POINT OF VIEWS

Composed from the group's two early albums on the legendary Recommended Record (ReR) label plus bonus tracks (from singles or label samplers), now re-issued on the great and no-less legendary Cuneiform label and could've been called 5UU's 84-87. As said in the separate album reviews, 5UU's debut album was definitely more accessible than Thinking Plague or Skeleton Crew, and this 2-on- 1 set of albums is a rather interesting deal for those willing to explore Kerman's group's early career.

The Bar Code single (here as track 9 & 10) is much in the line of the musical conduct of the group and could've easily fitted on the Marduk album, even if the luine up recording the single's songs is fairly different than on the album, but also having some musicians (Ando, Turnert, Johnston) as guest on the Elements album. .

But if you're like me and you prefer Elements, you're not likely to be that interested in these two albums presented on the same disc, partly because both albums are very differtent in moods and Marduk pales too much in comparison with Elements that it sounds almost like another group. As for the ReR sampler track, it comes from the following year and has the same basic line-up of Elements (without the Totemist Guild), but even if closely linked with Elements, it sounds sufficiently different (but nothing shocking either) but is not that welcome after such an outstanding album as Elements. I'd say that the general sound and production differences are too big to include them on the same disc.

So it will not be often that I will not recommend one of these "early works" compilation, but in this case, I find that Elements deserves its own disc while the Marduk album is more expandable and not really essential. Your call, but I'd pass on this deal..