It's funny to think how the same band that has released albums of unique underground nature such as "Morbid Visions" and "Schizophrenia" has ended up becoming one of the most legendary extreme metal acts ever.

Yes, Sepultura have quite deservedly received a legendary status within the metal community, especially by bringing to life albums of colossal musical strength such as "Beneath the Remains", "Arise" and Chaos A.D" - albums that continue to sell like hot potatoes. What we have here is a "best of" release issued by the band's former label Roadrunner Records - let's see if this is an album worth buying...

For someone like me who owns all of the band's studio releases, a Sepultura collection will have to contain something really special and rare so as to convince them to invest in it. I am afraid that, even though this thirteen track CD contains some of the band's best compositions to date, with the exception of "Biotech Is Godzilla" (New Model Army cover), it is one of the poorest collections that I have ever come across!

The songs that are featured here cover the band's most successful period, that between 1987 and 1996, so you are spared from samples of meaningless releases such as "Against" and "Nation", but that is not enough of a motivation as far as I'm concerned.

You see, even in terms of general presentation, the label could have bothered to provide us with a richer booklet, or with a few nice pictures and an analytical bio - but, the only thing that we have here is a three page presentation by Don Kaye (Guitar World, Revolver, Kerrang), which is not even sufficient to inform the band’s youngest fans of their rich and important past.

Something tells me that this collection will end up receiving the same treatment as the label's 2002 release "Under A Pale Grey Sky" - an album that was never recognised by Sepultura as part of their discography, and rightly so. It is very obvious that what Roadrunner is trying to make easy money from a CD that has no place whatsoever in your collection. Stay away and go get the band's studio albums instead!

**

Review by John Stefanis