The Glorious Burden

Artist: Iced Earth
Label: Crown Japan
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 4988007200868
ASIN: B0000DJW4K

Release Date: 2003-11-27

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Tracks:

Star Spangled Banner
Declaration Day
When the Eagle Cries
Reckoning (Don't Tread on Me)
Greenface
Attila
Red Baron/Blue Max
Hollow Man
Valley Forge
Waterloo
When the Eagle Cries [Unplugged Version][*]

Tracks:

Devil to Pay
Hold at All Costs
High Water Mark

Customer Reviews:

Baseball, apple pie, and Iced Earth?.......2006-10-16

I have to admit I was nervous when I heard former Judas Priest fill-in Tim "Ripper" Owens was taking over as lead vocalist for Iced Earth, since Matt Barlow's distinctive vocals were the reason I was an Iced Earth fan to begin with. To my surprise, he did a pretty good job (though it didn't hurt that Barlow provided some excellent backing vocals), and the Glorious Burden's shortcomings have nothing to do with his performance. What tends to drag the album down a bit is Jon Schaffer's over-the-top patriotism. His sentiments are admirable, but his flag-waving could end up alienating the large segment of the group's fan base that is not American. Songs like When the Eagle Cries (which basically sums up all of those patriotic bumper stickers that showed up post 9-11) and Valley Forge (where Schaffer explains how the soldiers who fought that historic battle would be disgusted at modern Americans) are almost too cheesy to be taken seriously. The Reckoning and Green Face suffer from this to a lesser extent, but are easier to forgive since they flat-out rock, and are full of those Schaffer riffs that define Iced Earth's sound. Other standout tracks on disc 1 include Hollow Man, Attila, and Waterloo, which is not a cover of the Abba song of the same name (though that might have been more interesting). Red Baron/Blue Max is decent, but never comes close to the original ode to fighter pilots - Iron Maiden's Aces High. The limited edition release of the Glorious Burden closes out disc 1 with the acoustic version of When the Eagle Cries, which was previously exclusive to the single release of the Reckoning.
Disc 2 contains the 3-part 30+ minute epic Gettysburg (1863). You can tell Jon Schaffer put his heart and soul into this one, and for the most part it really works. It has some great arrangements, powerful guitar work, and having an orchestra accompany the band is a nice touch. The lyrics get a little cheesy at times, and Owens' delivery is sometimes too melodramatic, but overall it is an impressive piece that helps to make up for some of the shortcomings on disc 1.

Overall, the Glorious Burden is a decent album. It has its flaws, but also has its share of high points. I don't think it's the career-defining epic that Schaffer intended it to be (that honor goes to the band's Something Wicked This Way Comes album), but it is a solid release that should appeal to most Iced Earth fans.

THE GLORIOUS BURDEN and a day in Court.......2005-08-06

Bailiff; All rise, here yee here yee, court is now in session, the honorable Judge Filborn T, Filibuster presiding

Judge; Thank you Bailiff, you may proceed.

Bailiff; Citation # B.S.-007-H.S., Maricopa County versus Mr. D, aka Old Man Metal, Donnie DBs and Li'l Bubba. The charges are as follows: The defendant knowingly and willfully violated the jurisdictions noise ordinance, disturbing the peace, creating a disturbance and hurling aspersive comments at the officers of the court.

Judge; And how does the defendant plead?

Mr. D; Your honor, I am not guilty because I was not aware of the laws of which I may have broken and therefore I cannot be held accountable for these alleged offenses.

Judge; Mr. D, If my memory serves me correctly, you are serving sixty days probation for similar charges, right?

Mr. D; Well yes, but that was a different album and by the way you have the Donnie DBs alias wrong. It's Donnie Debonair. It's your stupid deputies who started calling me Donnie DBs.

Judge; Well Mr. D, I wonder why? Could it be that you have been clocked on numerous occasions at over 100 decibels and whats more the law, as it is, is applied equally to all albums, so what do you have to say for yourself?

