babylon

North American metallers ICED EARTH will release their new album, "Plagues Of Babylon", for a January 2014 via Century Media Records. The cover artwork was created and illustrated by Eliran Kantor (TESTAMENT, ATHEIST, SIGH, ANACRUSIS, GWAR). Says ICED EARTH vocalist/guitarist Jon Schaffer: "This is a seriously heavy album with a seriously brutal album cover. I'm sure it will go down as a classic in the epic ICED EARTH catalog." "Plagues Of Babylon" track listing: 01. Plagues Of Babylon 02. Democide 03. The Culling 04. Among The Living Dead 05. Resistance 06. The End? 07. If I Could See You 08. Cthulhu 09. Peacemaker 10. Parasite 11. Spirit Of The Times 12. Highwayman The official lyric video for the "Plagues Of Babylon" title track can be seen below. Speaking to Metal4 magazine at the Rockharz open-air festival in Germany in July, Schaffer said about the upcoming CD: "It's a bit of a different thing for us, because it's half of a concept and the other half is [standalone] tracks. Musically, I think it's just another step in the right direction. It's really heavy, it's very melodic. It has a really epic feeling. Even though there isn't, like, a monster, long epic track, the overall feel of the songs is very epic. I mean, there's no 'Dante's Inferno' or 'Gettysburg' or the 'Something Wicked' trilogy or something like that on here, but I'm really happy with it." ICED EARTH recently parted ways with drummer Brent Smedley for "personal family reasons." He has since been replaced by Raphael Saini (CHAOSWAVE). ICED EARTH has been hitting it relentlessly, with the recent studio album, "Dystopia", being the most toured album in the band's illustrious history. One of the many highlights of the "World Dystopia Tour", a headline show at the historic Kour