To cover my ass (or lack thereof)
You know, I'm just not getting anywhere with the looking back thing right now. Don't know why, but the inspiration ain't there. Life is hectic and stressful, but I'm still breathing and I have the love of an amazing woman to get me through whatever this sonofabitchin' month may throw at me. I figured a "fun" post might be in order.
I recently got a much-needed third shelving unit for my CD collection, which I am pleased to report is now almost entirely contained by the unwieldy containment/display set-up. How this is going to work when Sassy Frass and the kitties move in, I cannot say, but for now I can access all of my music in a fairly easy manner. I've wanted to feature a playlist of cover songs on this dusty blog for a while, but in the process of sorting and alphabetizing thousands of discs, I narrowed the theme in my head and finally got a spark to post something here. What doesn't a lover of long-winded critical discourse like better than compiling a quick-hit list, right?
So, here are songs recorded by metal bands of different stripes and eras which were originally not metal songs at all. Sure, there are a few "hard rock" artists covered, but I stayed away from the typical influentials (no Hendrix, Zeppelin, Purple, Heep, AC/DC, Crüe... too easy). Instead, you will find tunes by folkies, goths, classic/modern rock radio staples and even a couple of TV show themes. Some are heavier but straightforward renditions, some completely overhaul the original. Naturally, many of my favorite metal groups are represented, even a few popular ones, but there are a coupla obscurities there to stroke my "all-inclusive expert" self-image. Have a listen, rock out, and stay tuned for the '07 best album list, to appear if/when I am inspired.
1. Blind Guardian, "Mr. Sandman" (1996 - original by The Chordettes, 1954): The finest metal band in Germany today made their name with intricate vocal harmonies and is quite fond of American oldies covers, so the vocal pop favorite is not quite as odd a fit as it might seem. Their non-album single switches genders from the Chordettes' desire for a male "dream," I suppose so nobody got the wrong idea about these happily married, hairy men. Then again, they did dress up like the damn Andrews Sisters for the video...
2. Behemoth, "Wish" (2003 - original by Nine Inch Nails, 1992): Poland's Behemoth have gone through a lot of stylistic changes over the years, from bog-standard black metal to folky avant-garde weirdness to pummeling death to their current streamlined-for-Ozzfest "extreme" sound. I would never have pegged them as a band who would cover Trent Reznor, yet here is their rendition of one of NIN's most aggressive singles, from the still-excellent Broken EP. Behemoth's "Wish" is kind of clunky, it lacks the semi-electronic "wall of sound" that makes the original so dynamic and Nergal's accent sounds goofy. Trent's is way better.
3. Sentenced, "White Wedding" (1995 - original by Billy Idol, 1982): When this song was recorded, the late, great Finnish gloom squad known as Sentenced was in the midst of transitioning from a pure death metal act to a mainstreamish pop/hard/goth rock thing, a then-unique style which their countrymen HIM successfully ply today in a sterilized, more commodified form. The Love & Death EP was vocalist Taneli Jarva's final work with Sentenced, a nice companion to the previous year's death n' roll gem Amok. This Billy Idol hit is by far its least interesting track, but it fits the moodily cocksure mood of mid-90s Sentenced very well.
4. Nightwish, "Over the Hills and Far Away" (2001 - original by Gary Moore, 1987): More Finns, this time genuine mainstream superstars in their homeland. This Celtic-influenced rocker, adapted to Nightwish's trademark symphonic bombast from a European single by guitar slinger Moore, may not be familiar to American ears, but that doesn't mean you should ignore its infectious bounce. If ex-vocalist Tarja Turunen's soprano is too overbearing for you, I'll suggest Thyrfing's hearty Viking cover of this instead.
5. Edge of Sanity, "Invisible Sun" (1994 - original by The Police, 1981): As a major creative force in one of Sweden's earliest prog rock/death metal combos, the prolific Dan Swanö has made no secret of his love for musically astute pop bands. His pronounced AOR fetish aside, the dude's got good taste and was probably responsible for this, the first metal Police cover of which I'm aware. When this came out, Swanö's clean vocals had just begun to surface in EoS' work, and they carry Sting's ethereal melody nicely here.
