The masterpiece just missed

The seventh studio album by the US metallers Iced Earth is also the debut of Tim Owens as a singer: He solved at the instigation of band leader Jon Schaffer shortly Matt Barlow on and left for the job Judas Priest. "The Glorious Burden" is a concept album that deals with various moments of military history, starting with the American Independence Day on 9/11 and Napoleon's Waterloo to the American Civil War. Conclusion and climax is a suite consisting of three songs on the three-day battle of Gettysburg, a turning point of the American Civil War, each part is bewidmet a day of battle. Us so because even adorns the cover of a lavish battle scenes.

Compositionally, the album is expected to rank among the best of what Iced Earth have ever published, and sets a mark at the other bands will be judged. Unfortunately, this impression is marred by the textual deficiencies, which are strongly influenced by an uncritical jingoism, which is often difficult to understand even for European ears. In particular, the bloodthirsty, compositionally weaker ballad "When The Eagles Cry" over the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 has a highly questionable, ideologically blinded message. Quote:

[...] When the Eagle Cries
Blood will flow
When The Eagle Cries
For freedoms fight
When The Eagle Cries
We love her so
When The Eagle Cries
We will sacrifice
When The Eagle Cries

Out of the ashes came a tempting vengeance
But we are focused, we seek redemption
We are free
Well stay free
All they've done is make us stronger
The sleeping giant is asleep No Longer
If need be
Well the free [...]

But this is also the most annoying moment of the album. Otherwise, Schaffer, who runs a sideline Militariahandel, is even advertised in the booklet, has yet drawn comparatively passable from the affair, although the lyrics are mostly trivial, not always historically accurate and more on third-year level. This can be solved in the Heavy Metal rather see Iron Maidon!

Musically this album is apart from the two ballads (the second is "Hollow Man") a delight. It starts with the bombastic orchestrated with choirs "Declaration Day" deals with the feselnden "The Reckoning (Do not Tread On Me)" and the dramatic "Attila" continue to give me the grand half-hour mega-epic "Gettysburg (1863) "to end. With the latter, the band has outdone themselves and an epic power metal work created, which can be made against Iron Maiden classics such as "To Tame A Land" or "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" problems. The spectrum ranges from the Suite quieter, acoustic and ballad-like sounds via orchestral sections, supported by the Prague Symphony Orchestra, to heavy riffs in time with the cannonade. Content, the work but only revealed fully in conjunction with the extensive accompanying text.

Had the texts do not often so flat, Iced Earth have created with "The Glorious Burden" a heavy metal landmark. So it goes unfortunately only for four stars.