Slayer Album: “Soundtrack To The Apocalypse (Explicit)”

First of all - this is not the be all and end all of box sets. But this regular version is far from being a rip off (I even got it for only $39). Obviously, this set is a better deal for people who do not have all of their previous releases. But there is also some other stuff that hasn't been released before on the rarities disc and DVD that I think is worth having.

Let's break it down disc by disc.

Disc 1: This is a 'best of' studio track CD going from Reign in Blood through Season in the Abyss, plus three tracks from Decade of Aggression. I never bought Decade of Aggression so at least there is something on it that is not duplicates of what I already own.

Disc 2: 'Best of' from Divine Intervention through God Hates Us All, plus studio tracks from soundtracks and Japan releases. I never bought Undisputed Attitude or Diabolus in Musica. There are 14 tracks on this one that I don't have.

Disc 3: Audio rarities. Range from raw recordings from the very early days in 1983 to recent live cuts from God Hates Us All. Two of the most interesting cuts are from Jeff Hanneman's home recordings that give you an idea how Raining Blood and South of Heaven were fleshed out from the original concept. I could do without the 'maggot story' included with Necrophiliac and the track with Atari Teenage Riot.

Disc 4 (DVD): This is great. Some of it is pretty raw but you really get to see how the band has evolved from four inexperienced guys wearing eyeliner crowded onto a small club stage to the precisely executed chaotic auditorium shows of today. Please note that this DVD is primarily for the historical value for interested fans. If you want a top-quality concert performance with excellent audio and sound quality, get the War at the Warfield DVD.

The 72-page booklet also adds some value. It has some interesting anecdotes and is more than a generic rehash of the band's official bio.

So, if you only own a couple Slayer CDs this set should provide a cheaper alternative to getting the entire back catalog. If you have all the studio albums it depends how bad you want to hear the rare stuff and view the DVD. I think its worth it.

As much as I like Slayer's music, I am a bit underwhelmed by this box set. My primary complaints are two-fold: First, I think the arrangement of the songs (i.e. 5 songs from this album, 5 songs from this album, etc.) is boring and uncreative. Couldn't they have mingled the old with the new? Couldn't they have mixed live tracks with the album tracks? Second, the unreleased material is pretty worthless. The production is terrible and I don't quite see the historical significance. The packaging is good, particularly the booklet, but a pretty package does not make a box set great. Unfortunately, this set appears to have been quickly thrown together just in time for the holidays.

If you are someone just getting in to Slayer, I would not buy this set-- instead, spend your money on Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, and Seasons in the Abyss. I have never gotten sick of any of these albums and I doubt you will either. This sloppy set though, you will get sick of.

I'm a big slayer fan. I've seen them 6 times over the last three years, got all their albums, blah blah blah. I got the deluxe slayer set for xmas and while I like some of it, overall it's a huge ripoff.

1) Almost all of discs I and II are songs a slayer fan already has. I doubt that a non-fan would be buying a deluxe box set so discs I and II are a complete waste of time/space/money

2) Many of the "rarities" on this disc have been widely circulated in bootleg form. The diehard slayer fans who should be interested in this box set probably have them too.

3) Some of the rare live tracks sound really bad. There's some sort of weird miking or stereo panning on the toms so you can't listen to it on headphones without becoming very annoyed.

4) The live dvd is interesting but could have been better. At least show us a trip to the beer store like in Cliff Em All.

5) The bonus "blood pak" disc is a great live set with Lombardo. Sounds great, unfortunate that they decided to dedicate one disc to the concert so they had to edit some tracks out. Why not omit one of the greatest hits cds and spread the concert over two discs? Is this set supposed to be for the fans or what?

40 extra bucks for a cardboard box, a banner, a piece of plastic on a string, a cheeseball plastic disc case with BOTH red liquid AND glittering tinfoil skulls floating around in it. Oooooooh, scary. I might pay 5 or 10 bucks for this bonus stuff. Maybe another 5 bucks for the 70 page book. I guess that makes the live CD worth 25-30 bucks, which is a ripoff even if it is good.

