Common lyrical themes in Iced Earth's music have been religion, history, fantasy, literature, and films. The band has also released several concept albums, the first being 1991's "Night of the Stormrider". The second, 1996's "The Dark Saga", was based on the Todd McFarlane comic book character Spawn. 1998's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" introduced the Something Wicked Saga, which was later expanded upon on 2007's ', and 2008's '. Iced Earth have also released several albums written around a theme. 2001's "Horror Show" was largely based on horror literature and films, 2004's "The Glorious Burden" was inspired by history and war, while 2011's "Dystopia" centered around dystopian themes in literature and film.