What artiste do you think least inspires a metal cover? Well, tons probably, but given the fact that they were the mainstay of the disco ,movement in the seventies, I think The Bee Gees qualify to be right there at the front of the queue. And so do these guys, who have built a semi-career on metalling up their music.
We Rock Sweet Balls and Can Do No Wrong --- Tragedy --- 2008
With a new album in the pipeline for this year (the video released from it lampoons the Grease hit by Olivia Newton-John and John Travlota, “You're the one that I want”) Tragedy have released four albums, of which this was their debut. Not all of them feature music by the Bee Gees, but most do, and those that don't tackle the soft-pop/disco music of other artistes such as Neil Diamond, ABBA and KC and the Sunshine Band. They also number a Barry Gibb in their ranks, but although this would be hilarious, I've checked his Wiki page and find no reference to Tragedy (other than the song of course) so must conclude the guy here is just using his name or, perhaps in a staggering coincidence, it's his real name. Either way, they're a five-piece (unless you count “Lance: towel boy, complete idiot”), most of whom use or have a variation on a Bee Gees name --- Andy “Gibbous” Waning, The Lord Gibbeth, Mo'Royce Peterson etc --- and all of whom, of course, sing lead vocals. Sounds like this could be a blast.
Great guitar boogie and then a voice which may not be as high as the original (could anyone be?) but he gives it a go. No idea who's singing of course, but it's really funny. The fast percussion really works. Definite feel of G&R covering this. Great ending and into “Jive talkin'” as you've never heard it before. Big hammering guitar before we move into the main riff, though we only get the main keyboard motif once, which is a pity. Supplemented with a great guitar solo though, so I'll forgive them. Okay, we get it twice; it's also right at the end. Now this is going to be interesting: “How deep is your love” gets another punching guitar makeover and there is of course nothing of the soft, sweet orchestral keyboard from the original; it's like they're kicking and battering it and dragging it through the muck. Lovely.
Some very good vocal harmonies, as I guess you'd expect, but Tragedy really hit their stride in the midsection of this song, and although it's nothing like the slushy ballad it originated as, it's not unrecognisable. Not quite. Great guitar riff to close and we're into “You should be dancing”. Oh this is going to be good. With a power metal march and squealing guitars we suddenly get quite a falsetto vocal (fair play to whoever is taking the mike at this point) and we get a real fretfest in the middle which really rocks the song up. You should be headbanging, perhaps? There's a great guitar-backed section then in the third minute (this version runs for over seven!) which sounds somehow ominous, and then shouted group vocals “Dance!” and then we get a Black Metalesque oration, firmly in its mouth. This is fu
cking incredible. Dance to the apocalypse. F
uck, yeah! Definite standout so far. It even ends on the riff from “Iron Man”. Unbe-f
ucking-lievable!
I actually don't know “Our love – don't throw it away”, but it seems to be a ballad and they actually use the piano here, courtesy of Disco Mountain Man, then Mo'Royce Peterson's guitar snarls in and it takes off, a power ballad with real power! Maybe a little too long at just over six minutes, but done very well. Seems like they're putting in a Southern Boogie style guitar solo here at the end. Now
that's how to do it! And just when you think it's ending on a soft little guitar riff, they throw in a power chord to bring it to a shuddering close. “More than a woman” thunders along on the guitar, with those great vocal harmonies and then we get one of the centrepieces surely, as they attack “Night fever” with a will. Big roaring guitar and a howling vocal before the song explodes all over the place with a real Iron Maiden feel and a cool solo from Peterson. “Shadow dancing” is, unfortunately, the other track on the album I don't know, so I can't really comment on it, other than to say it's a good guitar boogie with the vocal more or less back in Axl Rose territory.
Meh, it's okay but I would rather have had, I don't know, maybe “You win again” or something. Anyway we're now into “Too much Heaven”, which gets a total power ballad treatment, with a “Kashmir”-like rising guitar intro that somehow they make fit into the melody of the song. Fu
cking brilliant. Sitar-like guitar in the middle eighth and a group vocal chorus, be interesting to see if they can hit the high note at the end. Well, fu
ck me! They did! Back into “Kashmir” for the ending. We close, on what else but “Tragedy” itself, driven on a busy guitar line which does manage to capture the slightly manic sense of the original song as it rises, rises and rises in intensity and the guys certainly rise to the occasion. Superb. What a finish!
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
1. Stayin' alive
2. Jive talkin'
3. How deep is your love?
4. You should be dancing
5. Our love – don't throw it away
6. More than a woman
7. Night fever
8. Shadow dancing
9. Too much Heaven
10. Tragedy
It's hard to know whether these guys are poking fun at The Bee Gees or actually like them and want to record their music. They certainly remain true as they can to the originals, while still putting their own metal slant on them, with at times hilarious results. Whether they have just found a niche they can exploit, or are really trying to start a new subgenre, it would seem that on the basis of this and presumably the rest of their albums, which I intend to explore in due course, the phenomenon of what they term themselves on their fourth album, disco-metal, is here to stay!
And I couldn't be happier!