Trollheart

Two years on, another Priest album, but this one would stretch the patience of many of their fans as the band decided to go in a more commercial, radio-friendly direction. Again. But this time more in-your-face, with guitar synths and more grounded lyrics. A love/hate album, this one has divided opinion ever since it was released, nearly thirty years ago now.

Turbo (1986)

The title track, as such, gets us underway as “Turbo lover” screams in, but you can already hear the insidious presence of the synthesisers. A hard drumbeat ushers the song in, but those bippy synth lines are already annoying. Halford's voice is more restrained, no screaming so far, nor growling. The song is kind of throwaway, and has a lot of AOR edges around it. It slows down near the end for an almost Meatloafesque choral passage, but does speed up before the end. Even so, it's kind of hard to equate Downing or Tipton's solos here with anything off any of the previous albums. Even Point of entry had better fretwork than this! Still, we are only one track in so I had better reserve my judgement for now.

“Locked in” has a more uptempo rock feel about it, but I don't really think I could comfortably call it metal. Kind of reminds me of later Tygers material when they went over to the AOR side of things. Okay, there are some very decent guitar solos here, nods back to the glory days of British steel and albums of that ilk. The synths are back for “Private property”, but they're pushed a little to the background after the opening salvo, and to be fair this has a great chorus and elicits some of the enthusiasm and swagger of previous Priest music. Probably the best track so far. Giving a finger to Tipper Gore and her pathetic PMRC, and echoing Floyd from six years ago Halford roars ”We don't need no parental guidance!” in the song of the same name. It's a fun ride, with some fine solos and an air-punching defiance about it, revenge for the controversy Gore and her self-appointed guardians of morality caused about “Eat me alive”.

Keeping the foot down hard on the throttle, “Rock you all around the world” is a good anthem with some screaming solos, and thankfully not too much if anything of the synthesisers in evidence, but they're very much in evidence for “Out in the cold”, which sounds like it could be a ballad. It's not though. Takes a while to get going, but when it does, it's very much a Foreigneresque mid-paced rocker, but it really does not sound like Priest at all. It does tick a lot of the boxes and it would probably be great on say a Night Ranger album, but I just don't hear Judas Priest in it. Halford's back to his Brian Johnson impression for “Wild nights, hot and crazy days” with certainly plenty of energy and power, but again there's that AOR/slightly Bon Jovi feel to the song that makes it seem like it's not one of theirs. Was it written for them? No, all songs written by the usual crew, so they can't blame an outside songwriter like Bob Halligan Jr for the terrible “(Take these) Chains” on Screaming for vengeance.

“Hot for love” is another kind of throwaway track, rock-by-the-numbers, very predictable and generic, right down to the guitar solo. There's a decent closer in “Reckless”, but the problem is that there's very little that's memorable on this album. It's all good hard rock, perhaps verging on heavy metal at times, but not enough to justify this as being a Judas Priest album. Something of a disappointment, though not as much as I had been led to believe.

TRACKLISTING

1. Turbo lover
2. Locked in
3. Private property
4. Parental guidance
5. Rock you all around the world
6. Out in the cold
7. Wild nights, hot and crazy days
8. Hot for love
9. Reckless

Coming hard on the heels of the superb Defenders of the faith this turns into something of a damp squib. That's not to say it's a bad album, but it's far from a worthy successor to their previous album. Led by music trends and I guess in search of radio airplay and even some more chart success, Rob and the lads decided to turn onto a different path, toning down the futuristic elements in their lyrics and focussing on more down-to-earth themes, but in doing so I think they lost a vital part of what is, or was, quintessentially Judas Priest. Hopefully it wasn't lost forever.

Oh yeah: this was also the album from which one of the tracks was picked to be included on the “Top Gun” soundtrack, but the band blocked its inclusion as they believed the film would be a flop. Hope you didn't bet too much money on that one, guys!

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As already mentioned, Wpnfire chose Reign in Blood as his number six, so this is his choice for number five on his Members' Top Ten list.

