Customer Reviews

In Trance/Virgin Killer: The Axe Killer Warriors Set

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

these are truly the best scorpions albums ever... In Trance and Virgin Killer. Very well digitally mastered and complete with liner notes and photos but the best is... The 7 bonus tracks are actually all 7 tracks from the second album Fly to the Rainbow. Digitally mastered. So you actually get 3 albums at a very good price. Since these were the only 3 albums left unmastered now you can have all the catalogue remastered and sounding good...

This set contains all the material from Fly to the Rainbow, In Trance, and Virgin Killer! I had been waiting for remastered versions of these albums to be released in the US, as they did with Lonesome Crow, Taken By Force, and Tokyo Tapes. Since that hasn't happened, this is your best alternative.

The standard warning on 70's era Scorpions music applies here. This isn't the Scorpion's everyone knows and loves from the 1980's. Their sound was very different during the 1970's due to Ulrich Roth's influence. His songs are more jazzy/psychedelic and his singing is very different than Klaus Meine's, or anyone else you've ever heard. Someone exploring 1970's era Scorpions for the first time may want to start with Taken By Force or the excellent live album Tokyo Tapes as the price is much lower and both albums are a good representation of the band's sound during this time. For everyone else familiar with the Scorpions of the 1970's, buy this set! You won't be disappointed. Where else can you get three great import albums for under $40?

Just to clarify - Axe Killer, the French reissue label that has re-released these classic Scorpions albums, has issued two different versions of this set. Both sets include the same two CDs, but the packaging is quite different.

The first version, released in 2000, was called the Back to Black Collection. It featured both CDs in a deluxe digipack with a black leather (maybe fake leather, but still...) cover. This is a sturdy, attractive package. My rating for this would be 5-stars for the music and 5-stars for the packaging - 5-stars overall.

The version that came out in 2007 is, contrary to Amazon's current product listing, called the Axe Killer Warriors Set. The discs come housed in cheap cardboard sleeves (that can scratch the discs when you remove them) inside a black cardboard box that's way too big for its contents. The box is big enough for two discs in jewel cases, which would have been much better. It does come with a detailed CD booklet (one covers both albums) and a fold-out poster of the In Trance cover artwork. Unfortunately both the booklet and poster were horribly creased in my set since there is so much room in the too-big box. My rating for this set would be 5-stars for the music and 1-star for the packaging. That should be a 3-star overall rating, but the albums are simply too good for that.

As for the albums themselves, well, they're amazing. I grew up with the arena-destroying "Rock You Like a Hurricane" Scorpions, and still love those albums, but In Trance and Virgin Killer are really breathtaking heavy metal albums. Uli Jon Roth's guitar work here is legendary, and the songwriting is so much more dramatic and artistic (not really progressive, but it has that vibe) than the band's more commercially successful releases. Beyond that, the digital remastering Axe Killer gave these albums is phenomenal. If that weren't enough, the bonus tracks on each disc actually make up the band's full 1974 album Fly To The Rainbow. So you're getting three classic Scorpions albums, all digitally remastered, in this set.

Whatever format you choose, this collection is absolutely worth buying. The albums are essential and they sound incredible. It's just a matter of what you're willing to pay for the packaging. Obviously I went with the cheaper Axe Killer Warriors Set. It will do, but it's nowhere near as nice as the fancy Back to Black collection my friend keeps lording over me!

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, the sleeve for the Virgin Killer album does feature the original, uncensored cover artwork.

If you like your Scorpions and really get off on the early stuff?, this is a must have.

You get a two CD's featuring two of their earlier albums that have been digitally remastered and expanded with bonus tracks. An attractive box that includes a full sized In Trance poster. These albums are considered a must have for old school Scorpions fans.

All in all with the remastered cd's sounding awesome, the bonus tracks, the way cool packaging and the full sized poster, you have to ask yourself, what's not to like?

Check it out!