6. In the Woods..., "Let There Be More Light" (1998 - original by Pink Floyd, 1968): One of the great lost Eurometal bands of the '90s, Norway's In the Woods... channeled their pagan black metal past into increasingly avant-garde avenues until the band disintegrated, with the ever-morphing Green Carnation rising from the ashes. I got this version of the lead track on Syd Barrett's Floyd swansong (A Saucerful of Secrets) from Prophecy Productions' 2000 EP compilation Three Times Seven on a Pilgrimage. It also includes tunes by King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane and more early Pink Floyd, and is a must-have for all lovers of far-out metallic psychedelia.
7. Entombed, "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" (1997 - original by Bob Dylan, 1964): You can see Dylan's influence throughout the ages of punk rock, but it takes a special kind of metal band to give Old Mumblymouth a savage thrashing. Swedish death metal pioneers Entombed are just that kind of metal band, and in 1997 were firmly entrenched in divisive garage-punk-with-crusty-balls mode. In appropriate schizophrenic manner, the accompanying slew of singles, EPs and 7"s covered everything from Roky Erickson and Captain Beyond to Twisted Sister and S.O.D. This take on the folk-blues dirge from The Times They Are A-Changin' gives Bob's blue collar nightmare a distinctly dirty prole-punk aftertaste.
8. Gamma Ray, "It's a Sin" (1999 - original by Pet Shop Boys, 1987): Your more sour-faced metal types like to rag on power metal bands like German greats Gamma Ray, declaring their frequently bright melodies and positive lyrical stances too happy to be "metal." Me, one of the first real metal bands I ever loved was Kai Hansen's pre-Gamma Ray outfit Helloween, who pretty much invented the genre rife with buoyant pop choruses and fast guitar solos you can "oh-oh-ohhh" along with. The Rays' decision to cover the Pet Shop Boys' dance club hit isn't unprecedented (the band's name came from a song Kai heard in a disco, which they also covered), but can't have done much to deter Devourment fans from calling them "Ramma Gay." Their loss.
9. HORSE the band, "T.M.N.T." (2006 - original from the television series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," U.S. premiere 1987): Those lovable nutjobs from California's HORSE the band put out an EP in '06 called Pizza. The packaging looks like a neighborhood pizza box, complete with cartoon Italian chef stereotype, and all the songs are about pizza, in defiance of their previous tradition of Nintendo-inspired lyrics. At the end comes a jubilantly juvenile metalcore cover of the theme song from the old "Turtles" cartoon, saluting the world's most famous pizza lovers. If you are a boy of a certain age, you can't dislike this... it begins with a Rat King sample!
10. Carpathian Forest, "A Forest" (1998 - original by The Cure, 1980): Norway's Carpathian Forest manages to do a lot of weird shit but somehow maintains status with black metal's ultra-conservative tastemakers. Freaky saxophone interludes just don't seem grim to me, but they are, well, freaky. This experimental streak punctuates most of the band's albums, which are largely made up of hooky, rock n' rollish black metal. Go back to their first album, Black Shining Leather, which concludes with this electro-tinged version of the hypnotic early Cure single, to see what I'm talking about.
11. Nevermore, "The Sound of Silence" (2000 - original by Simon and Garfunkel, 1964): Prog-thrash titans Nevermore have a handful of covers in their catalog, each a significant departure from the original song because the band firmly believes in making them "their own." Their most radical reworking to date comes from Dead Heart in a Dead World, one of the Seattle quartet's finest platters. Although the lyrics and the opening melody are straight from S&G's famous hit, the chunky, shifting rhythms, Jeff Loomis' flashy guitar solos and Warrel Dane's baleful shrieks are entirely of Nevermore's construction. If only all bands put this sort of imagination into covers.
