Suggestions as to which one to buy first, for those of us who are only a little familiar with DCD?
G. Michael,
I'd recommend the live album, "Toward the Within." It provides a nice overview of the band's varied musical stylings, despite the fact that most of the tracks are not available on other albums. If you can pick up a DVD of the performance, I'd highly recommend that as well, despite the grainy video.
The first album (with the mask on the cover) is the most atypical of all DCD's albums - it falls with the goth rock genre that was so popular in the early 80's, but nevertheless shows signs of what was to come.
As far as I'm concerned, all DCD's stuff is worthwhile - definitely one of my favorite bands of the last 20 years.