Iced Earth's Reviews
Days of Purgatory (Average Rating: 8.64 out of 10)
Excellent reworking of earlier songs (Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by
wubby
from Hamilton, Pembroke Bermuda
To the uninitiated Iced Earth is one of the foremost modern US metal bands. It is one of the proud American bands that never stopped flying the metal flag. The Days of Purgatory CD is collection composed of tracks from various demos, the self-titled debut album and the second CD Night of the Stormrider. The European version has a second CD that includes tracks from the third Iced Earth CD Burnt Offerings.Gene Adams and John Greely were the vocalist on the Iced Earth CD and Night of the Stormriders CD respectively. Matt Barlow the current and best Iced Earth lead singer first appeared on the Burnt Offering CD. The tracks included in this CD from the Iced Earth and Night of the Stormriders CD's have the original lead vocals replaced by Matt Barlow's vocals. Gene Adams was an average lead singer at best and John Greely was certainly capable enough but Matt Barlow's performance blows both out of the water. His vocals are powerful, smooth and emotional. He adds texture and a depth to some already great songs. Some of the drums and guitar parts have been re-recorded but they don't add as much as the re-recorded vocals and the remixing of the songs do. The remixing of the songs gives them a renewed vigor and power. Although there is not one bad song on the album my favourites are the semi-symphonic Angels Holocaust, the trashy Stormrider, Colors, Pure Evil with its great riff and the mini epic's Cast In Stone and Travel In Stygian. Angels Holocaust has a very grandiose opening and excellent layered guitar work. Matthew Barlow's vocals adds an extra dimension to it. Stormrider starts of with a bang and never lets up. Colors has excellent guitar work along with catchy riffs that easily gets your head banging. Pure Evil has some nice tempo changes and is a constant pleasure and surprise. The opening riff is attention grabbing and it never lets down from there. Cast in Stone has some great riff's and some interesting changes in tempo. Matthew Barlow's vocals really shines on this one and Brent Smedley's drumming is particularly effective in this song. One of Iced Earth most underated song in my opinion. Travel in Stygian starts with a terrific churing guitar riff that instantly hooks you. The song has several minor change of paces that help create a dark atmosphere. Matt Barlow's vocals are powerful and down right evil sounding in portions of the song. As I mentioned above the European version has an extra Cd that includes 5 songs from the Burnt Offerings CD. ...The production on the Burnt Offerings songs are an improvement on the original CD. The extra songs includes the masterpiece called Dante's Inferno. One of the greatest metal songs ever. Everything is top notched in that song. The question is is it worth the extra money? I would say an unqualified yes. You see they also re-recorded Matt Barlow's vocals . They are cleaner and more powerful and even improve on a excellent song such as Dante's Inferno. Which before I heard the re-recorded version I would NOT of thought possible. In closing a terrific Cd. Essential to any Iced Earth fan. Should a novice fan start with this CD you ask? Yes, its a great place to start its essentially a greatest hits of Iced Earth first 3 studio CD and as such is a must have. Although I also own the orginal CD's from which the material was culled because there are some terrific songs leftout Day of Purgatory.
Either start with this CD or Alive in Athen(the 3CD version if you can get your hands on it) or Horror Show. Days of Purgatory rating: one CD version 5 stars 2 CD version 5 stars
Buy this album on Amazon at $14.99
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