Mr. D; You're right Judge. I change my plea to temporary insanity. This new album I bought, The Glorious Burden is so hot and it sounds so good that I had to keep turning it up because, as you know, I think the best music sounds better very loud and I just lost my head. If you happened to like Heavy Progressive Metal and you heard this album and knew how g-o-o-o-o-o-d it is, then you'd understand why it needs to be played loud.

Judge; As a matter of fact I do like some Progressive Metal music. Don't know about the heavy part.

Mr. D; You do? I would have guessed you were a Montovani type.

Judge; What about you? You're no spring chicken. I would have thought you liked Elvis Presley or Dean Martin.

Mr. D; They're fine. Actually, I've always been into Rock which progressed into Heavy and Progressive Metal.

Judge; That's all pretty much what you said about the last incident. What was that spectacular album?

Mr. D; Oh, that was Ayreon - The Human Equation and it is spectacular but this is different. The Glorious Burden is by an American band, Iced Earth, and it's a tribute to warriors throughout history but mostly American history. So you see, I was really being very patriotic, I'm a very patriotic person.

Judge; Oh, I'm impressed. Next Fourth of July you can climb to the top of Elephant Butte and play it as loud as you want. Now tell me about this fabulous historical album. (chuckle)

Mr. D; Don't laugh Judge this is a profound piece of work. Look at this packaging, isn't it Glorious in it's slip case and double CD digipack and look at this booklet. Isn't it something?

Judge; Very nice but you didn't go over a hundred DBs because of the CD case.

Mr. D; No Judge, you're right. As you can see there are two discs, disc 1 has songs about everything from Attila the Hun to Waterloo, The Declaration of Independence and American Revolution through the World Wars to 9-11. It is remarkable but it's disc 2 that gets my blood circulating, an amazing thirty two minute composition about Gettysburg.

Judge; Now you've got my attention. I've always been a student of the Civil War ever since I found out my great great grandfather, Heatcoate Killjoy, was involved. He was a newly landed immigrant who was paid three hundred dollars to take the place of some well heeled patrician, or else.

Mr. D; That's terrible, did he make it ok?

Judge; I hope so, I'm here aren't I. So tell me about the epic Gettysburg song.

Mr. D; It's really three songs. The first is called "The Devil To Pay". It and all the songs were written by Bandleader/Guitarist Jon Schaffer. It starts out playing the Star Spangled Banner, seguing into marching drums and the singer, Tim Owens, then entire band and a bevy of guest musicians join in at a medium tempo for a full bombastic sound. This song covers the opening battle of Gettysburg. At the six minute mark we bridge into a version of When Johnny Come Marching Home. There is a full orchestra through this portion of the song. At about ten minutes our original melody and medium tempo rock music resumes then ending in drums.

Next is "Hold at all Costs" which has some of the most interesting and unique percussion I've ever heard and it is certainly the highlight of this song which deals with, among other things that opposing generals, Generals Lewis A. Armistead and Winfield Scott Hancock, were fast lifelong friends before the war.

Next is the magnum opus, the tour de force, the crowning achievement, "High Water Mark". As with the previous song, drums play an important part starting with heavy double bass drums and equally heavy guitar leading into a symphonic/operatic sounding masterpiece depicting the final disastrous battle of Gettysburg. "High Water Mark" has varying tempos and intensities and everything comes together perfectly - the finis coronat opus. This is the song that was on when I was clocked at (gulp) 124 DBs

Judge; Let me hear that.

Mr. D; Are you sure, it's thirteen minutes long?

Judge; Yes, Yes, You've got me curious now.

Observer; Mr. D hands his discman too Judge Filabuster, who begins to tap his feet, then bounce up and down, then move his head back and forth slightly, ultimately bobbing and banging his head violently for ten minutes. Finally he takes the headphones off, catching his breath, scrutinizes Mr. D and says "Your right, it does require a rather loud volume.........but that's no excuse, Two hundred dollars or five days in jail."

