I know the Venus Fly Trap since the early days as Alex Novak has been a member of Attrition and my older brother was into them. I listened only to their live album and few other things but this time I had the possibility to span through their whole discography as this five CDs gather almost all the songs the band produced during the 1987/1997 period.
Let's get into the details:

- MARS contains "Morphine", "Desolation Railway" and the MLP "Mars". Listening to these releases I heard echoes of Teardrop Explodes, Three Jones and various influences that go from post punk to psychobilly. This CD contains also the original versions of "Morphine", "Catalyst", "Desolation Railway" and a live version of "Step Inside"

- TOTEM (like the following PANDORAS BOX) has got the tracks coming from the Danceteria label period and includes "Rocket USA" 12" (1989), "Totem" (1990) and "Europa" 12" (1990) along with the "Europa" remix and the live versions of "Shadowplay" and "Rocket USA" plus the "Rocket USA" video clip. With this the atmosphere goes darker with echoes of Bauhaus and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. If you thought that "Rocket USA" is a cover of the Suicide song, you got it... Last note: on production we have got Kevin Haskins

- PANDORAS BOX contains "Pandoras Box" LP and selections from "Achilles Heel" 12" and the live album "Jewel". Always with Haskins on production the single and the album sligtly move away from the previous one leaving goth influences and starting exploring psychedelic rock with punk/funk tiny influences (as Gang Of Four did) but without missing their dark vein. Here you can also find the video of "Europa"

- LUNA TIDE includes "Shedding Another Skin" (1992) and the "Luna Tide" album (1994). To be precise I don't see any tracks from the first one as being a compilation of singles all the tracks are already on the other releases. Anyway, with this the new Venus Fly Trap's sound comes out and we can say that the dark period is definitively over. The tracks have got mainly rock and punk influences and the songs are guitar oriented. Sometimes (like on "Urban Sprawl Pt.1) the old influences come out. To be honest this is the album I enjoyed less

- DARK AMOUR is the last one and contains the album with the same title along with a song titled "13 o'clock". Luckily dark atmospheres are back along with some electronic arrangements and a sort of dark tension is noticeable. Songs like "Passport To Dark Amour" and "Pulp Sister" are direct and catchy and I prefer the band to sound this way: less rock or psychedelic and more direct and twisted

Wow... it has been difficult but I hope you got the picture. If you want my advice, I'd pick up TOTEM and DARK AMOUR... Enough said. ;-)