Listening to Afraid of sunlight now and I finally get why everybody loves this one so much. It's a real thing of beauty. Hogarth's albums have always been a hit or miss with me, but this one, Season's End, Brave and sounds that can't be made are all great.
I don't know everything by them yet (most of it though), but I always liked the H era more than the Fish era. While the Fish era was always very (very) Genesis inspired, I feel like they found their own sound with H. Sounds That Can't Be Made, Marbles (duh), Anoraknophobia and Happiness Is The Road (just good pop stuff) are my favorites. For me it's not a hit of miss for albums though. Sometimes there are great songs on albums I otherwise don't care for.
No, no, no. Yes, Fish sounded a little like a cross between Gabriel and Collins, and you have moments - the ending section of Grendel, the intro to "He Knows You Know", but Fish-era Marillion was WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more influenced by Pink Floyd than Genesis (this is, in my opinion, why there is a Floyd album on the cover to "Fugazi" and not a "Genesis" album). Hell, the Sugar Mice solo is almost a direct lift of "Mother".
I was in on Marillion since about '84, '85, so for me, going through the breakup, it was tough. I LOVED Season's End (saw the tour), but HATED Holiday's In Eden (saw that tour as well). I really liked Brave but it took a while to get into, and honestly I hated, HATED Afraid... when I first heard it. Then I REALLY hated "This Strange Engine", so much so that I gave up on Marillion until Marbles came out. To this day I still hate TSE, though Afraid... has grown on me, and around the time of the two-disk remasters, it really clicked with me and now it's one of my favorites.
I rarely ever say this about any band, but I think I wish Marillion to work with Dave Meegan again as much or moreso than I would ever want them to work with Fish again (I love Fish, seen him three times solo, but I just think he's a spent force creatively at this point).