I've heard these guys for the first time when I checked out their latest album for the “Freshly Forged” section, but the one Wpnfire has chosen is their debut, from a quarter of a century ago.

Lost Paradise --- Paradise Lost --- 1990

Compared to their last and most recent album, the only one I've heard before this, I hear a much harsher, death or even black metal influence on this, with darker, more guttural vocals and a faster rhythm in songs like “Deadly inner sense” and “Breeding fear”, while the title track has a slower, doomier feel with a real air of hopelessness. Some great guitar work here but it's hardly a fun listen: “Internal torment”. “Breeding fear.” Rotting misery.” Nice. Music to hang yourself to? All very grinding, punishing, dark and unremittingly sour. Not expecting too much in the way of ballads, then!

I do hear female vocals in “Breeding fear”, which come as something of a relief to be honest; listening to some guy snarl and growl about how pointless life is is not my idea of a good time. At least the title track is a decent instrumental, so for a few minutes I don't have to listen to yer man but we're soon back to it as we close on “Internal torment II” --- what happened to Internal torment I? Don't ask me --- and all in all I'm pretty relieved when I can turn this album off. Very depressing and little to point the way to the band they would later become, if their new one is any gauge.

at number four we have a three track album...

Variations On a Theme --- Om --- 2005

Kind of a raw, buzzy sound to the guitars, though the vocal is clear enough. Even so, six minutes into the twenty-one this runs for I'm pretty bored. It's like listening to someone chanting over a repeating guitar riff, neither of which are particularly interesting. “On the mountain at dawn”, that's called. Pity they didn't stay there! Still, be thankful for small mercies, as it's the longest track on the album of three. Mind you, the other two aren't exactly short, at twelve minutes each. Oh no! I just realised: variations on a theme? So are the other two going to be versions of this opening track? Dear god! That would mean in effect another twenty-four minutes of this mind-numbing boredom.

It's kind of hard to tell really. It's slower, but the droning vocal is just the same, no hint of emotion or interest, just like a mindless chanting; nothing there to interest me. And now we're onto the last track, which .... sounds at least a little different, with a kind of boogie beat. Just found out there is no guitar on this album, only bass and drums, so I have to give them kudos for that; I thought that was a downtuned guitar. Still boring as all hell though. Not my cup of poison at all, and if Sleep, whom I see are at the top of his list, are like this, then I'm going to be singularly unimpressed with them too.

And again he's chosen one I've reviewed last year for his number three --- Metallica's Master of Puppets --- so that only leaves two albums on his list, which we will tackle in the final part of his, and the Members' lists, soon.

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Metal Massacre III, released in 1983

Track one: “Aggressive protector” (Slayer)

Yeah, about that: Come on, everyone knows Slayer. And if you don't, then check out my review of their studio discography from last year's Metal Month.

The track: Again, it's well known as one of Slayer's first, found as a bonus track on their debut EP, Haunting the Chapel, 1984

So where are they now? Other than losing Jeff Hanneman to cirrhosis of the liver, Slayer are still one of the loudest, fastest and aggressive metal bands in the world. They recently released their twelfth album.

Track two: “Riding in thunder” (Bitch)

Yeah, about that: See volume I

The track: It's ok. Plods a little, hasn't got the same energy as “Live for the whip” on the first volume. Vocals are a little weaker.

So where are they now? Again, see volume I

Track three: “Tyrant” (Armageddon)

Yeah, about that: Another band who chose a nmae used by many other bands, some of which are American, so it's virtually impossible for me to find out any information about them, as all the bands bearing that name that I've come across have been, well, not this band.

The track: This has a lot of promise. Big slow blues-style grinder, with a hint of doom metal in it, and the vocalist is well suited to that sort of metal, mostly snarling the words out. Gorgeous little bassline there near the end, leading a smoking blues break to fade.

So where are they now? Could not tell you.

Track four: “Piranhas” (Medusa)

Yeah, about that: California band, chose another name that has been well used, even by a British NWOBHM band, which confused me at first. Released one EP and one demo.

