Customer Reviews

Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box (W/Dvd)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am completely pleased to see something like this come out in the year 2006. For those who are just discovering gothic rock, and for us seasoned veterans, this collection is exceptional. I do have some bones with it...AFI is a good band but hardly goth. And where are bands like Inkubus Sukkubus? Die Laughing? Switchblade Symphony? Big Electric Cat? The Shroud? Ofra Haza? And they certainly could have picked a better Neubauten song!! But I digress...this is a great collection. The DVD rocks, the music rocks. Check it out for yourself.

Well, No matter what the last person said ... I think it's a great compilation ... Great songs, great music vids. Could have had more Sisters on it though.... But over all there is nothing wrong with the selection. If you are new to Gothic music.... I mean REAL Gothic Rock... not NuGoth, Scary-Trans, Darkmetal, Black Polka, Doom-yodelling or any of the other weak spin-offs of the `90's and 2000's... than this Little Black box of "inner-morbid-heartaches and boo-hoo's" is as great a place to start as any.

5 skeletal thumbs up.

The liner for this compilation pretty much sums it up. Goth music was created in the UK by people who watched the late night creature feature and who read Shelly, Stoker,etc. Some of these artists were romantics and some wanted to be like Alice Cooper (Nik Fiend).

This is a great introduction to what truly defined the Goth music movement and how it intertwined with Punk, New Wave, and EBM. However, I must argue that AFI really is not goth and never will be. Plus, while Flesh for Lulu was technically concidered a Goth band, "Ï Go Crazy" is not a Goth song. I would have eliminated AFI and used "Reptile" by The Church.

I really love this box set. I grew up in the age of goth was around for it's birth. Of course at the time I never considered myself a goth in anyway and I wouldn't have looked the part either. But the music is another thing altogether and I truly loved the music that became known as GOTH. This is great example of some great songs from the goth age and well represented across the genre and through time. Although I owned most of these songs already, either on CD or Vinyl, there were some gems in the mix that I didn't have. I also liked the DVD, which features some videos for songs that didn't make it onto the music CD's themselves. My friends and I had a great laugh as well when we read the instructions on how to dance goth. As funny as it read, it was dead on with my memory of how "goths" danced at the clubs I visited in my youth and maybe, just maybe, it rubbed off on how I danced at the time as well. All in all a Life Less Lived is a great box set for those who love goth or for those who wish to get a definitive initiation into the goth music genre.

Though this box set is called "Goth," it's no visit to the Batcave! It is however a nice compilation of the darker side of the 80's. From the more well known and popular artists like Joy Division, Siouxsie, Eho & the Bunnymen and Gene Loves Jezabel to the lesser well known acts like 45 Grave, Southern Death Cult (later became the Cult) and the Fields of Nephilim, this box set is more of a pop comp of great acts that can be classified as Goth but not solely such.

Make no mistake, the box set comes with a wonderful booklet about Goth culture and even in it's "Porducer's Notes", Liz Goodman tells you The Gothic Box is not meant to be any kind of quintessential but merely a general introduction.

You wont find rare b-sides or forgotten tracks from these "Goth" artists, but what you will find are the more popular faire--and that's OK! This Goth Box is really"Goth" for the non-Goth.

What is unique about this compilation is the included DVD. It contains live and produced music videos from Bauhaus, The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, the JAMC, Ministry, The Cult, Siouxsie, the Fields of Nephilim, the Mission UK, Nick Cave and even Love & Rockets. It's this DVD that makes this compilation worth the investment.

For people into this genre of music (however you classify it), most of us have to rely on highly compressed youtube videos or having to purchase several compilation DVDS to get all these artists. For the first time in a long time, you can listen and watch several of these lost bands all on one DVD.

And, when you're not watching the DVD and just listening to the music on the 3 CDs, why not open up the "Goth 101" handbook and read what authors Mick Mercer, Dave Thompson, Jason Pettigrew, Sue Lott, Phil Durr, Kia MacTane, Antigone and Scary Lady Sarah have to say about Goth culture. From Goth Matters and the Bands, to the Goth Tag and notes to "Goth" Clubs, it's a great insight into what was once counterculture...which has become pop culture. Hot Topic--need I say more?