In short this should have been a four disc set, no greatest hits, one disc of real rarities, one dvd with a beer store scene, and a two cd Lombardo concert in Anaheim. Leave out all the cardboard crap and charge less for it. It's sad that they chose to gouge the true fan instead of providing something their fans really want. They certainly had plenty of time to put it together. Sigh.

Can only recommend to diehards who need to buy everything slayer releases. I can't recommend this or the "Regular Edition" boxset to anyone else because that boxset seems to be aimed at slayer newbies, who probably wouldn't want to blow money on a boxset of an artist they don't know too well. I just don't get it. I'm sure it makes sense to slayer's accountant, though.

Let's face it... the only people who are going to shell out $100 on a Slayer box set are die-hard Slayer fans. So the question is, is this set worth the hefty price tag?

Well I think it really depends on just how big of a Slayer fanatic you really are. If you are the type who just has to have everything a certain band puts out then yeah you'll want this. But if you are simply someone looking for the best the band has to offer I would suggest looking elsewhere.

What are some of the pro's and con's of this set?

Slayer (or whoever packaged this set) clearly intended this box-set both to recap their career and to offer lots of unreleased and rare goodies for collectors. Now there are two problems with this. First is the fact that anyone who would be willing to spend $100 on a Slayer product already has all of the tracks that the band is re-capping. In other words most of the first two discs on this set are pointless for the majority of the people who would buy this set as they would already have them all! But... the idea of offering a "best-of" overview as a way of celebrating twenty years of the band's existence does make sense. The next most obvious problem with this however is that American does not have access to Slayer's first 4 releases! It is simply impossible to have a satisfying retrospective of Slayer's career without healthy samplings from Show No Mercy, Haunting the Chapel and Hell Awaits (luckily there are some live recordings and footage of tracks from these albums to be found on other discs). Next I have to question the sanity of some of the choices on the retrospective... I mean who seriously needs the Criminally Insane (Remix) or the re-working of Aggresive Perfector when they could have put Altar of Sacrifice or Jesus Saves on? Another odd thing is the arrangment of placing Live Undead after South of Heaven and THEN placing Silent Scream after Live Undead... this of course ruins the transition that occurs on the original recording from South of Heaven to Silent Scream. Most of the other track selections are reasonable so I won't complain anymore.

A more interesting idea would be to put two complete concerts from the 80's on the first two discs instead of the "best-of" idea. Say a complete show from the Hell Awaits era or the Reign in Blood era coupled with one from the South of Heaven era. I chose these eras as they are the only era's (sans Diabolous in Musica) not covered in any official live release from the band: the Show No Mercy/Haunting the Chapel era is documented on Live Undead, Seasons in the Abyss is documented on Live: Decade of Aggression, etc. In fact there are NO live videos or recordings from 87-89 on this entire set... in other words while there are performances from virtually every year in Slayer's career on here the entire South of Heaven era remains blank. Very odd.

The rest of the rare tracks on disc two are pretty awful and not really worth talking about.

Now the third disc on the other hand is rather interesting. Aside from the AWFUL "No Remorse (I Wanna Die)" with Atari Teenage Riot this is a pretty good collection of tracks. It has a few songs that have never appeared on any Slayer live performance before. The DVD is even more interesting as it has footage from some of Slayer's earliest shows (the film quality is awful by the way). My only real beef with the material on these two discs is that it has too many tracks that every Slayer fan has already on other live recordings (Mandatory Suicide, War Ensemble, etc.). Personally I would have LOVED a live recording of Kill Again, Behind the Crooked Cross, Crypts of Eternity or even another recording of Black Magic (which is NOWHERE to be found on this box-set as is Captor of Sin).

Finally an entire live CD recorded in 2002 is included in the deluxe version. Overall this is a very good show (it includes the classic At Dawn They Sleep). While far from a flawless performance this is still very enjoyable.

The bonus features include a pointless backstage pass, a photo packed booklet and a cloth wall hangning. The booklet aside from the writing which grows a bit tedious at times is very good.