12. Katatonia, "O How I Enjoy the Light" (2001 - original by Palace Songs, 1995): You can't accuse my favorite band of going the typical route in any way, least of all in their choice of covers. The Swedes have only done two, and both come from the indie rock pantheon rather than the halls of metal. While their take on Jeff Buckley's "Nightmares By the Sea" is a more standard quiet/loud rock tune, this version of a 7" non-album single by Palace Songs (aka Palace, aka Palace Brothers, aka Palace Music, aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy, aka Will Oldham) remains a ghostly, uneasy standout among their many worthy b-sides. Get it on the Tonight's Music single, get it on The Black Sessions box set, get it somewhere and bask in the haze.
13. Helloween, "All My Loving" (1999 - original by The Beatles, 1963): Throughout Helloween's long, tumultuous career, the Germans have shown their influences are not just metallic, as classic rock, pop, prog, classical and even blues peppers various parts of their catalog. The Helloween lineup that recorded the all-covers album Metal Jukebox ostensibly agreed on The Beatles, since they did two of their songs for the sessions. Their straightforward reading of George Harrison's mellow "Something" was a b-side, while this ebullient savaging of an early Lennon/McCartney joint made the album proper. Hey, the Fab Four cut their musical teeth in Hamburg, the same port town that spawned Helloween, so it makes sense.
14. Therion, "Summer Night City" (2001 - original by ABBA, 1978): Believe it or not, Europe has engendered a lot of metal ABBA covers, especially the pop group's homeland of Sweden. Orchestral giants Therion are no strangers to covers; I think they did something for every damn tribute disc Nuclear Blast Records was crapping out some years ago. A few took liberties with the Swedes' trademark chug-and-pomp, but "Summer Night City," which kicks off 2001's A Tribute to ABBA, sounds almost like one of their originals. This is a lesser-known, later ABBA disco tune, which I had never heard until I found the video on YouTube.
15. In Flames, "Everything Counts" (1997 - original by Depeche Mode, 1983): Another potentially surprising subject of many metal covers, synth-pop favorites Depeche Mode have the gloomy/austere atmosphere of a goth band without succumbing to that genre's theatrical trappings. Thus, they're a good choice for metal bands who want to appear open-minded and cerebral. It didn't really work for Lacuna Coil or It Dies Today (who both turned in predictable covers of "Enjoy the Silence" in recent years), but for In Flames, who in the late '90s had just begun to branch out from the Swedish melodic death metal sound they helped define, Depeche Mode fit the bill. Their stomping take on the Construction Time Again single is much denser than the original, but the somber melody bleeds through during the choruses as Anders Friden layers some clean singing, a new thing in those days.
16. Type O Negative, "Summer Breeze" (1993 - original by Seals & Crofts, 1972): Only a group with Type O's sick sense of humor would decide to heavy up Seals & Crofts' lite rock standard. "Summer Breeze" is the sort of inoffensive sonic wallpaper you hear while grocery shopping or waiting in the doctor's office. Adapted to a doom trudge, the tune naturally takes on a more sinister hue, yet despite Peter Steele's vampire groan and signature fuzzed-out bass tone, the band keeps it somewhat fluffy due to Josh Silver's airy keyboards and background aahhhs. The perversely pretty result is funny in concept and serious in execution, and that's a decent description of Type O Negative overall.
17. Grave, "Them Bones" (2006 - original by Alice in Chains, 1992): Swedish death metal geezers Grave are known for their commitment to groove, as their material has always been driven more by rhythm than melody. Listen to the way they apply rumbling vitriol to the opener of Alice in Chains' mega-selling Dirt, brutalizing the shifting rhythms with pure weight to make them more violently jarring. Yeah, except for maybe Soundgarden, AiC was the most "metal" of the popular grunge bands, and in fact were marketed directly to the metal audience when their first album came out, but the history books place them smack dab in the "Alternative Era," so I don't consider this a "metal on metal" cover.