Epilogue

I'll bet you thought I was going to get off scott free, didn't you? Well I almost did. Judge Filibuster took my copy of The Glorious Burden in lieu of the fine and told me that if I ever came across any more albums that required extra loud volume for ultimate listening pleasure, he wanted to test them out personally.

Iced Earth's best album to date.......2004-06-27

The Glorious Burden (2004.) Iced Earth's seventh album.

Following the released of Iced Earth's 2001 album, Horrow Show, vocalist Matt Barlow had left the band. He had been with the band for four of the six albums they had been released to the point, and surely, many fans of the band must have felt that Barlow could never be replaced. Fortunately, the band managed to find a new vocalist. Tim "Ripper" Owens, formerly Halford's replacement in Judas Priest, was no longer needed in that band due to Halford's return. Accordingly, he became the new singer for Iced Earth. Owens' albums with Priest were NOT good. Would he fare better with Iced Earth? Read on for my review.

When I first listened to this album, I was in shock. The GOOD kind of shock. Owens was a terrible vocalist in Judas Priest, and pretty much everyone considered Matt Barlow to be one of the finest vocalists in heavy metal. Why was I in shock? Owens, the man who ruined Judas Priest in the late nineties, has taken Iced Earth to new heights. As hard as it was for me to believe, Owens had become, in fact, a better vocalist than Barlow! While Barlow tried taking Iced Earth in a more death metal-style direction in the late nineties, other singers for the band preferred a semi-melodic power metal sound similar to Iron Maiden, Dio, and Judas Priest. Owens tries the same thing, and succeeds beautifully in every way. As any fan of Iced Earth knows, band leader/rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer is a history buff. He had done history-based songs before, but this album consists of nothing but those types of songs. Topics of the songs cover a variety of historical topics. Closing out the album is the three-part epic, the Gettysburg trilogy. This is an amazing, three-part epic you must hear to appreciate. The band demonstrated its ability to do multitrack epics well a number of times in the past, and they demonstrate it once again in this album. When you combine the tried and true instrumental stylings of Iced Earth with Owens' newfound vocal greatness, and you get what I consider to be Iced Earth's finest work to date. On several of the songs, Owens' vocals sound remarkably close to, say, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, and even Rob Halford. Although this shift in Iced Earth's sound is sure to disappoint more than a few of their fans, I think it has taken the band to new heights. Yes, I know people will beg to differ, but I feel that this is the band's finest work to day, and hopefully, it's a premonition of things to come.

In addition to the regular version of this album that is readily available in America, there is a special edition version. The special edition contains two tracks that aren't on the standard version - Waterloo and an unplugged version of When The Eagle Cries. Oddly enough, it features the Gettysburg trilogy on a separate disc, even though it would easily have fit on the same disc as the other material. If you're a big Iced Earth fan, shell out the extra cash and get the special edition for the two extra tracks.

What more can I say? This is Iced Earth's finest work to date (in my eyes anyway.) It's amazing how a man I once so heavily resented has shot an already great band to new heights! If you're a fan of Iced Earth, or just a fan of classic power metal in general, The Glorious Burden is more than worthy of a place in your musical collection. This, my friends, is a heavy metal masterpiece.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Best of John Fahey V.2 1964 - 1983 ~ John Fahey

Not to Be Undimensional Conscious ~ Disharmonic Orchestra

Vicious Rumors ~ Vicious Rumors

Napoli Centrale ~ Showmen

Les Indispensables De ~ Didier Barbelivien

The Bleeding Starts Here ~ Striking Distance

Orphan Found ~ Orphan Project

Angela's Ashes: Music From The Motion Picture

Grand Prix Official Sound Collection ~ Original Soundtrack

Alive! ~ The Mitchell Trio