Iced Earth's "Box Of The Wicked" will be released in Europe on April 26 (three days earlier in Germany) and May 18 in the US via SPV/Steamhammer Records. The set is limited to 10,000 copies worldwide.
While Iced Earth's 1998 album "Something Wicked This Way Comes" provided a general overview of the story guitarist/songwriter Jon Schaffer has been conceptualizing for well over a decade, the saga was fully brought to life with the release of the back-to-back conceptual albums "Framing Armageddon" and "The Crucible Of Man". The albums provided answers to mysteries the previous releases created, and the timeliness of the story in today's world were guaranteed to keep people thinking and guessing. Schaffer's ability to convey the central themes and events of the story without always revealing exactly "why" characters' decisions are made and "how" events come to pass will keep fans of the saga coming back as future mediums for the "Something Wicked" storyline are revealed.
The whole saga is now included in this high-quality hardcover boxset (height 13 cm, depth 4.5 cm, width 14.5 cm) featuring the original digipak CDs "Framing Armageddon" and "The Crucible Of Man" as well as the original digipaks EPs "Overture Of The Wicked" and "I Walk Among You". In addition, the boxset includes a bonus cardboard CD with one song from "Framing Armageddon" now sung by Matt Barlow and three previously unreleased live tracks from the Belgian Graspop Metal Meeting festival in 2008, also featuring Barlow on vocals. The boxset will come with a full-color A1 poster and a 12-page booklet with previously unseen photos and liner notes.