18. Imperia, "The Lotus Eaters" (2004 - original by Dead Can Dance, 1998): Here's a somewhat obscure Dutch band fronted by former Trail of Tears siren Helena Iren Michaelsen. Imperia's brand of goth metal doesn't reinvent the wheel, relying on Helena's dynamically witchy coos and thick swabs of keyboards. However, their very first recording, this cover featured on Black Lotus Records' highly recommended Tribute to Dead Can Dance: The Lotus Eaters, is pretty fascinating, grafting the famed goth/worldbeat duo's final recorded song to their regular style. It's one of the heaviest tracks on the comp, building to several dramatic crescendoes, its widescreen Arabic/angelic feel making me wish all of Imperia's stuff sounded like this.
19. Rage, "Paint It, Black" (1998 - original by The Rolling Stones, 1966): Another substantial reworking comes courtesy of one of the world's most underrated metal bands. Germany's long-running Rage was in the thick of an orchestral phase when this Stones cover surfaced on their XIII album, a phase which had previously included a collaboration with the Symphonic Orchestra Prague but by this point materialized in the band's own Lingua Mortis Orchestra. Like Nevermore's Simon and Garfunkel job, Rage retains very little from the original tune, which aside from the vocals has transformed into a crawling, string-laden dirge. I prefer the quicker pace of the classic cut, but Peavy Wagner and crew do a decent job with one of the Stones' darkest numbers.
20. Mindrot, "The A-Team" (? - original from the television series "The A-Team," U.S. premiere 1983): To conclude, I present one of the most brilliant metal covers I've ever heard. It was posted on the web site of Life Is Abuse, a cool little Oakland label that's given us records from such cult Left Coast acts as Melvins, Ludicra, Tarantula Hawk, Yeti and Teen Cthulhu. Sludgesters Mindrot never really got their due during their run, but this rare (demo?) goof on Mike Post and Pete Carpenter's theme from "The A-Team" only hints at their sonic mindfucks, which incorporated blissful psychedelic drones long before post-rock gained its current foothold among the hipster metal crowd. The crusty doom transfiguration of the music is clever, but the samples bring it over the top - listen for Bob Costas, Eddie Murphy, Dwight Schultz and, of course, lots of my man, Mr. T.
Whoo, did I assume that would be easier than writing about ten albums? Well, whatever, it's done. Until next time, here are three short CD reviews I typed in recent times: Rue Royale, Averse Sefira and Young Dubliners.
I recently got a much-needed third shelving unit for my CD collection, which I am pleased to report is now almost entirely contained by the unwieldy containment/display set-up. How this is going to work when Sassy Frass and the kitties move in, I cannot say, but for now I can access all of my music in a fairly easy manner. I've wanted to feature a playlist of cover songs on this dusty blog for a while, but in the process of sorting and alphabetizing thousands of discs, I narrowed the theme in my head and finally got a spark to post something here. What doesn't a lover of long-winded critical discourse like better than compiling a quick-hit list, right?
So, here are songs recorded by metal bands of different stripes and eras which were originally not metal songs at all. Sure, there are a few "hard rock" artists covered, but I stayed away from the typical influentials (no Hendrix, Zeppelin, Purple, Heep, AC/DC, Crüe... too easy). Instead, you will find tunes by folkies, goths, classic/modern rock radio staples and even a couple of TV show themes. Some are heavier but straightforward renditions, some completely overhaul the original. Naturally, many of my favorite metal groups are represented, even a few popular ones, but there are a coupla obscurities there to stroke my "all-inclusive expert" self-image. Have a listen, rock out, and stay tuned for the '07 best album list, to appear if/when I am inspired.
1. Blind Guardian, "Mr. Sandman" (1996 - original by The Chordettes, 1954): The finest metal band in Germany today made their name with intricate vocal harmonies and is quite fond of American oldies covers, so the vocal pop favorite is not quite as odd a fit as it might seem. Their non-album single switches genders from the Chordettes' desire for a male "dream," I suppose so nobody got the wrong idea about these happily married, hairy men. Then again, they did dress up like the damn Andrews Sisters for the video...
