disc review: various artists | kerrang's "maiden heaven" (2008)

various artists
maiden heaven
07.2008
kerrang #1219 | £4.25

There's no labor to enjoying bands you know covering songs you know. No new vocal or guitar styles to get acquainted with, no new lyrics or riffs to absorb...

That's probably why i enjoyed Kerrang's Maiden Heaven so much.

Black Tide does a straight-up copy of "Prowler," and Metallica does "Remember Tomorrow". Never cared much for "Remember Tomorrow," and the Metallica stamp doesn't improve it. It just seems so pointlessly slow and LONG.

Avenged Sevenfold's "Flash of the Blade" is another copy, a little tighter than the original, but this benefit is offset by the cringely falsetto chorus.

Glamour of the Kill I'd never heard of, but they at least attempt a mild reinterpretation of "Two Minutes to Midnight." A bit Pro-Toolsy, but the vocal and guitars complement each other like jack and coke, so... :)

Coheed & Cambria I have heard of, and The Trooper being one of Maiden's much overplayed hits, I found myself hoping for some prog-emo freshness, but all we get are some electronic sound effects down low in the mix of what is otherwise a straight-up copy: even the guitar tones are similar to the original. What's the point?! FAIL.

"Wasted Years" has always been Maiden's big feel-good hit, and hearing DevilDriver do it is awesome, except I wish the singer would actually sing the notes, because that chorus requires putting your heart on your sleeve and really going for it, clean-voiced and out there.

Sign is hard to Google.

Sign, another never-heard-of-'em band, does "Run to the Hills," and you think you can stop reading there, because "Run to the Hills" is easily the MOST ANNOYING SONG IN METAL HISTORY. But praise Jeebus, Sign totally rearchitects the song from the ground up. Except for the chorus vocal, it is unrecognizable. It's got bloody slide guitar in it! I like it if only for its freshness.

Dream Theater do "To Tame a Land" and go for the exact copy, down to the guitar tones in the first half. Unfortunately, it's another one of those songs that takes too long to get where it's going, and then spends too long where it is. (You know, eight bars where four would've held more power...) Meh.

Madina Lake do "Caught Somewhere in Time," and switch things around a bit, doing the half-as-fast/twice-as-heavy thing in the bridges and adding some cool piano that sounds like its being played far away under the sea. It's mostly successful, but pretty laborious.

Gallows does "Wrathchild" in an ugly, punky style that only detracts from your fond memories of the original.

Fightstar bravely chooses a "newer" Maiden track, "Fear of the Dark" (from the 1990 album of the same name). It's another straightforward copy but with updated sounds and production. A great song that Fightstar makes 1% better.

"Hallowed Be Thy Name" is awesome, but I have heard it about ten thousand times at this point, and Machine Head feels no compulsion to make it more interesting for me, so if ever there was a track to skip...

Trivium's "Iron Maiden" is over-the-top, almost Spinal-Tappy, starting with Heafy's earnestly goofy "alright!" and the double bass and double "demon" vocal... but the lyrics take on a deeper resonance when you hear the "Iron Maiden's, gonna get you!" line. There's also little double stops and shit that make the track more than just the usual cover. Me likey.

Year Long Disaster creates a three-minute-and-fourteen-second disaster with "Running Free" -- which was barely metal in the first place! -- in boring photocopy mode, including the floppy bass tone. Grow some imagination, guys, please.

And lastly, Ghostlines does a mellow, acousticy, piano reinterpretation of 2000's "Brave New World". I dig it, its like one of Opeth's non-metal tracks, only vaguely familiar... :)

So, you know, the usual: a couple unmitigated disasters (Gallows, YLD), a bunch of serviceable tracks (Trivium, Fightstar, et. al.), and a few gems (GotK, Sign).

rating: :\