To top it all off, the box set is bound in Vinyl which is a little gimmick-ish but what the heck, it makes for great conversation when the uninitiated come to visit.

For this author, it was a great addition to my darkwave compilation collection and yes, there are one or two gems to be found within...so what the heck, it's only money!

This box set contains a very unique collection from a variety of goth bands from the 1980s. It ranges from Joy Division, to Sisters of Mercy, and even Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Even though most of the songs are easy to find, this collection is unlike the others that are in this genre. Whereas others I found have the greatest hits of goth, this collection contains some unique items, particularly a different version of "Wasteland" by The Mission (U.K.). The collection reminds me of the "Dark Wave" broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio. The enclosed books has great reflections by the bands themselves, goth music D.J.s, and some other fun stuff ("How to Dance Goth Style" and "How to be a Goth D.J."). I recommend this set to anyone who enjoys goth music or just want to relive their own goth years (or just continue on!).

A very good compilation that includes crossover bands like Joy Division, The The Cure, The Cult and other "big name" goths like Sisters of Mercy, Dead Can Dance, Bauhaus & Nick Cave. Compares favorably to Cleopatra's "Gothic Rock vols. I & II," which was the last comprehensive effort I have seen to really represent the Goth movement, but didn't include any of those bands. The Gothic Box also drifts into Industrial (Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Killing Joke), and includes some more obscure entries, too. Very highly recommended.

Three stars because I mostly enjoyed what was on here - and found more than a few tracks that I never heard before and enjoyed a lot - but not five stars because there's not nearly enough music.

I would have much preferred a fourth disc of music to a DVD. And the DVD only has twelve videos - maybe an hour long, if that. A DVD can easly hold, what? 2 1/2 to 3 hours of material? There's a LOT of wasted space there.

The first two discs are good. (I don't understand the need to include an Ian Astbury (Southern Death Cult, Death Cult, The Cult) track on each of the three discs, but other than that, good stuff.) Kudos for NOT including "Bela Lugosi's Dead", which we've all heard waaaaay too many times.

This set was worth it for me because of bands and songs I had never heard before. Revelations for me were Nick Cave and The Birthday Party, Alien Sex fiend, The Mission UK, The Creatures, The Cranes, Fields of the Nephilim, and (surprisingly for me) Echo and the Bunnymen. These bands are probably old news for you long-time Goths out there (I can hear you snickering!!) , but I didn't get out much back then. Poor me.

I bought this expecting to find bands and songs I hadn't heard before, and the third disc had too much familiar (and as many here have pointed out, arguably non-gothic) material. The Misfits I've listened to since high school (too long ago). Ministry and Skinny Puppy, I got those when they came out.

And the only bum tracks for me were on the third disc - The Virgin Prunes I didn't like at all and Throbbing Gristle is just completely annoying. So the third disc was, for me, largely useless.

If you're a brand new Goth, this is a good place to start in your quest to get into some new/old music. (If you are an old hoary Goth, you're giggling into the back of your hand at the very idea of this box set, so what are you reading my review for, anyway?)

If there had been a fourth CD instead of a DVD, I'd have given this four or even five stars.

There is a question whether how much of this is goth or even close. As many others I don't relish in the term "Goth". If you need a classification Batcave was more imaginative. Obviously a few missing artists, but that really can't be helped in a short time span. Maybe a part two? Overall, I really enjoy most of the set but I don't listen to the radio so I have one question, WHO THE ARE AFI and what are they and do they deserve to be here?. Okay, three questions.

Rhino has really pulled out the stops with this release. The packaging is quirkily cool, and they have gone above and beyond with the overall presentation. People are naturally going to argue about the track list - but that's the way things go with compilations like these. "A Life Less Lived" is probably the best primer for gothic rock - REAL gothic rock - that we are likely to see. The DVD of music videos is a nice touch as well.