2. Behemoth, "Wish" (2003 - original by Nine Inch Nails, 1992): Poland's Behemoth have gone through a lot of stylistic changes over the years, from bog-standard black metal to folky avant-garde weirdness to pummeling death to their current streamlined-for-Ozzfest "extreme" sound. I would never have pegged them as a band who would cover Trent Reznor, yet here is their rendition of one of NIN's most aggressive singles, from the still-excellent Broken EP. Behemoth's "Wish" is kind of clunky, it lacks the semi-electronic "wall of sound" that makes the original so dynamic and Nergal's accent sounds goofy. Trent's is way better.
3. Sentenced, "White Wedding" (1995 - original by Billy Idol, 1982): When this song was recorded, the late, great Finnish gloom squad known as Sentenced was in the midst of transitioning from a pure death metal act to a mainstreamish pop/hard/goth rock thing, a then-unique style which their countrymen HIM successfully ply today in a sterilized, more commodified form. The Love & Death EP was vocalist Taneli Jarva's final work with Sentenced, a nice companion to the previous year's death n' roll gem Amok. This Billy Idol hit is by far its least interesting track, but it fits the moodily cocksure mood of mid-90s Sentenced very well.
4. Nightwish, "Over the Hills and Far Away" (2001 - original by Gary Moore, 1987): More Finns, this time genuine mainstream superstars in their homeland. This Celtic-influenced rocker, adapted to Nightwish's trademark symphonic bombast from a European single by guitar slinger Moore, may not be familiar to American ears, but that doesn't mean you should ignore its infectious bounce. If ex-vocalist Tarja Turunen's soprano is too overbearing for you, I'll suggest Thyrfing's hearty Viking cover of this instead.
5. Edge of Sanity, "Invisible Sun" (1994 - original by The Police, 1981): As a major creative force in one of Sweden's earliest prog rock/death metal combos, the prolific Dan Swanö has made no secret of his love for musically astute pop bands. His pronounced AOR fetish aside, the dude's got good taste and was probably responsible for this, the first metal Police cover of which I'm aware. When this came out, Swanö's clean vocals had just begun to surface in EoS' work, and they carry Sting's ethereal melody nicely here.
6. In the Woods..., "Let There Be More Light" (1998 - original by Pink Floyd, 1968): One of the great lost Eurometal bands of the '90s, Norway's In the Woods... channeled their pagan black metal past into increasingly avant-garde avenues until the band disintegrated, with the ever-morphing Green Carnation rising from the ashes. I got this version of the lead track on Syd Barrett's Floyd swansong (A Saucerful of Secrets) from Prophecy Productions' 2000 EP compilation Three Times Seven on a Pilgrimage. It also includes tunes by King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane and more early Pink Floyd, and is a must-have for all lovers of far-out metallic psychedelia.
7. Entombed, "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" (1997 - original by Bob Dylan, 1964): You can see Dylan's influence throughout the ages of punk rock, but it takes a special kind of metal band to give Old Mumblymouth a savage thrashing. Swedish death metal pioneers Entombed are just that kind of metal band, and in 1997 were firmly entrenched in divisive garage-punk-with-crusty-balls mode. In appropriate schizophrenic manner, the accompanying slew of singles, EPs and 7"s covered everything from Roky Erickson and Captain Beyond to Twisted Sister and S.O.D. This take on the folk-blues dirge from The Times They Are A-Changin' gives Bob's blue collar nightmare a distinctly dirty prole-punk aftertaste.
8. Gamma Ray, "It's a Sin" (1999 - original by Pet Shop Boys, 1987): Your more sour-faced metal types like to rag on power metal bands like German greats Gamma Ray, declaring their frequently bright melodies and positive lyrical stances too happy to be "metal." Me, one of the first real metal bands I ever loved was Kai Hansen's pre-Gamma Ray outfit Helloween, who pretty much invented the genre rife with buoyant pop choruses and fast guitar solos you can "oh-oh-ohhh" along with. The Rays' decision to cover the Pet Shop Boys' dance club hit isn't unprecedented (the band's name came from a song Kai heard in a disco, which they also covered), but can't have done much to deter Devourment fans from calling them "Ramma Gay." Their loss.
