Voivod’s cover of “Astronomy Domine” on Nothingface is the be-all, end-all of “metal” Pink Floyd covers, but on the recently released Like Black Holes in the Sky: A Tribute to Syd Barrett, cover duties fall to Dredg while Kosmos — drummer Michel “Away” Langevin’s new band — takes on “Vegetable Man.” It’s pretty hot, though nowhere near as amazing as Intronaut’s appropriately trippy cover of “Arnold Layne,” which — unlike the contributions by, say, Jarboe (”Late Night”) or Stinking Lizavetta (”Matilda Mother”) or Kylesa (”Interstellar Overdrive”) — is completely the opposite of what you’d expect. Bruce Lamont of Yakuza claims that the original version of “Lucifer Sam” offers the perfect soundtrack to riding the Blue Line el train from O’Hare Airport into the city of Chicago and is timed perfectly to coincide with a dramatic view of the downtown skyline; we dig his band’s version, too. The whole 12-song collection is currently streaming on MySpace, begging the question of “what’s next.” An all-metal tribute to Pet Sounds? Actually, that would most definitely rule.
“No Handlebars” by Flobots is really just “Lose Yourself” covered by Cake. The song worms itself into your brain and stays there — a prerequisite for any summer jam. These guys seem like nice, well-mannered kids but whoa boy, they can ruin a cover of “Killing in the Name” with no handlebars, no handlebars. They’ve dilluted a pretty powerful and iconic political statement with sticky-sweet Starbucks flavor shots and the part of the original song that remains isn’t even Mildly Annoyed at the Machine. It’s more like, “Jah bless, let’s blaze a fattie and watch cartoons and listen to 311!” This even fails the “if it’s not worse than Audioslave, we can safely ignore it” test. These granola munchers need to stick with Crosby, Stills and Nash and leave Rage Against the Machine to the true progressives. You know, like Michael Moore and, um, chain-smoking French DJs.
Here’s current Turisas accordionist Netta Skog playing a cover of Nightwish’s “Dead to the World” in a competition that was aired on Finnish television. Skog is only 17 years old now, which puts her at about 15 at the time this clip was shot, but our fascination with this is more of a “WTF?” thing than a “pedo” thing. How many wrongs make a right? There’s too many wrongs to count in this picture but the result is so very right. Like that opening “riff” = totally bitchin’.
Let me tell you about my friend Dan. He’s a semi-observant Jew, but he also worships at the altar of Cliff Burton. Dan listens to Ride the Lightning every day while he’s in the shower, driving in his car, reading the newspaper and cooking dinner. He listens to it at work, too (as a part of an extended playlist with Kill ‘Em All and Master of Puppets) — he just turns the volume down on his speakers to avoid annoying his co-workers. Dan eats, drinks and sleeps Ride the Lighting every single day of the year except for the first night of Passover when, in accordance to some tradition he probably made up when he was 11, he only listens to “Creeping Death.” Like, a bunch of times during the day and then once more right before the start of the seder, at full blast, because “Elijah is the original headbanger.” I haven’t spoken to Dan for a few years, so for all I know, he could be reading this post while eating a B.L.T. and listening to St. Anger. But in case you’re wondering why this night is different from all other nights, here’s a few reasons:
Bullet for My Valentine, “Creeping Death” (Metallica cover)
According to The End, Japanese black metal act Sigh have just recorded a 6-song EP of Venom covers called Sigh’s Tribute to Venom. This will come as a huge surprise to anyone who got their hands on a copy of Sigh’s last tribute to Venom (also called, um, Sigh’s Tribute to Venom) that came out as a 6-song EP in 1995. But the tracklist is different, and the versions of live staples “Black Metal,” “Schizo” and “Witching Hour” have now been rerecorded with new sax player Dr. Mikannibal. Let’s face it: no one needs to listen to Venom doing Venom anymore. It’s just too sad. But Mirai Kawashima and the rest of the members of Sigh taking a step away from orchestral arrangements and getting down and dirty with some “roots” metal is the sonic equivalent of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crusts cut off. Sounds good any time of day. Mirai needs to cut his hair, tho’. He’s starting to pay homage to the Cronos hairline… and that’s not a good look for anyone. Sorry, Devin Townsend.
Lita Ford played guitar in the Runaways and opened for Sabbath in ‘82, but Joan Jett’s still on the road while she’s at home popping out Jim Gillette’s babies. Vh1 still plays “Close My Eyes Forever” a ton, of course, but sometimes it seems like Viacom’s contractual obligation to keeping Ozzy in the limelight is responsible for that. It’s easy to forget how successful Lita Ford was as a solo artist (especially after Sharon Osbourne stepped into the picture); don’t even pretend like the video for “Kiss Me Deadly” didn’t make you want to jerk off in a sock. Where’s the Shania Twain cover, and why haven’t any American Idol “rock” wannabes taken a crack at this one? Who knows, but how about Reel Big Fish, Damone (featuring cameo-whore Butch Walker) and sad sack Matt Nathanson instead? Thanks to the Deciblog, your weekend just got a whole lot cornier! Uh huh, it ain’t no big thing.
Fall Out Boy played a secret show in Buffalo (as “Schrute Farms”) this past November and invited hometown hero Keith Buckley (of Every Time I Die) to rock vocals on a cover of Pantera’s “Walk.” Then the flamewar began. Some scene kid’s video response on YouTube has a higher rating than the song itself. Admittedly, the footage from the concert ain’t that hot, but Fall Out Boy’s version of “Walk” isn’t Panterrible. It sounds pretty much like “Walk,” which satisfies the criteria for any Pantera cover: versimilitude. It’s definitely not deserving of the usual meathead “Dimebag should rise from the dead and kill those fucking bastards, what a disgrace to music and what a lack of respect to Pantera” comments. David Draiman had the right idea when interviewed about “tensions” between Disturbed and Avenged Sevenfold over their covers of “Walk”: who fucking cares? Besides, the myth of Pantera being above reproach is ridiculous : Pantera routinely performed “Walk” with the likes of Sully Erma and Damageplan flogged the song without Anselmo. Metal Injection’s dissection of the cult of Pantera was spot-on. But I’d like to add: If Dimebag was still around, he’d be jamming “Walk” on the second stage of Ozzfest with Andrew WK and Kelly Osbourne, laying down licks for Keith Urban’s metal covers album and waving a glow stick during Sasha and Digweed’s acid house remix of “Walk.” Now where’s the hand-farting version?
Fall Out Boy w/ Keith Buckley, “Walk” [Live in Buffalo 11/19/07]
Avenged Sevenfold, “Walk” [Live at Rock Am Ring 2006]
Motörhead: great for dinner parties, battle of the bands entries, set filler, whatever. Always a classy choice, never goes out of style. And if you’re true metal warriors like Sodom, “Ace of Spades” is an absolute must; the group’s cover has been the centerpiece/obvious crowd pleaser for a few years now. Turns out, Sodom does a pretty good Motörhead. And they do an even better Motörhead when Abbath from Immortal joins in on vocals, as in the clip from this year’s Inferno Festival. Since Sodom can’t have all the back-door fun, we’ve added a couple of other “interesting” interpretations of this classic for the sake of comparison.
