is days of purgatory worth grabbing?
Just some brief musings here:
Days of Purgatory is outstanding and well worth grabbing (go for the 2 CD version if you can find it). Getting to hear Barlow sing the earlier material is worth the price alone.
For the other albums, my personal favorites are Burnt Offerings, Night of the Stormrider, Days of Purgatory (if it counts) and The Glorious Burden. I would include the self-titled debut, but the vocals are unfortunately less than adequate. This is what makes Days of Purgatory essential since it takes most of the songs from the first two albums and integrates Barlow's vocals.
All of the remaining albums are wholly inconsistent IMO with some spectacular songs as well as many generic tracks that don't have as much staying power as the first 4 releases:
-The Dark Saga is fairly consistent I suppose but on a lower level, and is far more simplistic (though thrasier as Zod alluded to) than the first 4 (though my UM screen name comes from the very cool song "The Hunter" and there is plenty of catchiness to be found, particularly on the anthemic title track). Some of the thrashier tracks like "Violate" and "Vengeance is Mine" work better live than on CD IMO.
-Something Wicked has the amazing trilogy at the end (which for a time ranked among my favorite songs ever), though nothing else on the album quite matches up after repeated listens over the years and I honestly feel there are lot of throwaway tunes here ("Burning Times" is always fun though, and slays live).
-Horror Show is worth owning for "Dracula" and "Wolf" alone, but I fail to hear anything essential in terms of songwriting on that album beyond those two. I will say though that Barlow absolutely shines on that album and is possibly his finest vocal performance with the band. It's a shame that, to me, the songwriting just doesn't cut it because Barlow was truly inspired here.
-The Glorius Burden (the first album with Tim Ripper on vocals) is actually my favorite IE album since Burnt Offerings. The Gettysburg trilogy is easily one of Jon Schaffer's finest moments (insanely epic and moving with just jaw dropping emotion) and some outstanding quick hitters like "Declaration Day", and "The Reckoning" among others. It's certainly not without flaw though. "When The Eagle Cries" is downright horrible, and some may be put off by the patriotic-like themes throughout, but just try to ignore it if it bothers you because there is plenty of quality to be found here.
-Framing Armageddon and The Crucible of Man aren't nearly as bad as most make them out to be IMO, but Jon really should have condensed the two albums into one as again, they are very uneven and drawn out. If you can weed out the best songs though, there is plenty of great material to be found (moreso on Framing than Crucible IMO).
-As a footnote, Alive in Athens is a fantastic live album as Jerry indicated if you're into those. (I'm not)
