Last from Sepultura
01/08/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Roots of Sepultura" contains 2 CDs. Disk 1 is complete "Roots" album, and Disk 2 contains collection of previously-unreleased and live tracks. Last CD from Sepultura ("Roots") with Max (Cavalera) is a bit different from previous albums. It is still a great album, in my opinion, it's not possible to say which of their last 3 albums is better than others. If you like Sepultura buy it, it's good choice. In addition, I must say that I think that the price is too high. I'm sorry if my English is not very good."
For Die Hards Only
Gunther Haagendazs | Up High in the Trees | 01/19/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Roots of Sepultura is an extremely rare Import of the almighty Roots album. At it's time very few songs were found on CD. Now that all the albums from the Max days have been re-released and remastered with bonus track, many of the songs on the bonus disc can be found elsewhere on the remastered CDs and the B-Sides disc Blood Rooted. So upon its release all these songs were rare. Most are no longer of great difficulty to find. The first CD is five stars on its own, though the problem is that Roots is an album Sepultura fans either love or hate, there is very little in between.
There are three main versions available, the original single disc version, the recently Re-released 2 disc edition, and this Import. There is also a British digipak import with 3 oddly misplaced bonus tracks (Symptom of the Universe, Chaos B.C. and Kaiowas (Live)) but you can skip that. So which version to get? Now that the 2 Disc re-release is available, I wouldn't both with the original copy. I suggest you go out and buy all the previous Sepultura CDs with the bonus tracks because I personally, think it's pretty pointless to hear a demo without a clue as to what the original sounds like, plus all their Max Cavalera albums are masterpieces in some form or another. Now that you have the original CDs that means you have tracks 1-3, 5, and 8-13. So let's go over the rare songs that are only available on this version of Roots.
If you look on eBay, you will see a Vinyl version of Arise that pops up every once in a while, limited to 5000 copies that contains the Original Mixes of its songs. These songs only sound different from the originals if you compare them back to back of have the originals memorized perfectly. The most noticeable difference is the loss of the snap from Igor's snare drum. The Original mix for Desperate Cry (Track 5) was re-titled as Desperate Cry (Scott Burns Mix) on the re-release of Arise. If you have heard that version then you'll understand when is say that the rest of the original mixes are along the same lines as that one. The live tracks, which are probably the main reason you are here, are all taken from their home video Under Siege [Live in Barcelona] which can now be found on their Chaos DVD. The live version of Orgasmatron (not featured here) can be found on their Third World Posse EP which also contains tracks 16 and 19. It's a shame that the missing live songs from that video are not on here as well and can't be found with the exception of Orgasmatron.
Roadrunner was desperate and panicking to find content to put in the Remastered albums, had actually salvaged most of the artwork from this release and split it amongst the Re-releases. It makes me chuckle seeing the picture of Andreas in the same stance with his guitar as on page 8 of the Arise Booklet. The artwork on the back of the CD can also be found on the back of the Blood Rooted CD. Things like that can be found throughout the booklet (which other than the cover and the back few pages is identical to the original Roots booklet). The artwork on the 2 CDs themselves is different than the other versions.
One thing I really like about this version is that they have about a paragraph of background information to each song, something that was incomplete on the recent Roots re-release booklet (read my review on that for more information). However, I think the greater question is rather simple. Is it worth 40 bucks? The answer is no. Find a used copy for a cheap price; I got mine for 5 bucks including shipping on eBay. Once again as my title implies, this is really only for die hard Sepultura fans and should be ignored otherwise. But for its time, this was a real gem and it still is today. Why I give The Roots of Sepultura five stars was that this was the original Sepultura holy grail of rarities. It was torn apart to be put on 5 re-release CDs, and though most of its content can be found elsewhere, I still looked upon it as an impressive item to have in my CD collection.
On an additional note, Amazon.com has screwed up the order of Disc 1, Roots. The track list is identical to the original.
"
VERY RARE
experimusicdotcom | united kingdom | 08/17/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Buy this CD if you can. Its very hard to find and if you do come across it at a record store it will probably be more expensive. I found an example at my local store for $65 (no joke!). Apart from it being a future collectors item, this CD is darn good too. If you are a proper fan, (not some limp bizkit / papa roach teenybopper), you'll love it."
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1