North American metallers Iced Earth have announce the first part of their 2014-2015 world tour, set to kick off on January 9, 2014 in Saarbrücken, Germany.

Tickets and Vip packages for these shows will be on sale by the end of April.

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 Kourion Amphitheatre in Cyprus, was recently released on Blu-ray, Dvd and in many other formats under the title "Live In Ancient Kourion".

Iced Earth is currently writing material for a new studio album, to be released before the end of the year. The Cd will be recorded and mixed in between a string of European festival appearances this summer.

"We are ready!" says Iced Earth mainman/guitarist Jon Schaffer. "We are ready to enter the steel pirate ship that is our tour bus and spend another 18 months traveling the world. We look forward to reaching even more people and bringing Iced Earth to many new territories on this next massive world tour. We have a very exciting and groundbreaking schedule planned and we will be bringing the metal to the masses big time! This is what we do!"

"Dystopia" was released in October 2011 via Century Media Records. The Cd marked the band's recording debut with singer Stu Block (Into Eternity), who joined Iced Earth in March 2011 following the departure of Matt Barlow.