The track: Short, fast and unremarkable. Meh.

So where are they now? Just a guess, but I expect they went their separate ways after failing to achieve fame and fortune.

Track five: “Bite the knife” (Test Pattern)

Yeah, about that: No information of any kind I'm afraid

The track: Now this is just brilliant! Old school, no-nonsense, heads down metal with a killer guitar solo. Sweet.

So where are they now? Probably disbanded, though I can't say for certain

Track six: “Blitzkrieg” (Black Widow)

Yeah, about that: Oddly, I thought I knew (of) this band, but there is nothing on them, other than a much later band called Black Widow USA, who are definitely not these guys.

The track: Powerful guitar assault in the Maiden/Helloween vein, seems to be an instrumental. Only the second we've had in this series so far.

So where are they now? Shrug.

Track seven: “Mrs Victoria” (Warlord)

Yeah, about that: See volume II

The track: Much better than the other track. Very progressive, has a great melody, strong vocals and some really nice keys. Crazy ending.

So where are they now? See volume II

Track eight: “Let's go all the way” (Virgin Steele)

Yeah, about that: Everyone knows who Virgin Steele are, right?

The track: Slightly retitled for the Guardians of the Flame album to “Go all the way”.

So where are they now? Still churning out superior power metal albums, with their thirteenth out this year.

Track nine: “Fire and wind” (Sexist)

Yeah, about that: Although not too much is known of them, they do seem to have had both Jake E. Lee and future GNR axeman Gilby Clarke in their ranks. Only released one demo but oddly this was not on it.

The track: Not bad at all. Some nice vocal harmonies, good heavy feel without being blisteringly fast or too aggressive. Twin guitars work well.

So where are they now? Changed their name to Letchen Grey, released one EP in 1986 and promptly buggered off.

Track ten: “Hell bent” (Znowhite)

Yeah, about that: The band who did so little to impress me last year on the “Don't listen to that --- listen to this!” section. In seven years together they only managed one solitary album before splitting up and becoming various other bands.

The track: The shortest track on any of the compilations so far, at one minute and forty-nine seconds. Also the fastest (yeah, even allowing for Slayer!); almost punk, as I think I remarked last year about their album.

So where are they now? Looks like they split up after their one album in 1987.

Track eleven: “The kid” (Marauder)

Yeah, about that: Nothing I can tell you really.

The track: Bit basic really, nothing special.

So where are they now? Dunno.

Track twelve: “Fist and chain” (La Mort)

Yeah, about that: Again, no information.

The track: It's all right. Powerful but nothing to write home about.

So where are they now? As a band? Gotta say, dead. Sorry.

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Wpnfire

I don't know where in the world you got that from, Hanneman died from liver failure.

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Trollheart

I've almost completed your top ten albums and this is what you choose to post? Alright, so I was wrong, got confused with all the research I've been doing. I'm not perfect. Happy you proved me wrong? Feel better?

Note: If I sound bitter, I am. I've worked damn hard on this and it's a bit annoying to get people throwing their penn'orth in ONLY to correct me. Where have you been the last two weeks, huh?

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Wpnfire

... I think you'll feel better once you listen to Among the Living, and after you hear the dismal Ram It Down, you get to listen to Painkiller in Priest's discography.

Also, I don't know when you write these reviews, but you shouldn't listen to Dopesmoker with the speakers on your '98 Macintosh G3. As Batty said a while ago, doom metal and its related genres have to be listened to very loudly.

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Well there is a problem as you probably know. I can't play music too loud, as my sis sleeps during the day. I can't use headphones for the same reason (in case she wakes up and needs me, and as a case in point in case anyone thinks that's being overprotective, she almost choked this evening. Luckily I could help her through it, so that's the sort of thing I need to be constantly on the alert for, even when I go to bed!) so I'm restricted. I do however use a Harman/Kardon amp with two decent Sanyo speakers, but as I say I can't blast the music, so yeah, maybe I don't get the full effect (that was kind of evident when I listened to Diamanda Galas yesterday) but it's the best I can do.

