Iced Earth have set Dystopia as the title of their forthcoming new studio album, tentatively due before the end of the year through Century Media Records.

Iced Earth mainman Jon Schaffer checked in with the following message: "Just a quick update for you from the road. We had a great weekend playing at Sweden Rock Friday and the Rock Hard festival in Germany on Saturday. The band's having a lot of fun, and today we begin rehearsing the new songs for the forthcoming CD, titled Dystopia. We begin master tracking in Florida in 2 weeks and will be traveling between Europe and the US this summer to play festivals and finish the new album. I can honestly say that I haven't had this many songs give me goose bumps since we recorded Something Wicked This Way Comes, way back in 1998, so this is also very exciting.

As you can imagine, it's a very busy time for us. I think we're all having emotional ups and downs as we're coming to the end of an era with Matt's retirement, and we're also very excited about the future with Stu coming onboard, so it's a little bit of a roller coaster ride for us. However, we are having a killer time, and Matt is performing at his absolute best and going out with pure class and style, which is always the way he rolls."

Matt Barlow will retire from the band after the summer festival shows. Afterwards Into Eternity vocalist Stu Block will become the new lead singer for Iced Earth. Dystopia will mark the studio debut of Block together with the band.

Source:	icedearth.com
Band profile:	Iced Earth