9. HORSE the band, "T.M.N.T." (2006 - original from the television series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," U.S. premiere 1987): Those lovable nutjobs from California's HORSE the band put out an EP in '06 called Pizza. The packaging looks like a neighborhood pizza box, complete with cartoon Italian chef stereotype, and all the songs are about pizza, in defiance of their previous tradition of Nintendo-inspired lyrics. At the end comes a jubilantly juvenile metalcore cover of the theme song from the old "Turtles" cartoon, saluting the world's most famous pizza lovers. If you are a boy of a certain age, you can't dislike this... it begins with a Rat King sample!
10. Carpathian Forest, "A Forest" (1998 - original by The Cure, 1980): Norway's Carpathian Forest manages to do a lot of weird shit but somehow maintains status with black metal's ultra-conservative tastemakers. Freaky saxophone interludes just don't seem grim to me, but they are, well, freaky. This experimental streak punctuates most of the band's albums, which are largely made up of hooky, rock n' rollish black metal. Go back to their first album, Black Shining Leather, which concludes with this electro-tinged version of the hypnotic early Cure single, to see what I'm talking about.
11. Nevermore, "The Sound of Silence" (2000 - original by Simon and Garfunkel, 1964): Prog-thrash titans Nevermore have a handful of covers in their catalog, each a significant departure from the original song because the band firmly believes in making them "their own." Their most radical reworking to date comes from Dead Heart in a Dead World, one of the Seattle quartet's finest platters. Although the lyrics and the opening melody are straight from S&G's famous hit, the chunky, shifting rhythms, Jeff Loomis' flashy guitar solos and Warrel Dane's baleful shrieks are entirely of Nevermore's construction. If only all bands put this sort of imagination into covers.
12. Katatonia, "O How I Enjoy the Light" (2001 - original by Palace Songs, 1995): You can't accuse my favorite band of going the typical route in any way, least of all in their choice of covers. The Swedes have only done two, and both come from the indie rock pantheon rather than the halls of metal. While their take on Jeff Buckley's "Nightmares By the Sea" is a more standard quiet/loud rock tune, this version of a 7" non-album single by Palace Songs (aka Palace, aka Palace Brothers, aka Palace Music, aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy, aka Will Oldham) remains a ghostly, uneasy standout among their many worthy b-sides. Get it on the Tonight's Music single, get it on The Black Sessions box set, get it somewhere and bask in the haze.
13. Helloween, "All My Loving" (1999 - original by The Beatles, 1963): Throughout Helloween's long, tumultuous career, the Germans have shown their influences are not just metallic, as classic rock, pop, prog, classical and even blues peppers various parts of their catalog. The Helloween lineup that recorded the all-covers album Metal Jukebox ostensibly agreed on The Beatles, since they did two of their songs for the sessions. Their straightforward reading of George Harrison's mellow "Something" was a b-side, while this ebullient savaging of an early Lennon/McCartney joint made the album proper. Hey, the Fab Four cut their musical teeth in Hamburg, the same port town that spawned Helloween, so it makes sense.
14. Therion, "Summer Night City" (2001 - original by ABBA, 1978): Believe it or not, Europe has engendered a lot of metal ABBA covers, especially the pop group's homeland of Sweden. Orchestral giants Therion are no strangers to covers; I think they did something for every damn tribute disc Nuclear Blast Records was crapping out some years ago. A few took liberties with the Swedes' trademark chug-and-pomp, but "Summer Night City," which kicks off 2001's A Tribute to ABBA, sounds almost like one of their originals. This is a lesser-known, later ABBA disco tune, which I had never heard until I found the video on YouTube.
15. In Flames, "Everything Counts" (1997 - original by Depeche Mode, 1983): Another potentially surprising subject of many metal covers, synth-pop favorites Depeche Mode have the gloomy/austere atmosphere of a goth band without succumbing to that genre's theatrical trappings. Thus, they're a good choice for metal bands who want to appear open-minded and cerebral. It didn't really work for Lacuna Coil or It Dies Today (who both turned in predictable covers of "Enjoy the Silence" in recent years), but for In Flames, who in the late '90s had just begun to branch out from the Swedish melodic death metal sound they helped define, Depeche Mode fit the bill. Their stomping take on the Construction Time Again single is much denser than the original, but the somber melody bleeds through during the choruses as Anders Friden layers some clean singing, a new thing in those days.