Also, I have neighbours, and they're very nice. She's uber-hot, so I wouldn't want to upset her.

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Damn it! I really wanted to review Virgin Steele's new one, but they've made it very hard to get access to without actually buying the thing: not on Spotify, not on Google Play Music and not even on YouTube! So I have to go with something else. Ah, this will do. Bit of Doom Metal for a change.

The Plague Within --- Paradise Lost --- 2015 (Century Media)

Introduction: We've actually just encountered these guys in Wpnfire's top ten yesterday, and I have to say I was not that impressed, but I'm trying to keep a reasonably varied balance in this section, and so far we've had Power, Progressive, Death, Thrash and Black Metal, so I guess it's only fair to give Doom a go. This is Paradise Lost's fourteenth album, believe it or not, and the British outfit have been going since 1988, with their debut album released in 1990. Will they have changed that much since that debut? Let's find out.

Track-by-track

1. No hope in sight: Ah, what cheery titles! Still, this is Doom Metal after all. Hardly gonna be singing about their sweet baby now are they? Music to be fair is more uptempo than I was expecting, vocals are growly but then aren't they always in Doom Metal? Decent melody, quite like this. Actually, now we're getting cleaner vocals. Great grindy guitar work. Good to see that none of the tracks are a thousand years long, as in much music in this subgenre. Nothing over six minutes I can see. Well, one, but just by a few seconds. Good opener.
2. Terminal: Again, faster than I expect Doom Metal to be. Not at all plodding like I thought it would be. Some really nice riffs here, almost a style of boogie at times. Vocals this time do appear to be all cookie monster ones though.
3. An eternity of lies: This one is fucking immense. Almost progressive at the start (Progressive Doom?) with a really nice clear vocal. Slower, yes, but not going at a snail's pace
4. Punishment through time: Another great rockin' guitar intro, vocals this time are kind of half way between growl and snarl, but you can hear them fine. The pause is great, then the guitars kick up really well.
5. Beneath broken earth: I'm pretty much enjoying everything on this so far. Halfway through and I have no complaints at all. This song is heavier, slower but still bitchin'. Great menace in the vocal.
6. Sacrifice the flame: Now you can tell me that's not violin (none credited) and I'll argue with you. There is no way anyone, no matter how great a guitarist he may be, can make that sound on a guitar. There must be either a violinist or perhaps even a string section playing on this track at least. Gives it a really haunting feeling. One of the best on the album so far.
7. Victim of the past: More violins (they have to be violins) with mostly clean vocals, slower but again not sludgy or plodding.
8. Flesh from bone: Another great rockin' track, stomping rhythm
9. Cry out: Closest to traditional metal here with a real boogie vibe
10. Return to the sun: Big choir, very dramatic feel to this one. Seems like it could be a really powerful closer. Yeah. It's completely brilliant.

Conclusion: For a Doom Metal album I expected something much slower and drearier, and was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. Nothing at all like the debut; I wonder if they changed their sound that dramatically over twenty-five years? Maybe there's hope yet. Not, I'll grant you, a word you normally see associated with doom metal, but this was quite a revelation (now that's a word you do see associated with doom metal!) Seriously, great work guys!

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We know Christian metal exists. We know that Black Metal exists. But is it possible that Christian Black Metal could be a thing? Surely not. Actually, yes. Yes it is. The idea of one of the most overtly anti-Christian subgenres in metal being used to sing the praises of the very god it purports to hate (if it even believes in Him) is so unlikely as to send you out buying a lottery ticket with a good feeling. But yes, it does exist. Back in 1990, there were bands and musicians who, although they loved the heavy, chaotic and dark themes of black metal, were either Christians or just disliked the idea of attacking God and Christianity, and so they formed a new subgenre.

