The Glorious Burden

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Template:Album infobox The Glorious Burden is an album by the American heavy metal band Iced Earth. The album explores various moments in world military history, such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolutionary War, and the American Civil War.

The albums high point is the last three songs which together form a trilogy entitled "Gettysburg (1863)". Each song represents one day in the Battle of Gettysburg, which is the largest battle ever conducted in the Western Hemisphere and considered the turning point in the American Civil War.

This album features the debut of new lead singer Tim 'Ripper' Owens, formerly of Judas Priest. He replaced previous singer Matt Barlow. However, the album was first recorded with Matt Barlow on vocals, but bandleader Jon Schaffer was not satisfied with his performance as the events of 9/11 had recently happened, and Matt was becoming more interested in law enforcement than the music business. According to Jon, Matt's vocals lacked the emotion they always had. As a result, Matt left the band and the album was shelved until a new vocalist could be found. Enter Tim Owens, who was at that time still in Judas Priest. He was asked to do the vocals as a project, and only joined the band after Judas Priest reunited with Rob Halford.

The Glorious Burden was met with mixed feelings by fans - many missed Barlow, and felt that the album was corny and overly sentimental (especially the 9/11 ballad "When the Eagle Cries," the subject of many jokes on Internet message boards), but Owens' outstanding performance won over many of the grumblers, and was seen as a promising start to his tenure with the band.

The album was released in 3 different formats: a limited edition 2-CD version in digipak format, an American version and a European version. See the tracklist for the differences.

Track listing

1. Star Spangled Banner (Only on the limited edition 2-CD and regular U.S. versions)
2. Declaration Day
3. When the Eagle Cries
4. The Reckoning (Don't Tread on Me)
5. Greenface (Only on the limited edition 2-CD and regular U.S. versions)
6. Attila
7. Red Baron/Blue Max
8. Hollow Man
9. Valley Forge
10. Waterloo (Only on the limited edition 2-CD and regular European versions)
11. When The Eagle Cries (Unplugged) (Only on the limited edition 2-CD version)
12. Gettysburg (1863): I. The Devil to Pay
13. Gettysburg (1863): II. Hold at All Costs
14. Gettysburg (1863): III. High Water Marksv:The Glorious Burden