Overrall this set is really only worthwhile to die-hards. Casual fans will probably be satisfied with getting their first five albums.

Yeah, that's right. Half of this a Slayer fan should already have. (I know everyone has said that) Even though Slayer technically doesn't have any "greatest hits" we have half of the reign in blood, south of heaven, seasons in the abyss and divine intervention records. As well as 3 songs from all their other records. That's the first disc and a half. Haha! All these years and we are supposed to have a BOX SET, not a GREATEST HITS. I don't want a bunch of Slayer songs pulled from albums I already have in addition to the stuff that I want (and is supposed to be) in a box set. I'm sure a bunch of fans agree with me. This greatest hits portion only takes up space and aides in jacking up the price. The b-sides found at the end of disc 2 are good though, but are missing quite a few songs. And as for disc 3, the only ones that I really find interesting are Ice Titan, the rehearsals for Antichrist and Fight till death and Jeff Hannemans home recordings (even though there are more of them than what is present here) And the rough mix for Piece by Piece. I'm not sure why No Remorse (I Wanna Die) isn't on the end of disc 2 since it was on the spawn soundtrack. Everything else is just live versions that we all know and love but nothing much here is essential. I don't actually have this thing at all so I can't comment on the DVD. How did I get these songs? I'll explain that at the end. In all honesty, we Slayer fans were promised so much more than this. First it was the packaging to go (a cardboard box?) And then there is the cr@ppy little backstage "replica" and a Slayer poster that isn't that great. There was also supposed to be some songs from reign in blood and so forth that were redone. Where are those? And then there was the supposed a bunch of songs from the undisputed attitude recording sessions. None are to be found. Except the B-side Memories of Tomorrow (its 54 seconds long) that appears on imports.

The 5th disc, a live show in Anaheim presenting the return of Dave Lombardo behind the drums, is pretty good, but it isn't worth an additional [$$], it isn't the complete concert and Tom sounds kind of tired throughout the show. People complain that there are no songs prior to Show no Mercy, that's because those records are on Metal Blade and they can't get the rights for them. (or something, I don't know all the details) So the lack of songs from that era is understandable, but not necessarily excusable.

What else is missing? Well here's a list.

Remember Ice Titan? Well there are also more songs from the same concert (Which by the way, I have the footage from, thanks to the folks at eBay!)

1. Simple Aggression

2. Night Rider (Dave does a 1:02 drums solo, now wouldn't the fans want to hear that?)

3. Assassin

4. Blitzkrieg (The Final Command)

And then there is more. (some is from Metal blade records though)

5. War Ensemble (Hellraiser Remix), 6. Hell Awaits (Demo), 7. Necrophiliac (Demo), 8. Sick Boy (GBH cover from undisputed attitude import), 9. Seasons in the Abyss (Experimental version with the flute), 10. Hand of Doom (From Nativity in Black 2), 11. The original version of Here Comes the Pain (found on a WCW record, contains different effects), 12. Their cover of Born to Be Wild (Which is really good too), 13. A Live version of Angel of Death found on the Ozzfest 96 CD, 14. Crionics (Extended version/Guitar intro),15. Tormentor (Alternative Ending),16. Evil Has no Boundaries (Extended Version with Jeff/Kerry on backup vocals), 17. Cover of the Gumby Theme Song (?), 18. Warlocks Revenge Rehearsal, 19. The High Priestess. 20. The redone version of Chemical Warfare that only appears on some Vinyl copies of Live Undead. There were also supposed to be versions of The Antichrist, Hardening of the Arteries, and Haunting the Chapel (maybe more) re-recorded with Paul Bostoph. This was announced a LONG time ago. Now where are those? 21. Skeletons of Society (Live) and 22. At dawn they Sleep (Live) off the Import of Live: Decade of Aggression. There are also none of their Music Videos on the DVD (I Know this).

It's sad really. Most of what was promised to the fans is completely absent here. There is no need for a Greatest Hits/Best Of from Slayer. I got these off iTunes. There could have been so much more given for so less of a price.