Originally labelled “white metal” by Metal Blade Records owner Brian Slagen when Trouble released their Bible-inspired Psalm 9 album, a label Trouble's vocalist Eric Wagner described as “a bunch of crap”, the term unblack metal was taken by bands like Horde and Antestor, who sprang up in 1990, with the only member of the former, Jayson Sherlock, recording Horde's first album The Holy Black under the name Anonymous, possibly as a fuck-you to Mayhem founder and guitarist, the late Euronymus, who was mentioned in the original Metal Month, you may remember, when I wrote an editorial called “It's only rock and roll ... isn't it?”

Slowly, and very few in number, other bands began to adopt this image, but there was no great sudden breakout or movement of unblack metal until the twenty-first century, when black metal itself was beginning to struggle slightly and had lost its stranglehold over the Scandivaian metal scene. Much of this reluctance to form any sort of movement was due to the overt hostility, both from black metal bands and their fans, towards bands they felt were, consciously or unconsciously, mocking their traditions and, in the best tradition of fascism and racist rhetoric, polluting their purity. Euronymous even threatened Antestor, when they were known as Crush Evil, trying to force them to disband, but the eternal Ouroboros of black metal intervened as a dispute between him and Varg Vikernes resulted in the Mayhem guitarist's murder. Fans sent death threats to the offices of Nuclear Blast Records, who were signing the few unblack metal bands who popped up, so life was not easy for them, nor I assume for their fans, and I can imagine they played few if any live shows.

They remain few in number, and many have already either broken up or moved in other directions. But in 2000 there was an increase as other countries began to get in on the act, such as South America, the USA and Central Europe. The usage of the term “unblack metal” has caused some problems too, where some of the bands prefer not to associate their music with black metal at all, and describe their sound as everything from “unblack holy metal” to “sorrow metal” and of course the obvious and again somewhat contradictory “Christian black metal”.

At some point next year, I may explore this in more detail but for now I want to focus on just the one band and the one album. Like many Norwegian black metal bands, they a) released only two albums b) released what is accepted to be something of a classic in the subgenre for their debut c) changed direction for their second album and d) are now split up. They sing (!) in their native Norwegian, so on the surface there might not seem to be that big a difference, as with most black metal bands I can never understand the singer unless I have a lyric sheet handy and he's singing in English --- they could be praising Satan and arranging for twenty-four virgins to be sacrificed, or screaming their shopping list while complaining how hard it is to set the programme reminder for Gray's Anatomy for all I know! --- but luckily I not only have a lyric sheet but a translation, so it will be interesting to hear just exactly what unblack metal bands sing about. I mean, Horde do apparently have a song called “Release and clothe the sacrificial virgin”. I'm not kidding.


Spirit of Purity --- Sanctifica --- 2000 (Little Rose Productions)

So what are we to make of an unblack metal album? Well, firstly I can see the songs are all pretty short relatively: nothing over five minutes. In my admittedly limited experience of black metal, the songs tend to be longer, though in fairness this is truer of atmospheric black metal, as we're seeing in the “What's that all about?” section. Sanctifica were not a one-man show, and while this is by no means a requirement or even representative of black metal, I have found that many of the artistes in this subgenre tend to prefer to work alone, or maybe with one other person. This band had a lineup of five full members. They also used keyboards, which again, some black metal bands did and do, but generally they seem to tend to go more for the basic, I guess more brutal setup of guitar (one or more), bass and drums.

But it will of course be in the lyrics that we will see the difference. I'm assuming that if Satan is named at all, it will be with either hate or a sense of trying to turn the listener from His dread influence, and I'm also expecting that, contrary to the often doom-laden, hopeless and angry approach in black metal lyrics, this should focus more on joy, life as something to be lived, the everlasting glory of God, and so on. Basically, it should be, lyrically if not musically, everything that black metal both is not, and also strives against. The very anathema, again only lyrically, of the darkest subgenre of heavy metal.

