Days of Purgatory

I really don’t know what to say about this album because some of these songs are a billion times better then the original, but then again, some of these songs just sound like fucken crap and they can’t compare to the original. I must say this is not an unnecessary album, because we get three rare tracks (“Winter Nights”, “Nightmares”, and “Enter the Realm”) that are only available if you have their demo, and the other song you’ll only get through a bootleg.

There are many songs in here that I prefer in the original version. First, we have “The Funeral”, which takes away that little speech made in the middle of the song and it makes the song sound pretty plain, but the bass sounds pretty good though. “When the Night Falls” is also a song better in original version just because of Matt Barlow. He messes up the fricken chorus and the vocals just sound like crap and they also took away that soothing intro, which I really liked. Don’t even waste your fucking time on “Cast In Stone”; this is the worst fucking song here because Matt’s vocals don’t go along with whatever the fuck is being played! The lyrics are better than original “Written On The Walls”, I must give it that, but it can’t even touch that song, “Written On The Walls” is so much better (and where the fuck is that cool little intro?). “Desert Rain” would have been a good song, except that Matt Barlow over sings at the chorus and it sounds cheesy. Matt’s vocals sound kinda bland in “Travel In Stygian”, which means these songs suck only because of Matt fucken Barlow! (exclude “The Funeral” with what I said earlier).

There are also songs in which I really don’t care about because both versions of the song are good. This includes the instrumental and the interludes (“Enter The Realm”, “Before The Vision”, “Solitude”, and “Reaching The End” respectfully). “Nightmares” is a song that’s good in both versions, as well as “Pure Evil”. Matt does a good job on these songs, but so do Greely and Adams. “Burnt Offerings” and “Brainwashed” are also songs good in both versions by the way they sound. “Burnt Offerings” has that awesome new intro and “Brainwashed” has that crisp sound. “Dante’s Inferno” also falls into this category, mainly because I find it better than the original Burnt Offerings version, but not remotely close to the remastered Burnt Offerings version. I think these songs show that Iced Earth can remaster music, but still remain very original (that’s why I gave it such a high rating).

Now we have the good songs! First we “Colors”, which is better than the original version. The original version is good too, but I actually prefer this version of the song. The intro to “Angels Holocaust” also sounds better (because we hear more voices and fewer guitars) than the original version and Matt adds some emotion to his vocals, which Greely failed to do, making it sounds all boring. The intro to “Stormrider” was added to the end of “Angels Holocaust” and terminated from this song (that’s a good thing). “Stormrider” offers cleaner riffs and vocals by Jon Schaffer! “Winter Nights” is an awesome rare song found only in this album or rare bootlegs. Matt’s version of “Life And Death” kills Gene’s version of this song easily and “Creator Failure” offers three symbol crashes instead of just blasting the music into your ears like it did in the Burnt Offerings version. Probably the best song on here is their title song, “Iced Earth”. It completely kills Gene’s version of this song that just sounded like weak little crap. You don’t need my words to know it is better, just hearing both versions will easily tell you which one is better.

In conclusion, it is actually a pretty good release. It has its ups and downs, but it is completely worth buying just to hear the Matt Barlow versions.