The Glorious Burden

The Glorious Burden received widespread praise from the metal press but was immediately controversial upon its release due to the heavily apparent American exceptionalism in Schaeffer's lyrics. The album was released only a year after the United States invaded Iraq and was engaged in a larger War on Terror since the 9/11 attacks, wars which were viewed as largely unfavorable outside of the United States. During that time opinions about the United States around the world reached a low point and many reviewers were highly critical of the album's lyrical content, including those who lauded the high quality of the overall song composition and production of the album. The criticism around the album's lyrics was so great that at one point Schaffer refused allow Iced Earth to tour countries where unfavorable articles about the album were written, articles that he saw as anti American. Many of these articles came from European countries where a larger, more passionate, and thus more profitable portion of Iced Earth's fanbase resided, meaning the band could lose out on hundreds of thousands of dollars by not touring the continent.

Schaffer's move backfired when drummer Richard Christy and bassist James MacDonough threatened to leave the band, neither of them willing to forgo their salaries to not tour because of Schaffer's political leanings. He later relented and Iced Earth toured Europe the following year. The band however did not play any songs from The Glorious Burden. After the arrival of frontman Stu Block and the release of their album Dystopia, Iced Earth began to play songs off The Glorious Burden at European venues to great fanfare, first doing so on the Live in Ancient Kourion album. In a 2017 interview Schaffer said he regretted the controversy over The Glorious Burden, saying that while he's proud of the album and its content he regretted holding whole fanbases of countries responsible for the content of their press and that the protest he waged ultimately "went against his values".