Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Dead Souls -- Joy Division
2. Charlotte Sometimes -- The Cure
3. She's In Parties -- Bauhaus
4. Temple Of Love -- The Sisters Of Mercy
5. Christian Says -- Tones On Tail
6. Mutiny In Heaven -- The Birthday Party
7. Spellbound -- Siouxie & the Banshees
8. Fatman -- The Southern Death Cult
9. Mirror People -- Love And Rockets
10. Power -- Fields Of The Nephilim
11. Now I'm Feeling Zombified -- Alien Sex Fiend
12. Snake Dance -- The March Violets
13. Walking On Your Hands -- Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
14. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang -- Specimen
15. Wasteland -- The Mission UK
16. The Grip Of Love -- Ghost Dance
17. His Box -- Dali's Car

Disc 2:

1. The Weeping Song -- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2. Exterminating Angel -- The Creatures
3. God's Zoo -- Death Cult
4. Heartache -- Gene Loves Jezebel
5. I Go Crazy -- Flesh For Lulu
6. Cuts You Up -- Peter Murphy
7. Open Your Eyes -- The Lords Of The New Church
8. Heaven Is Waiting -- The Danse Society
9. All My Colours -- Echo & The Bunnymen
10. Don't Fall -- The Chameleons UK
11. Dreamland -- The Rose Of Avalanche
12. Fall -- The Jesus And Mary Chain
13. Coming Down Fast -- Daniel Ash
14. Muscoviet Mosquito -- Clan Of Xymox
15. Incubus Succubus II -- Xmal Deutshland
16. Starblood -- Cranes
17. Ardera Sempre -- Miranda Sex Garden
18. Blood Bitch -- Cocteau Twins
19. The Arcane -- Dead Can Dance
20. Rain -- The Cult

Disc 3:

1. Away -- The Bolshol
2. Watch Without Pain -- Rubicon
3. Pagan Lovesong -- Virgin Prunes
4. Morning Dew -- Einsturzende Neubauten
5. Hamburger Lady -- Throbbing Gristle
6. To Blame -- Kommunity FK
7. Melody Lee -- The Damned
8. Romeo's Distress -- Christian Death
9. Party Time -- 45 Grave
10. Kiss -- London After Midnight
11. Dieche -- Sex Gang Children
12. Assimilate -- Skinny Puppy
13. Halloween -- Misfits
14. Tomorrow's World -- Killing Joke
15. So What -- Ministry
16. The Hanging Garden -- AFI

Disc 4:

1. Lullaby [DVD] -- The Cure
2. Bela Lugosi's Dead [DVD] -- Bauhaus
3. Lucretia My Reflection [DVD] -- The Sisters Of Mercy
4. Moonchild [DVD] -- Fields Of The Nephilim
5. Deliverance [DVD] -- The Mission UK
6. Ball Of Confusion [DVD] -- Love And Rockets
7. Head On [DVD] -- The Jesus And Mary Chain
8. The Killing Moon [DVD] -- Echo & The Bunnymen
9. Where The Wild Roses Grow [DVD] -- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
10. Stigmata [DVD] -- Ministry
11. Spiritwalker (Live) [DVD] -- The Cult
12. Cities In Dust [DVD] -- Siouxie & the Banshees

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48567 in Music
• Released on: 2006-09-19
• Number of discs: 4

Album Description
Five hours of mood-lowering music & video from the foremost names in gloom.

Amazon.com
Yes, I was one of those kids: big, messy hair; black clothes; makeup on the weekends; surly demeanor with everyone but my friends. But my friends were legion. And what bonded us all? Goth music--dark, arty, dramatic, epic, apocalyptic. It gave us focus and refuge during those formative years. Now, it appears some of those kids have grown up and started working for Rhino. A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box hones in on the territory started by their expansive Left of the Dial box set and gives it a smear of red lipstick and a down-turned glance. And in usual Rhino fashion, it's lovingly designed (the slipcase is a faux-leather corset!), with an extensive booklet that will answer all of your questions about goth, and this box set in particular. It will be needed. One can already hear the cries of "What about...?," "Why that song?," and "Is that goth?" These questions are addressed and gotten out of the way in quick succession. Rhino has the cachet to pull together artists that wouldn't normally be part of such a box set, so they rightly concentrate on including the biggies (the Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy). Also present less well-known bands, such as Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, the March Violets, and the Virgin Prunes. What about the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Misfits, and Echo & the Bunnymen? Are they goth? Not strictly, but every goth I knew loved them. There's even an "instructional" essay for those new to the scene, and a cover of the Cure's "The Hanging Garden" by new-schoolers A.F.I. to bring in the uninitiated. Go on, break out those velvet vests and pointy boots and put this on--it's still amazingly vibrant stuff. --Robert Arambel

Customer Reviews

So gothic it's undead
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.

The humble opinion of a ex-Goth :-|
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.

Turning on the light in a dark room
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.