Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Angel of Death
2. Criminally Insane (Remix)
3. Postmortem
4. Raining Blood
5. Aggressive Perfector
6. South of Heaven
7. Silent Scream
8. Live Undead
9. Mandatory Suicide
10. Spill The Blood
11. War Ensamble
12. Dead Skin Mask
13. Hollowed Point
14. Born of Fire
15. Seasons in the Abyss
16. Hell Awaits
17. The Antichrist
18. Chemical Warfare

Disc 2:

1. Sex.Murder.Art
2. Dittohead
3. Divine Intervention
4. Serenity in Murder
5. 213
6. Can't Stand You
7. Ddamm
8. Gemini
9. Bitter Peace
10. Death's Head
11. Stain The Mind
12. Disciple
13. God Send Death
14. New Faith
15. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Less than Zero Soundtrack 1987)
16. Disroder (with Ice T - Judgement Night Soundtrack 1993)
17. Memories of Tomorrow (Undisputed Attitude Sessions)
18. Human Disease (Bride of Chucky Soundtrack 1998)
19. Unguarded Instinct (Japanese bonus track on Diabolus in Musica)
20. Wicked (Japanese bonus track on Diabolus in Musica)
21. Addict (Japanese bonus track on God Hates Us All)
22. Scarstruck (Japanese bonus track on God Hates Us All)

Disc 3:

1. Ice Titan (Previously Unreleased - Live 03/83)
2. The Antichrist (Rehearsal in Tom's Garage - 12/83)
3. Fight Til Death (Rehearsal in Tom's Garage - 12/83)
4. Necrophiliac (Recorded live in California - 09/85)
5. Piece By Piece (Studio Rough Mix/Outake)
6. Raining Blood (Live In Canada - 11/86)
7. Angel Of Death (Live In Canada - 11/86)
8. Raining Blood (Jeff Hanneman Home Recording)
9. South Of Heaven (Jeff Hanneman Home Recording)
10. Seasons in the Abyss (Live in Michigan - 06/91)
11. Mandatory Suicide (Live in Michigan - 06/91)
12. Mind Control (Live in Brazil - 94)
13. No Remorse (I Wanna Die) (with Atari Teenage Riot -Spawn Soundtrack 1997)
14. Dittohead (Recorded live in California - 05/98)
15. Sex.Murder.Art (Recorded live in California - 05/98)
16. Bloodline (Recorded live in Sweden - 02)
17. Payback (Recorded live in Sweden - 02)

Disc 4:

1. Darkness Of Christ (Live, California 02)
2. Disciple (Live, California 02)
3. War Ensemble (Live, California 02)
4. Stain of Mind (Live, California 02)
5. Postmortem (Live, California 02)
6. Raining Blood (Live, California 02)
7. Hell Awaits (Live, California 02)
8. At Dawn They Sleep (Live, California 02)
9. Dead Skin Mask (Live, California 02)
10. Seasons in the Abyss (Live, California 02)
11. Mandatory Suicide (Live, California 02)
12. Chemical Warfare (Live, California 02)
13. South of Heaven (Live, California 02)
14. Angel of Death (Live, California 02)

Disc 5:

1. Darkness Of Christ
2. Disciple
3. War Ensemble
4. Stain Of Mind
5. Postmortem
6. Raining Blood
7. Hell Awaits
8. At Dawn They Sleep
9. Dead Skin Mask
10. Seasons In The Abyss
11. Mandatory Suicide
12. Chemical Warfare
13. South Of Heaven
14. Angel Of Death

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155317 in Music
• Released on: 2004-01-19
• Number of discs: 5
• Formats: CD+DVD, Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics, Limited Edition

CD Description
'Soundtrack To The Apocalypse' is the first retrospective release from metal outfit Slayer. This four CD and one DVD collection brings together a wealth of album tracks, rarities,B-sides and live tracks showcasing the bands brutal metal sound. This limited edition version also includes a bonus CD featuring a full length concert from Slayer's 2002 God HatesUs All tour and is packaged in a 'Ammo' style tin.

