Purgatory Days.

Disclaimer: This was written prior to my knowledge of Jon Schaffer's involvement in the January 6th riot on the capital and aligning himself with neo-Nazi beliefs. While he has not outright positioned himself or labeled himself as Nazi, I do NOT condone or side with any of his "libertarian" or "pro freedom" quotes or beliefs. Matter of fact, I'd go on record and say he's straight up a piece of shit and you should just ignore this entire post. I'll be flushing my Iced Earth records and CDs down the toilet. 

Welcome back to this week's Wackiest of Wednesdays!  We're heading into spooky season full swing!  Are you all decked out in your all Hollow's Eve garb!?  We have a few skeletons up, and some grave stones in the yard, but nothing too crazy!  What IS crazy though, is our magical ability to go back in time, so why don't you come with me on a journey back to the year I graduated HS!  That's right, it's 1997 again!  I keep popping tunes or albums from that fateful year into this blog from time to time. I guess, well, it was a formidable year for my musical interests and while I still enjoy discovering new forms of music and bands, '97 was a damn good year for music!  

'Angel's Holocaust' - Iced Earth

Today, I want to share the very first Iced Earth album I ever listened to. I enjoyed it so much too! Becoming a bit of a gateway drug into other power and prog metal bands along the way! Iced Earth's Days of Purgatory blew my mind when I first put on a pair of headphones and listened to this CD. I was in a Record Town in the mall, and saw the "New Releases" in the metal section alongside some new Arch Enemy and Children of Bodom was a cool looking album with some amazing art that looked like a comic!  Matter of fact the art IS FROM A COMIC!  Chaos Comics' series "Purgatori" was on the cover. The crimson-skinned, winged vampire goddess herself!  Ok, now I was interested, I needed to hear this!  

Hearing the first 10 seconds of "Angels Holocaust" was enough for me to take the headphones off and grab a copy for myself. I couldn't wait to get in the car and listen to the entirety of this album!

'Winter Nights' - Iced Earth

Days of Purgatory is a compilation of some of IE's earlier works under different names. Matter of fact, the name Days of Purgatory is a but of a play on one of their former names "Purgatory". John Schaffer created the band in 1985, and is the ONLY remaining member left. Matter of fact, Matt Barlow's first album he recorded as lead vocalist is Days of Purgatory. So it's a pretty big moment in music as it is. I would always consider the best years of Iced Earth is with Barlow as lead singer. 

Iced Earth is an amazing band that I recommend you jump into most of the "Barlow Years", outside of that they have done good to great work with other lead singers both prior and post Barlow, but IMO never quite reconnecting with this magic sound. Much like Blind Guardian, IE pulls together incredible talent and lineage into their music, you just can't go wrong with any of their work!  About other projects though..... ;)