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I make myself clear: to have three Scorpions albums in only two CD's is great (In Trance, Virgin Killer, and, split as bonus tracks between the former two, Fly to the Rainbow); however, these are not new remastered versions. Furthermore, the box is far bigger than it needs (the contents flutter loose within); we are deprived of plastic cases for each disc, and provided instead with cardboard envelopes - and there comes just one flimsy booklet, whose notes are likewise meagre. Would rather spend more in the separate editions, alas!, it's too late for me, but I earnestly advise you no to order this item.

Purchased this set for Christmas - it is a good value, contains the albums as described, and the box materials are well-done and professional. My set included a larger poster with the cover of In Trance on it. If you're a Scorps fan, these are all good albums showing how this great band sounded in the earliest years during the 1970's - long before the Love At First Sting album defined the Scorpions music and sonic signature for an entire generation of listeners. I grew up with the Scorps in the 80's, still enjoy them in this time period, but have begun to listen to and to appreciate their earlier years more and more the older I get. Uli Jon Roth was such a pivotal part of the band at this time; it's interesting to wonder what they would have been like with him later, but I think Klaus, Matthias, and Rudy would all probably not want to change much now that things are drawing to a close.

At the end of the day, this set is a good bargain - a way to get the early albums more cheaply - but I would caution anyone who considers themselves a hi-fi listener about the remasterings here. Put simply, they are brickwalled flat across the board - there are two dynamic ranges - silence and loud - little in between. As is the case with all albums mastered this way (Death Magnetic being the best example), there is much about the music that is unnecessarily lost. So if you want to hear the songs with some dynamics to them, seek out the earlier issues. If you don't care, you'll probably enjoy this a lot - it is LOUD!

While i REALLY enjoy this my one gripe, and for me is a pretty big deal, is the re-mix/re-master of Top of the Bill. Different from the original and was highly dissapointed by this. Other than that, if you like early Scorps this is a must, just makes me miss my vinyl version of In Trance that much more :(

The Scorpions of the 1970's were a very different animal than the later versions of the band. These three records, Fly to the Rainbow/In Trance/Virgin Killer (albums two, three and four for the band), feature the brilliant guitarist Ulrich Roth. The band's sound on these LPs is both slightly more progressive and a bit more psychedelic than the metallic pop of the post-1980 Scorpions. This is due, in part, to Ulrich Roth (known later as "Uli Jon Roth") who brought a lot of Jimi Hendrix-inspired mysticism to the band and a distinctly classical influence in his playing as well. Roth is a both a strong songwriter and a large musical presence. This is unlike the excellent guitarist of the post-1980 Scorpions, Matthias Jabs, whose contributions are mostly limited to an ornamental position in the band, the main songwriting team being Schenker/Meine. While there is more texture and stylistic variance due to Roth's songwriting, the Klaus Meine/Rudolf Schenker songwriting entity is already established and not entirely different from their later work. These records simply contain some the best hard rock of the 1970s. A really terrific band, with loads of timeless music. Some of the lyrics are just silly (clearly english is the second language...) but much of the writing is actually quite beautiful ("Living and Dying"; "This is My Song"), at times even touching ("Yellow Raven"; "Life's Like a River"). Throughout these recordings its apparent on a first listen that the melodies, harmonies and arrangements are all so completely above-average that it is no wonder why the Scorpions created the legacy that they did. These guys clearly had serious chemistry.

I have always liked the Scorpions but had never really heard pre-Lovedrive material before. I can not stop listening to these discs. Uli is a great guitarist, Klauses' voice is great, the songs are great, what else can I say? This box package is a deal with the bonus tracks being the entire Fly to the Rainbow album. I would recommend this to any one who loves creative, 70's metal/hard rock if you can still find it.

Pleasantly surprised to find that both original album covers are included on inside, albeit only on a cardboard sleeve instead of a full jewel case. I like both albums but you have to understand they are from a different era.