As kind of a sister release to the same label's Acid Dreams Testament, Acid Dreams Epitaph is also a compilation of American '60s garage rock/psychedelia, though this anthology seems more oriented toward straight garage rock. It's also not as good as Acid Dreams Testament, though it too has many tracks -- 29 in all -- that have usually done the route on '60s garage comps for many years before this release, most of them not quite rising to the level necessary to merit inclusion on top '60s garage collections like Nuggets. There are some really good selections here -- A-minuses, if, as a yardstick of comparison, many of the Nuggets tracks were As -- like Phil & the Frantics' "I Must Run" (the best Zombies imitation ever), Randy Alvey & the Green Fuz's "Green Fuz" (one of the crudest '60s garage recordings of all time), the Avengers' "Open Your Eyes" (one of the best Byrds sound-alikes), and the Wilde Knights' incredibly lewd "Beaver Patrol." Also in the same league are the Split Ends' snide "Rich with Nothin'" and the Spades' "We Sell Soul," which hasn't often been available on CD, despite featuring Roky Erickson as lead singer just before he joined the 13th Floor Elevators. But the gap between these top-drawer items and the rest of the disc is pretty wide, and little else sticks too hard, exceptions being Godfrey & Friends' famed Kim Fowley composition "Let's Take a Trip" and Crystal Chandelier's "Suicidal Flowers," one of the most blatant of Doors imitations. While the strategy might not have ever been considered, it would have been better to take the best half-dozen or so songs from Acid Dreams Epitaph and substitute those for the least impressive tracks on Acid Dreams Testament, which would have yielded a pretty killer compilation. As it is, this is just the kind of average '60s garage rock anthology of which there have been too many to count. (Note that the final two tracks listed on the back cover, Lemon Fog's "Summer" and Kindred Spirit's "Blue Avenue," are not actually included on the CD.)