The Glorious Burden

The Glorious Burden is a 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 tracklist for links to the historical context of the songs.
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.
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 11th, 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." 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 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 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.
"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.