(Rated this album with 6 out of 10) Reviewed by
metalgoddess3
from Greenbrae, CA United States
Being an an Iced Earth fan for several years now, I can say that The Glorious Burden was just that.... a burden... to listen to, that is. Perhaps I am spoiled by the power, the awe-inspiring and charismatic metal that I am used to from Schaffer & co. When the band lost Matt, they also lost Schaffer's partner in crime behind the music writing. The music is clearly not as tightly composed and arranged as in previous releases. The vocal style, in my opinion, compared to Matt's is sloppy, annoying and flat. So, this is a patriotic and war- themed album. The album starts with a fully instrumental version of "Star Spangled Banner" (which I was quite impressed with, actually), and is followed by "Declaration Day", which had a lot of promise in trying to be a anthem-style power metal song, but misses the mark, in that the timing is a bit off in several instances, the vocals (again) are horrible. The album just goes downhill after that. My biggest beef with this album, is that fact that they felt the need to base an entire album around war and patriotism. Does Schaffer really feel the need to promote his war-memorabilia store, Spirit of 76, that badly? Something Wicked and Dark Saga were by far better than this release; if you are new to the band, start with those albums first.
