Becoming familiar with the material on these discs provides a timeline of the bands evolution (of which there has been quite a lot). The quality is about as good as you can expect, pretty clean and crisp and at its absolute worst its still satisfactory. As for the actual content, its simply great. The case is nice with the beautiful artwork that you should at this point expect from the band. Its all very nicely put together, giving the album an excellent presentation value. For Funerals to Come and Dance of December Souls are probably my two favorite segments of this compilation. I had heard them before, but its nice to have them on CD of course. Finally, I'd like to point out that this is NOT a greatest hits compilation of any sorts, so you won't be wasting your money. Therefore its also NOT an album that only the long-time fans will want because they want to have the entire Katatonia collection. This is quite a special compilation in its own right, because it doesn't pick and choose the best songs, instead it just puts all the older material together, and presents it as one big set. I myself couldn't be happier with this album, and I'm positive that all of you will be more than impressed by the quality of Katatonia's early releases. Too many bands start off pretty poorly, then evolve and become better. While Katatonia has surely evolved and improved, it hasn't been an evolution from a bad band into a good one, instead its been from an already great band into a more experienced one. All of what I've been saying should make it clear that the bands early material is excellent. Review summary: ITS WORTH YOUR MONEY!

written by Sam Warren

Playing time: 130:16