You can’t judge a book by its cover… But a band?
Death Metal covers of some of the best metal songs ever recorded. After reading that first line, I know what you’re thinking. "Another cover album? Get stuffed," Well, hear me out.
I'm not one that would pick a cover album to listen to, let alone try to write a review on, but I saw the brutal track list and couldn't help myself. With top shelf tracks by bands such as 'Mercyful Fate' to 'Metallica' and 'Slayer', the music that was used as a substitute for nursery rhymes when I wouldn't sleep as a baby, I had to give it a listen to see if the Death Metal element would be an improvement to my childhood favourites or turn everything into unbearable white noise.
Just in case you're wondering, I'm 19, so these bands had been around since way before I was born.
'Six Feet Under' chose some great tracks to work with, and by adding their own style to them, they made an album that any metal fan should be proud to add to their collection. They get the music sounding pretty close to the original but in a much heavier way, and they do this without speeding it up which is good, alongside this there are the growling vocals typical to Death Metal, provided by Chris Barnes ( Ex 'Cannibal Corpse').
The mixture of great, pre-existing metal songs and death metal creates another album that will go down in headbanging history. I wouldn't go as far to say they have taken something good and made it better, after all, nothing can be better than the original ( except maybe Turisas's cover of Boney M's "Rasputin" ), but they did well.
If your one of those people that would refuse to listen to this album on account of it being full of covers, give this a chance. At least it won't be the 100th time you've heard a cover of 'Sweet Dreams' or 'Brick In The Wall', and there's no Brittany Spears to embarrass you. Haha.
If you like this album you should check out Graveyard Classics 1, Graveyard Classics 2 is questionable though, as it is just their rendition of AC/DC's 'Back In Black',
Well, as I said this is a great album, the only thing missing is a cover of 'Fucking Hostile' or 'Cemetery Gates' by Pantera. Another downside, although a forgivable one I’m sure, is Barnes’ monotonous vocal style, and the strange noise he produces where the higher notes should be sung. But when compared to such classics as ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ he definitely does a much better job with SFU.
Track List and Original Artist:
1) A Dangerous Meeting - Mercyful Fate
2) Metal on Metal – Anvil
3) The Frayed Ends of Sanity – Metallica
4) At Dawn They Sleep – Slayer
5) Not Fragile – Bachman Turner Overdrive
6) On Fire – Van Halen
7) Pounding Metal- Exciter
8) Destroyer – Twisted Sister
9) Psychotherapy – The Ramones
10) Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck – Prong
(Metal Blade Records/Riot! Entertainment)
