Iced Earth's Reviews

Days of Purgatory

An interesting little experiment

Iced Earth is an interesting band in that their career has consisted of so many unique eras. Perhaps two of the most unique eras were those chronicled by the first two albums. On these albums, it was Gene Adams and Jon Greely, respectively, who did the lead vocals. Not long after releasing these albums, they got their most popular vocalist to date, Matt Barlow. However, the band didn't want to forget about their days of the past, so they decided to try an interesting little experiment. The band decided to go back and rerecord songs from their first two albums, but with Barlow singing. In some cases, they would only be rerecording the vocal track, in others they would rerecord other elements. How does the band fare with this release? Read on for my review of Days Of Purgatory.

Rerecording songs is usually a disaster for bands - classic metal rockers Fastway are a good example of this. However, Iced Earth actually manages to fare pretty well from this experiment. The album takes songs from the band's demo EP Enter The Realm, their 1991 self-titled debut album, and the 1992 album Night Of The Stormrider. Although many of the results here are excellent, I have mixed feelings in several areas. For instance, the demo EP and the debut album originally featured Gene Adams on lead vocals. Adams was expelled from the band because of his vocal stylings, which band leader Jon Schaffer considered to be poor. You may think that going back and rerecording the vocals with Barlow in Adams' place sounds like a good idea. And truth be told, it WAS a good idea. Barlow is a better vocalist with Adams, and it shows on these recordings. However, as much as a prefer Barlow over Adams, these songs sound like they were written with Adams' vocals in mind. Although many of the songs ARE improved by the vocals of Barlow, some just sound weird with him singing (I never thought I'd miss Gene Adams' singing, but in some cases here I do!) The next issue is the band's second album, Night Of The Stormrider. Jon Greely is, by far, the most underrated vocalist that Iced Earth ever had. The songs that they recorded with him sounded just fine when they released them back in 1992. I don't really think these needed any revamping at all, since Greely is a great vocalist. Nonetheless, Barlow's execution of the vocals on these tracks is very good. He doesn't top Greely on any of these songs, but he does come very close in many places. It's hard to believe that band could finally release an album of nothing but remakes of their older material that don't suck, but Iced Earth has managed to do just that.

Although this album was only a single-disc recording at its time of release, and not available in America early on, the band has since rereleased it - and included a whole bonus disc's worth of extra material! If you were hesitant about buying the album before, your hesitation has paid off, because the whole bonus disc worth of material makes the album all the more appealing. If you get this album, make sure it's the version you buy.

I find it hard to believe that Iced Earth was able to rerecord their songs well, but they actually did! Days Of Purgatory (so named because the band was originally called Purgatory) stands as an excellent release from the neo-classic metal band. If you're a fan, don't hesitate to add this one to your collection. If you're new to the band, though, start elsewhere (Something Wicked This Way Comes would probably be the best album to get first.)

Buy this album on Amazon at $14.99