It's almost a hymn as we begin, with church organ keyboard but then it suddenly explodes into that familiar, blindingly-fast, powerful and chaotic sound we associate so much with black metal, and yes, if I didn't have translations of the lyrics I would be totally ignorant as to what was being sung, as Hubertus Liljegren sings exactly as you would expect any black metal vocalist to sing: screechy, sibilant hissing that would make it next to impossible to make out any words were he actually singing in English. But the lyric to “Riket (The Empire)” betray his Christian ideals, as he appeals to God and not Satan: ”Break O Lord, surpass and rout the power/ And dominion of darkness.” The music though, is a lot worse (as it were) than a lot of the black metal I've heard, and were it not for the purposes of research for this article this is not something I would listen to.

Oh, I'm wrong: he is singing in English. Apparently. The first song just had some Swedish lines in it. Now we can hear (with the aid of the lyric sheet) the true difference as he declares ”Like the dew of the morning delivers the cold shape of night/ As rays of hope brings a dawn of freedom/ Emperor of universe release my bonds /And set me free by the blood of Christ.” Euronymus must be spinning in his grave! He'd probably approve of the music though: hard, fast, a real assault of guitar drums and bass, and the vocals just the kind of thing the Mayhem guitarist probably liked to unwind to after a hard day's burning down churches and eating babies. In “Released from pain”, Liljegren encounters ”A lamb, nailed to a cross” but whereas any self-respecting black metal musician would laugh and carry on, or maybe tear its head off, our man falls to his knees and begs for peace and forgiveness. It's hard to get your head around, I can tell you. Sort of like that rabbit in Monty Python, though reversed I guess. Like being mugged by a kitten.

Jesus again comes to Liljegren's rescue in the title track, which is one of the longer ones, at six and a half minutes, as he exults ”The demons of darkness cannot fight him/ His power is eternal.” It's interesting, but the problem I have is that as black metal goes, it's down there with the worst of them musically. I mean, I'm no fan of the subgenre but I've been listening to some of it over the last few months, and some has impressed me. Some has not. This does not. It's too samey, too chaotic and too unfocussed. The lyrics are the only interesting things about the songs that I can see, and even then, once you get over the initial novelty of hearing him praying to and praising God rather than trying to destroy or deny Him, it's fairly much the same thing all through the album: save me Jesus, you are the King, I love you, you will save me, and so on. There's a reason why Christian metal is often very boring, and this is it. If you're going to do nothing more than essentially praise god in every song, your audience is going to run out of patience pretty quickly. And it's happening here.

What I liked about a band like Theocracy or Narnia is that they used Christianity but did not rely solely on it for their lyrics, and they know how to expand and branch out from simple worship of God in every song. Liljegren, it would appear, never learned that lesson. At least, I'm halfway through the album and he hasn't so I can probably safely assume he didn't suddenly “see the light” (pun intended – whaddya mean, what pun?) over the next four tracks. In fairness, the music is getting a little more cohesive, even symphonic here near the end of the title track, so maybe there's hope for this album yet. “Allhärskare” (The Emperor) directly contravenes the likes of Quorthon by welcoming Jesus into the Scandinavian lands and swearing fealty to Him: ”Your spirit is sweeping over the nordic realm./Your light will shine forever/ Master over the whole universe/ You are our emperor, our father.” The music is decent too, kind of slower and marching with some stuttering guitar and hammering drums. He sings this one in Swedish too.

“Landscape” opens with a really nice piano intro, but soon blasts out into a fullblown black metal assault with some gothic/symphonic and even power overtones. Funnily enough, if you didn't know this was unblack metal the lyrics could be taken as proper black metal ones, as the sentiments --- giving your life to a power greater than you, talking about its mastery over you and the world --- kind of reflect what black metal lyrics drive at, and Liljegen could as easily be singing about Satan as Christ here. On the other hand, “The dark embrace of night”, while on the surface a black metal song title, is all about God protecting His creatures from the dark and sending the sun back in the morning to illuminate their lives. You wouldn't know it of course from the melody, such as it is. The album then ends on the longest track, seven minutes of “The wanderer”.

