Diogenes
Disclaimer: I am not very good at economics or anything like that. I am basing this review purely off of common sense. If any of you business types have a bone to pick with my logic, then by all means, let me have it!
Great value, this one should be. No matter what you may think of Roots as an album, to get an extra hour of bonus material along with it would be pretty shrewd. And, as a bonus, wayward reviewers essentially get to write about two albums at once, making their reviews even longer and making them seem smarter than they really are! Awesome!
...As much as I might fit that bill, I tried my best not to be a lazy jackwad, and wrote about Roots separately. If you care enough to fancy my opinion of the actual Roots album, that’s around here somewhere.
Anywho, The Roots of Sepultura is a fantastic release for a few reasons, although it isn’t as awesome as it was when it was first released. Like I said earlier, you’re getting the whole Roots album with another disk chock full of goodies. These would be several bonus tracks found on Arise, a few original mixes (OooOooOoOoo) of tracks from the same album, a couple of rare demos, three short covers, and a nice little live show. Now, I know what you’re saying…”Hey Diogenes, big f’in deal! It’s just a b-sides album!” Well, it isn’t. I can’t say much for the original mixes of the Arise tracks (I admit this might be kind of pointless unless you’re a hardcore Sepultura fan), but everything else is well worth it.
The demos (Necromancer and The Past Reborns the Storms (earlier version of From the Past Comes the Storm)) are cool, because…they actually sound better than the final recordings! The production on Morbid Visions and Schizophrenia sucked major ass, so this isn’t THAT surprising, but still. There’s some serious CRRRUNCH going on in these demos, and although they’re still pretty sloppily played, I’d prefer listening to them than the ones that actually got released.
Believe it or not, Sepultura was heavily influenced by both hardcore punk and psychedelic rock. So, it seems fitting that they pay tribute to some of those bands on this collection of bonuses. The covers of Os Mutantes, Dead Kennedys, and Ratos de Porão are obviously not essential, but they’re a fun listen. The gem of the covers here is by far Orgasmatron, with the band building on the original Motorhead track and adding their own special flavor to make it that much better. You may or may not have gotten this on Arise, but this wouldn’t be much of a Sepultura cover collection without it.
The live tracks are probably the best parts of the bonus disk. They were taken from the excellent 1991 Barcelona concert, which you can also find on DVD. Sepultura are (or were, at this time in their career) a very good live band, and this shows them off in their prime, playing some of their best songs from their best albums. Morbid Visions, Schizophrenia, Beneath the Remains, and Arise are all treated in this mini-show, with excellent live mixing and a great performance from Max and the band. And, as a bonus-bonus, you get a live performance of the rarity Anticop as well. Pretty good deal, if you ask me.
Now that I’ve run over the material, here’s what makes The Roots of Sepultura such a great compilation. The band has released other compilations like this (namely Blood Rooted), but there is almost no overlap between those releases and this one. That means if you get this album, you can still get Blood Rooted and not feel completely ripped off. Sounds good, yes?
However, there might be a couple of catches, depending on what your CD collection looks like. The problem is that The Roots of Sepultura is supposedly a pretty rare album. On the band’s 25th anniversary, Roadrunner decided to make another one like this, but with a bunch of different material on the second disk. This was a pretty dumb move, because that had several tracks that overlapped with Blood Rooted, so people will now just rather buy the double album instead of the rarity collection. In addition, the label eventually decided to take pretty much all of these bonus tracks and spread them out over various re-releases of the band’s earlier works. What all of this means is that The Roots of Sepultura is hard to find (with its value is somewhat diminished compared to when it was first released), and thus people looking to make a quick buck will try to convince you that it is worth something around $50. Is it? NO! Hell no. Absolutely not. I got mine from Amazon for around $17. Let the buyer beware!
Whether I’d recommend that you get The Roots of Sepultura would depend on what you already have; my rating might not mean much to you. If you own the re-released versions of Arise and Roots, then hunting for a good price on this compilation is not really worth it, unless you’re a diehard fan. However, if you don’t own any Sepultura albums, then go ahead and try to find this for a good price. Keep in mind that the bonus tracks come bundled with the real Roots CD, so it’s still good value. Just watch out for redundancy and think before you buy!