ICED EARTH will embark on the North American leg of the "Incorruptible" tour in late February. Support on the trek will come from SANCTUARY and KILL RITUAL. ICED EARTH founding member and main songwriter Jon Schaffer states: "Brothers and sisters! We are very aware at how impatient you have been getting about our North American tour announcement, but the time has arrived!! We will be seeing you soon in a very extensive USA/Canada run. Be there; it will be an awesome time for sure!" A special BLABBERMOUTH.NET presale will begin on Wednesday, November 29 at 10:00 a.m. local time and end on Thursday, November 30 at 10:00 p.m. local time. When prompted, type in the presale code "BLABBERMOUTH" to access tickets before the general public. The general on-sale for U.S. dates is Friday, December 1 at 10:00 a.m. local time. The dates are as follows: Feb. 22 - Indianapolis, IN - Deluxe # (buy tickets) Feb. 23 - CIncinnati, OH - Bogarts # (buy tickets) Feb. 24 - Louisville, KY - Mercury Ballroom # (buy tickets) Feb. 25 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Ballroom # (buy tickets) Feb. 26 - Minneapolis, MN - Music Hall # (buy tickets) Feb. 27 - Omaha, NE - Sokol Underground # (buy tickets) Feb. 28 - Denver, CO - Summit Music Hall # (buy tickets) Mar. 02 - Edmonton, AB - Starlite Room # (buy tickets) Mar. 03 - Calgary, AB - Marquee Beer Market & Stage # (buy tickets) Mar. 04 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theater # (buy tickets) Mar. 05 - Seattle, WA - El Corazon # (buy tickets) Mar. 07 - Sacramento, CA - Ace of Spades # (buy tickets) Mar. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - Belasco Theater # (buy tickets) Mar. 09 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues # (buy tickets) Mar. 10 - Anaheim, CA - Parish @ House of Blues # (buy tickets) Mar. 11 - Phoenix, AZ - The Pressroom # (buy tickets) Mar. 13 - San Antonio, TX - Aztec Theatre # (buy tickets) Mar. 14 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues # (buy tickets) Mar. 15 - Houston, TX - House of Blues # (buy tickets) Mar. 16 - New Orleans, LA - Parish @ House of Blues # (buy tickets) Mar. 17 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade # (buy tickets) Mar. 18 - Charlotte, NC - Underground # (buy tickets) Mar. 19 - Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Soundstage # (buy tickets) Mar. 21 - Wilmington, DE - The Queen # (buy tickets) Mar. 22 - New York, NY - Gramercy Theatre # (buy tickets) Mar. 23 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall # (buy tickets) Mar. 24 - Quebec City, QC - Imperial Bell # (buy tickets) Mar. 25 - Montreal, QC - Corona Theater # (buy tickets) Mar. 26 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Theater # (buy tickets) Mar. 27 - Cleveland, OH - Cambridge Room @ House of Blues # (buy tickets) Mar. 28 - Detroit, MI - St. Andrew's Hall # (buy tickets) Mar. 29 - Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge # (buy tickets) # with SANCTUARY and KILL RITUAL ICED EARTH's latest album, "Incorruptible", was released on June 16 via Century Media. The cover artwork for the disc (as well as additional illustrations to every song) was created by David Newman-Stump from Skeleton Crew Tattoo (pencil illustrations) and Roy Young (colors). Regarding how "Incorruptible" compares to previous ICED EARTH albums, Schaffer told Metal Wani: "They're all kind of their own thing, but I have a very strong gut feeling about this, and so does everybody in the band, that this is one of the really special ones. So I put it up there with 'The Dark Saga' [1996], 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' [1998], 'Dystopia' [2011] — it's in that league of records — so it's really gonna be something special, man. I know musicians always say that, but there is something going on here, so it's cool. We're all very excited about it." Asked if he is the leader of ICED EARTH and everyone else in the band takes cues from him or if they make joint decisions as a group about how to approach things, Schaffer said: "I am the leader of the band and [I've been] the driving force of the band since the very beginning. [But] that does not mean that I don't take in the input of the guys on anything, you know what I mean? But as far as starting a cycle… I'm the chief songwriter, so… What I did, for instance, on ['Incorruptible'], I talked to Stu [Block, ICED EARTH singer], and said, 'Hey, you've gotta give me some lyrical themes of where you wanna go, titles, subject matter, whatever,' because it's my job to create the soundscape for that. And I knew where I was gonna go with the direction of the songs I was gonna write lyrically. And so he sent me some titles, and then whatever resonates with me, I've gotta be inspired by it in order to create that landscape that really is sort of like the soundtrack of a movie — it's very, very important. And then the other guys will send me riff ideas, and if it's fitting in and if it's a cool part… Luke [Appleton, bass] wrote the majority of a song called 'Defiance' on this record. So it depends on the song and what the parts are doing, if they're inspiring me and I run with it and go somewhere else or whatever — it can happen in all different ways — but definitely it starts here and I drive it the whole way through." ICED EARTH took a break from touring in 2015, primarily due to Schaffer's second cervical fusion surgery.
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