Most of this makes Dwell's Show No Mercy tribute CD look great, with poor vocal peformances abound. Rather surprised no one took a stab at "I Wanna Be Somebody."
1. Dracena - Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)
Fine musically--I think this song is actually well suited for a more extreme cover. However, it's immediately obvious the vocals are female and they bring things down tremendously.
2. Denial of God - Hellion
First, let me say I have always wished this band's music was better. Tornado was a consistently good 'zine, they made some interesting lyrical theme and cover song choices, and I agree with most of the viewpoints presented in their interviews. Unfortunately, the majority of their music strikes me as mediocre black metal, and they show a disturbing lack of metal sense sometimes (ie pictures on the first mCD).
Anyway, this is a simplified version of my favorite W.A.S.P. song with unenthusiastic BM vocals.
3. Stos - L.O.V.E. Machine
Disappointing coming from such a veteran band. The tempo is slightly slower and makes everything seem off, and the heavily accented vocals are very distracting.
4. Holy Death - Running Wild in the Streets
Seems to have good potential at first, but once those vocals start...I'm not big on the original's vocals, but the croaking/growling here just doesn't work.
5. Ceremonial Castings - Sleeping in the Fire
Starts out corny, with the vocals at the beginning sounding like someone trying to parody a male with a deep voice. Becomes a black metal cover which isn't great but at least feels more enthusiastic than some of the other offerings. It seems like the guitar solos were played on synth, which I was initially going to scoff at, but they're pretty faithfully played and I'll fully admit that it's a wiser choice than attempting a bad guitar version.
6. Blackies - Rock and Roll to Death
This is an Italian W.A.S.P. cover band, so musically the cover is very good even though it's later W.A.S.P. material I don't care about. Unfortunately, this is also an Italian W.A.S.P. cover band with shrill female vocals.
7. Victimizer - Tormentor
Serviceable extreme metal version. Nothing particularly special though, so it's very telling when this is still one of the best songs on the tribute.
8. This Tangled Web - The Headless Children
Fantastic interpretation musically. I think they were going for a doom/death version but it definitely brings Tony Martin-era Sabbath to mind. On the downside, the main vocals are a bit too croaky and hoarse, making me wish they had just used generic DM or BM vocals.
9. Impaler - On Your Knees
Rise of the Mutants had snotty, punkish vocals which were pretty tolerable there. Here they've morphed into lameness with a silly hickish inflection to boot (this should have been listed as "On Yo' Knees").
10. Captain T & Ostronomy - The Real Me
Yeah, technically a cover of The Who (at least the liner notes correctly credit Pete Townshend). The vocals have a definite Paul Stanley vibe to them, although the singer throws in some exaggerated over the top mannerisms which mimic what Blackie does even though he doesn't sound like him. This has much more of a freewheeling rock'n'roll atmosphere than the W.A.S.P. version. As a The Who cover it's pretty good.
11. Crystal Viper - Wild Child
Overall, pretty good, although it's sorely missing the rawness of Blackie's voice.
12. Exekrator - The Flame
Has those stupid shrill vocals a lot of their own material suffers from, which make this sound like a parody version.
No comments:
Post a Comment