version
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."The Star-Spangled Banner"(instrumental)Smith1:14
2."Declaration Day"SchafferSchaffer4:59
3."When the Eagle Cries"SchafferSchaffer4:06
4."The Reckoning (Don't Tread on Me)"SchafferSchaffer4:57
5."Greenface"SchafferSchaffer3:03
6."Valley Forge"SchafferSchaffer4:46
7."Attila"Barlow, SchafferBarlow, Schaffer5:36
8."Hollow Man"SchafferSchaffer4:25
9."Red Baron/Blue Max"OwensSchaffer4:05
10."The Devil to Pay (July 1, 1863)"SchafferSchaffer12:13
11."Hold at All Costs (July 2, 1863)"SchafferSchaffer7:06
12."High Water Mark (July 3, 1863)"SchafferSchaffer12:36

European version
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Declaration Day"SchafferSchaffer4:59
2."When the Eagle Cries"SchafferSchaffer4:06
3."The Reckoning (Don't Tread on Me)"SchafferSchaffer4:57
4."Attila"Barlow, SchafferBarlow, Schaffer5:36
5."Red Baron/Blue Max"OwensSchaffer4:05
6."Hollow Man"SchafferSchaffer4:25
7."Valley Forge"SchafferSchaffer4:46
8."Waterloo"Barlow, SchafferBarlow, Schaffer5:50
9."The Devil to Pay (July 1, 1863)"SchafferSchaffer12:13
10."Hold at All Costs (July 2, 1863)"SchafferSchaffer7:06
11."High Water Mark (July 3, 1863)"SchafferSchaffer12:36

Personnel
Iced Earth[6]
Guest musicians
Production

References
  1. Thom Jurek (January 13, 2004). "The Glorious Burden - Iced Earth | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  2. "Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden review". Metal Storm. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  3. "ThinkQuest". Library.thinkquest.org. July 1, 2013. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  4. Jon Schaffer explanation of Matt Barlow's departure."Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 5, 2004. Retrieved December 14, 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. "Interview with Tim "Ripper" Owens of ICED EARTH". Metal-Rules.com. January 26, 2004. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  6. The Glorious Burden album credits. SPV. 2004.
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