16. Type O Negative, "Summer Breeze" (1993 - original by Seals & Crofts, 1972): Only a group with Type O's sick sense of humor would decide to heavy up Seals & Crofts' lite rock standard. "Summer Breeze" is the sort of inoffensive sonic wallpaper you hear while grocery shopping or waiting in the doctor's office. Adapted to a doom trudge, the tune naturally takes on a more sinister hue, yet despite Peter Steele's vampire groan and signature fuzzed-out bass tone, the band keeps it somewhat fluffy due to Josh Silver's airy keyboards and background aahhhs. The perversely pretty result is funny in concept and serious in execution, and that's a decent description of Type O Negative overall.
17. Grave, "Them Bones" (2006 - original by Alice in Chains, 1992): Swedish death metal geezers Grave are known for their commitment to groove, as their material has always been driven more by rhythm than melody. Listen to the way they apply rumbling vitriol to the opener of Alice in Chains' mega-selling Dirt, brutalizing the shifting rhythms with pure weight to make them more violently jarring. Yeah, except for maybe Soundgarden, AiC was the most "metal" of the popular grunge bands, and in fact were marketed directly to the metal audience when their first album came out, but the history books place them smack dab in the "Alternative Era," so I don't consider this a "metal on metal" cover.
18. Imperia, "The Lotus Eaters" (2004 - original by Dead Can Dance, 1998): Here's a somewhat obscure Dutch band fronted by former Trail of Tears siren Helena Iren Michaelsen. Imperia's brand of goth metal doesn't reinvent the wheel, relying on Helena's dynamically witchy coos and thick swabs of keyboards. However, their very first recording, this cover featured on Black Lotus Records' highly recommended Tribute to Dead Can Dance: The Lotus Eaters, is pretty fascinating, grafting the famed goth/worldbeat duo's final recorded song to their regular style. It's one of the heaviest tracks on the comp, building to several dramatic crescendoes, its widescreen Arabic/angelic feel making me wish all of Imperia's stuff sounded like this.
19. Rage, "Paint It, Black" (1998 - original by The Rolling Stones, 1966): Another substantial reworking comes courtesy of one of the world's most underrated metal bands. Germany's long-running Rage was in the thick of an orchestral phase when this Stones cover surfaced on their XIII album, a phase which had previously included a collaboration with the Symphonic Orchestra Prague but by this point materialized in the band's own Lingua Mortis Orchestra. Like Nevermore's Simon and Garfunkel job, Rage retains very little from the original tune, which aside from the vocals has transformed into a crawling, string-laden dirge. I prefer the quicker pace of the classic cut, but Peavy Wagner and crew do a decent job with one of the Stones' darkest numbers.
20. Mindrot, "The A-Team" (? - original from the television series "The A-Team," U.S. premiere 1983): To conclude, I present one of the most brilliant metal covers I've ever heard. It was posted on the web site of Life Is Abuse, a cool little Oakland label that's given us records from such cult Left Coast acts as Melvins, Ludicra, Tarantula Hawk, Yeti and Teen Cthulhu. Sludgesters Mindrot never really got their due during their run, but this rare (demo?) goof on Mike Post and Pete Carpenter's theme from "The A-Team" only hints at their sonic mindfucks, which incorporated blissful psychedelic drones long before post-rock gained its current foothold among the hipster metal crowd. The crusty doom transfiguration of the music is clever, but the samples bring it over the top - listen for Bob Costas, Eddie Murphy, Dwight Schultz and, of course, lots of my man, Mr. T.
Whoo, did I assume that would be easier than writing about ten albums? Well, whatever, it's done. Until next time, here are three short CD reviews I typed in recent times: Rue Royale, Averse Sefira and Young Dubliners.
posted by SoulReaper at 10:52 AM
2 comments