Replete with woe, decisions to be made and confusion in the heart, the song again could be a poem to Satan but for the final lines, which I'll get to in a moment. But right now I'm intrigued by lines that seem to throw into sharp relief Liljergen's pain at trying to walk a line between Christianity and black metal, when he moans ”I met many who claimed the smaller path to be the better /Yet most men seem to choose the other.” Perhaps even here he may be thinking of changing tack, not to pure black metal of course, but in a more progressive metal direction, as was apparently evidenced on their next, and last, album. The intro to this is certainly far more prog metal, with its sweeping keyboard soundscape that takes up the first ninety seconds of the song, though then the band pound on into their normal unblack metal territory. Even so, the song has changes and shifts that do mirror closely those in prog metal. He even changes to “clean” vocals right at the end. It's almost as if he's unsure what he wants to do, though he makes it clear in the final lines that his allegiance has not changed, when he speaks the last words of The Lord's Prayer, ending on the ultimate affirmation of Christianity, ”Amen”.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Riket (The Empire)
2. The dark desires
3. Released from pain
4. Spirit of purity
5. Allhärskaren
6. Landscape
7. The dark embrace of night
8. The wanderer

I'm in two minds. After hearing this album I'm not sure I'm still that eager to explore this weird sub(sub?)genre further, and yet it is only one album, and who's to say what other surprises lie in the shadowy-but-not-shadowy world of unblack metal? Perhaps I'll check it out further in 2016. For now, it's been an interesting, if not quite an eye-opening experience, and as Kyle says:

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Speaking of when worlds collide, time to take our final look at the weird hybrid children that emerge when, often against all reason and sanity, and for reasons best known to the artistes that decide to,
METAL GOES

Glam metal of course would be another subgenre that would eat this kind of thing up. After all, it's not a million miles away from pop, and is kind of often looked on as the pop of metal. No surprise then that glam metal band The Poodles from Sweden would tackle a pop song on their very first album. Perhaps more of a surprise as to which one they went for.

“Dancing with tears in my eyes” by The Poodles, from the album Metal Will Stand Tall, 2006.
Originally by Ultravox, from the album Lament, 1984.
Written by Midge Ure, Chris Cross, Warren Cann and Billy Currie.

Ultravox certainly hit it big in the early eighties with songs like “The Voice”, “Reap the wild wind” and of course “Vienna”, which was a number one smash for them and became their signature tune. I'd have loved to have heard a glam metal take on that, but instead they've gone for the more pumping, uptempo song from Ultravox's seventh album, twenty-two years after it was originally released.

Naturally it's guitar driven, rawer and punchier, losing a lot of the smoothness and class of the original, though they do have piano on it. Perhaps not as prominent as it should be. Okay version but nothing special.

You wouldn't expect to see Cradle of Filth aligned with anything pop, but there again you go. Guess even the darkest of us can have the odd light moment, and in 2006 Dani decided what the hell and recorded a cover of one of the hits of 1983, one of the few for this band it must be said.

“Temptation” by Cradle of Filth, from the album Thornography, 2006.
Originally by Heaven 17 from the album The Luxury Gap, 1983.
Written by Glenn Gregory, Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware.

Never a huge fan of Heaven 17 --- well, let's be honest: I was a rocker; I thought all bands like this were what my mate Jim called “puff bands”, and I didn't give them the time of day --- though it is interesting now (didn't know it at the time) that backing vocals were provided for this by Carol Kenyon, who has worked with people like Pet Shop Boys, Go West, Duran Duran, Tears For Fears and even Floyd! It will be interesting to see what Cradle of Filth did with it, especially considering they did not have the inestimable talents of Ms. Kenyon to rely on, as much of the song, as I remember it, rides on her orgasmic shriek in the chorus.

Oh this is good! Dani's trademark sinister rasp opens the song, with sort of dark, echoey drums and then heavy guitar, with a dark growl repeating the “Temptation”, and they use the vocal talents of rock singer Dirty Harry, who while she is no Carol Kenyon, adds a female snarl to the vocal. Definitely one of the best covers I've come across yet. Darkens up a song that is sort of dark in the first place, but takes it to another whole level.