Customer Reviews

The Apocalypse starts late
Since exploding onto the scene in 1982 Slayer have always stayed true to their roots and themselves, while striving to move on and explore new (heavier) ground. This release brings together not only a two disc 'best of', boasting tracks from every Slayer album since 1986, but also a CD of about a dozen rarities (a cover of Iron Butterfly's "In-A- Gadda-Da-Vida", a cover of Suicidal Tendencies' "Memories Of Tomorrow" and early home recordings of "Raining Blood" and "South Of Heaven." to name a few), and a DVD of digitally remastered live performances from the last 20 years. The deluxe edition of the box set adds to this arsenal a full-length concert CD from the 2002 "God Hates Us All" tour, in a tasteful blood and skulls pack. The booklet, available in both editions, outlines a history of the band, based on interviews with each band member as well as long-time producer Rick Rubin.

As amazing a collection of Slayer goodies as this is, my one criticism though - and I am sure the band had their reasons - is that I would have liked to have seen included on the CD compilation tracks from the four Metal Blade-era releases, from 83's "Show No Mercy" to 85's "Hell Awaits". While evil may have no boundaries, obviously the scope of this box set compilation has; the apocalypse starts rather late. Nonetheless, this is an essential buy for all Slayer and thrash metal fans.

An expensive luxury
Slayer are a band I have been listening to for years. I love them. But this box set contains a lot of stuff I have already. Box sets are usually aimed at old fans - people who have everything and want the rarities, out-takes, live stuff etc. So the first two CDs of this boxset won't really add much to an old fan's collection. If you are happy paying £41 for a live CD, a CD of bits and bobs and a DVD which will only work if you have a multiregion DVd player then fine - go for it. The first two CDs offer nothing new.
Obviously, if you don't have all the Slayer albums then the first two CDs will be of some value to you as well. my only comment would be that albums are conceived of as wholes and to really appreciate the tracks you need to hear them in the context of their original album. That's my big gripe against Greatest Hits packages. Reign In Blood's effect is achieved through playing 10 tracks one after the other at breakneck speed. On their own the tracks still work but the power of the whole is missing. So buy the actual albums. They all rock. They reign in pain.

How to make a little go a long way…
OK – let’s get the obvious out of the way first – it’s Slayer, the ultimate thrash metal band, so obviously this is going to be essential to those fans with large enough wallets, but while it’s a pleasant package it’s a little empty in terms of content.

The biggest mystery to me is why bands ever bother to include material in box-sets that is already available elsewhere – surely the only people going to be spending such a large amount of money on a box set are going to be those hardcore fans who already own all the albums, so what’s the point of padding this set out with tracks lifted from Slayers previous albums? As such the majority of the first two CDs is pointless padding that you’ll play once and never again. The only mild ‘rarities’ on the first CD that you might not already own (depending on what pressing of the original album releases you own) are the B-Sides Aggressive Perfector and the remix of Criminally Insane. CD 2 at least has the benefit of 8 worthwhile ‘non-album’ tracks (though as these have all previously been released either on soundtrack compilations or as bonus tracks you may already own a few) – highlights here include Slayers team up with Ice T on Disorder and the cover of Suicidal Tendencies’ Memories of Tomorrow, though inevitably the fact that the majority of the remaining songs are bonus track album offcuts means they are hardly prime Slayer material.

What should be the highlight of the set, the ‘Previously Unreleased’ material that makes up the 3rd CD, actually turns out to be rather disappointing. Genuinely interesting material include the early live track Ice Titan (an early version of Altar of Sacrifice), band practices of The Antichrist and Fight Till Death recorded in Tom Araya’s garage, and Jeff Hanneman’s instrumental demos of Raining Blood and South of Heaven, both of which are very different to the final versions, and Atari Teenage Riots sampling of the band for No Remorse (though as this is taken from another soundtrack it doesn’t really qualify as ‘previously unreleased’). The rest of the tracks are just live tracks recorded at various points in the bands career and aren’t particularly interesting (who cares that the version of Angel of Death here was one of their first performances of the song – it sounds exactly the same as every other time they’ve played it!). The DVD is interesting in terms of historical footage, but contains little material of sufficient sound and picture quality that you’ll watch it more than once. The bonus live CD is well recorded, but the interest of hearing how newly-returned drummer Dave Lombardo copes with the newer material is dampened by the fact that only two recent Slayer songs are performed, with the rest of the set being tracks already familiar from the Decade of Aggression live album, with only Tom Araya losing it with the security being of interest.

There’s a nice booklet, backstage pass, banner, etc – but ultimately there’s about 1 CD and 1 DVD’s worth of genuinely worthwhile material here for the confirmed Slayer fan – the rest is just padding to justify the price. For completists only.