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.