And keeping with the more extreme side of metal, let's have a look at what happens when a metalcore/melodic death metal band takes on one of the coolest, most laidback of the rap hits of the 80s.

“Gangsta's Paradise” by Artas, from the album The Healing, 2008.
Originally by Coolio from the album Gangsta's Paradise and also the Dangeous Minds OST, both 1995.
Written by Stevie Wonder, Coolio, Doug Rasheed and Larry Sanders

This is the first I've heard of a metal band covering a rap song, and certainly the first metalcore cover, so I imagine this is going to be interesting. I know nothing of Artas, but they seem to have released two albums since 2008, this being their debut, and they come from Austria. Coolio, of course, made this song famous on the framework of “Pastime Paradise” by Stevie Wonder, which is I guess why Wonder has a writing credit for it.

Well it certainly hammers along, not even recognisable at the start, then a death vocal which again bears little resemblance to the original song. Very harsh, very raw, very ragged. Okay I can make out the chorus, and it becomes a little more familiar for a while, but it's played at such speed and with such ferocity and anger that it's hard to make out much of it. Be interesting to see again how the middle eighth plays out. Okay well he just shouts it but the guitar is pared right back, so you can make it out okay. Chaotic but pretty good overall.

Back to power metal we go. They seem to cover these pop songs the best, and Iron Savior are another band who took a shot at a classic pop tune, in this case one made popular by Seal. No, not that one!

“Crazy” by Iron Savior, from the album Condition Red, 2002.
Originally by Seal, from the album Seal, 1991.
Written by Seal and Guy Sigsworth.

This is a song I know well. Not a huge fan, again, of Seal but I do like some of his work. This of course was a massive hit for him and covered many times, but I wonder if it was ever given exactly this type of treatment before?

Guitar replaces synth with a rocking opening, a decent vocal that doesn't change the song too much. Keeps the basic funk element with the bass, good group vocal chorus. The expected guitar solo of course, fades out which I would have preferred not to have happened, but overall yeah, a decent cover.

Time to head to Hungary – what? Yeah, Hungary, where a band who go by the name of Nevergreen have been quietly churning out albums since 1994, and then in 2009, on their eighth album, did this.

“Frozen” by Nevergreen, from the album Új birodalom or New Empire, 2009.
Originally by Madonna, from the album Ray of Light, 1998.
Written by Madonna and Patrick Leonard.

This one could be interesting. Up until 2004 Nevergreen's albums and lyrics were all in Hungarian, although even back as far as 2002's Ezer világ őre they were covering pop songs, with Depeche Mode's “Strange love” and in 2007 they took a stab at Black's one-hit-wonder “Wonderful life” on Erős Mint A Halál (Strong as Death), so they have some experience with pop music covers.

Very orchestral, dramatic keyboard motif leading the song, and the vocal is dark but not too growly, then guitars cut in and again although I'm not too familiar with the original I think they do a good job, departing just enough from Madonna's version to differentiate theirs from it.

Strange name for a band, possibly hard to Google if you look for it as it's stylised, but To/Die/For from Finland also tapped into the trend for covering pop songs in 2003, taking one of, if not the best known songs from The Cutting Crew, if not my own personal favourite. I'm more a “I've been in love before” guy personally. But they went for the bigger hit, not that surprisingly.

“I just died in your arms tonight” by To/Die/For, from the album Jaded, 2003.
Originally by Cutting Crew, from the album Broadcast, 1986.
Written by Nick Van Eede.


Starts with that familiar keyboard arpeggio, gets a bit heavier and they change the lyric very slightly, but then the heaviness kind of slips away and it's very much a pop song again. In fact, I'd say Van Eede puts more passion into his version than the singer does here. Kind of weak really. Good enough guitar solo, but they could have amped it up a little. Hug? More like shrug.

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