North American metallers Iced Earth have finished recording their new album, "Plagues Of Babylon", for a January 2014 via Century Media Records.

Says Iced Earth guitarist/mainman Jon Schaffer: "There's quite a selection of epic heaviness on your way, for release early next year.

"We arrived in Sweden and are heading on to Portugal for a few festivals, and then on Monday, we start the mix!"

Speaking to Metal4 magazine at last month's Rockharz open-air festival in Germany, 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."

Songtitles set to appear on "Plagues Of Babylon" (among others):

* Plagues of Babylon
* Democide
* Among The Living Dead
* The Resistance
* If I Could See You
* Peacemaker
* Cthulhu
* Parasite

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 He has since been replaced by Raphael Saini (Chaoswave).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 Kourion Amphitheatre in Cyprus, was recently released on Blu-ray, Dvd and in many other formats under the title "Live In Ancient Kourion".

"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.