When Rock/Metal covers beat the original

faceman

OK so technically the you tube clip below isnt rock or metal nor was the original, but given metal is my music of choice Ive posted here. Note the clip is NSFW due to language Its a good example of someone taking a song from a different genre, adding their own style to it, and coming out with something pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_N3CK-6CHk

So what examples have you of when one of our favoured rock/metal acts cover non metal/rock songs and do a better job than the original? Do they work? Do we like them just because its our favourite bands doing them?

Metallica covered Whiskey in the Jar and it didnt work for because it lacked the soul and knowledge of traditional irish music to pull it off.

On the other hand, Beatallica who do a hybrid of metalica and beatles songs works. Ok its extremely cheesey at times, but the songs are ashamedly catchy!

Also ashamedly, i think Limp Bizkit's cover of George Michael's Faith is good as it brings a heavy agreesive edge to an otherwise, er, camp song.

Similary Machine Head's cover of Message in a Bottle for the same reason.

So whats your view on the cover song? When is it acceptable? When does it work and why?

Doctor DooM

tura Satanas version of Tainted Love kicks the arse off of any other version I have heard. Especially Mansons soulless version.

For me cover songs work when you can either sense the cover-er is having fun with something they love, (such as bad news doing Bohemian Rhapsody, or anything by Beatalica or Hayseed Dixie), or if you can see the band doing something different and original with purpose with the song, like message in a bottle by Machine head.

Doctor DooM

I know its not metal but Johnny Cash' version of hurt by NiN is awesome too.

Oral Slang

Blind Guardian covering Mr Sandman

Dream Theater covering Pink Floyd. Yeah I know a lot of people will argue with me about this. I don't necessarily think the covers are better, but I think it's one of the bands that they cover well.. James La Bries voice really suits these - especially "Hey You"

Also really like a lot of the covers on Nativity in Black

Type O Negative do a few good covers too - Summer Breeze the first one that springs to mind

Rattlehead_ie

I think Disturbed did a cover of shout by Tears for Fears was a great cover.

Disturbeds Shout 2000
vs
Original Tears for Fears.

nyarlothothep

that clip posted by the OP is brilliant, funny with some spectacle incorporated, brought out the narrative imo.

Nightwish

Apocalyptica - Helden is one of the more interesting covers of late. Its a cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" performed by Till Lindman in German. Bloody fantastic!

Umbra et Imago's cover of Rock me Amadeus is worth checking out. Not for artistic merit, but because its pretty ridiculously funny. Its on youtube but NSFW.

smackbunnybaby

i saw type o negative do a great version of magical mystery tour.

and what about this, i found it over on metalireland:

http://www.myspace.com/spiralsektor

its kiss from rose by seal covered by HEAD CONTROL SYSTEM , who feature Garm on vocals.

Fad

Whiskey in the jar - Metallica (the obvious one)

Davidian - Lostprophets (is VERY good)

White Wedding - Murderdolls (much prefer this to the original)

Breaking The Law - Fightstar (its brilliant!)

all in all i like covers

damonjewel

I'd love to say the scissors sisters version of 'Comfortably numb' for a laugh but I'd probably be banned for life

Feelgood

Tool - No Quarter

Malice

Fad wrote: »

Davidian - Lostprophets

Is that a cover of the Machine Head song?

Fad wrote:

White Wedding - Murderdolls

I was actually thinking of this song when I was about to reply .
Both Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead have done covers of U2's Sunday, Bloody Sunday which I quite liked.

peter1892

Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine do some fun covers of various Metal, rock & rap tunes. Whether or not they improve on the originals is debatable but their cover of 'The Trees' by Rush had me in stitches (although I'm a huge Rush fan anyway).

Tori Amos did a cover album a few years back (called 'Strange Little Girl') and it contained her take on Slayer's 'Raining Blood', but years before that she'd covered 'Smells like teen spirit' as a b-side, when I first heard it I thought 'oh that what he was saying!'

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Feelgood wrote: »

Tool - No Quarter

indeed

Bear McCreary - All Along The Watchtower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka_sHy9cVH0

it might not be genre hopping, but the two versions are pretty different.

Fad

malice_ wrote: »

Is that a cover of the Machine Head song?

Yeah

its brilliant

Mental Mickey

I'd go for Machine Head absolutely NAILING "Battery" on the Kerrang "Master Of Puppets" tribute cd.

Friggin brilliant!

ec18

Jimi Hendrix- All Along the Watchtower. Much better than the original IMO.

Disturbed- Land of Confusion. I much prefer this to the original Phil Collins version

MoominPapa

The Who's version of Mose Allisons Young Man Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRblHKs-PEY

Cosmic

seanironmaiden

The whole of Renegades album by Rage Against The Machine. Not just covers but complete re-imagining of the songs with great riffs. their version of Erik B's Microphone Fiend kicks all sorta ass.

Also love Shout2000 by Disturbed and Chili Peppers do great covers live. Donna Summer's "I feel love" with John on vocals and flea doin that crazy-fast bassline is deadly. Fire, Search And Destroy, Higher Ground and loadsa others I cant remember right now

Fad

ec18 wrote: »

Jimi Hendrix- All Along the Watchtower. Much better than the original IMO.

true that.
i heard a good spanishy cover of it in prison break season 3 was interesting but you didnt get to hear the whole thing

SxE Punk

Decapitated's cover of Mandatory Suicide by Slayer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSpLTTm6Lhg


R.I.P. Vitek.

Malice

I somehow forgot to mention in my last post the various covers that Fear Factory have released over the years.

• Cars (original by Gary Numan)
• I Will Follow (original by U2)
• School (original by Nirvana)
• Dog Day Sunrise (original by Head of David)

There are a few others I think but these were the ones I thought of immediately.

GhostInTheRuins

Judas Priest - The Green Manalishi (Fleetwood Mac)
Thin Lizzy - Rosalie (Bob Seger)
Metal Church - Highway Star (Deep Purple)
Queensryche - Scarborough Fair (Simon And Garfunkel)

Apart from them I can't think of any covers that I prefer to the original

Beekay

ec18 wrote: »

Disturbed- Land of Confusion. I much prefer this to the original Phil Collins version

Thats a great version!

Machine Head - Negative Creep is a good cover of the Nirvana original

nonamemark

double post

nonamemark

Fad wrote: »

Davidian - Lostprophets (is VERY good)

Breaking The Law - Fightstar (its brilliant!)

Christ that Priest cover completly butchers the song, it's like Killswitch covering Holy Diver, they made it sound too modern. It completly takes away from the 80's sound of the song, which is what makes them so good.

You can really tell the drums and vocals can't keep up on the Machine Head cover but they had a good hack at it.

As for brilliant covers,
Machine Head doing Battery, ****ing brilliant
Tom Waits covering I Don't Wanna Grow Up by The Ramones,
Opeth covering Soldier of Fortune by Deep Purple
Mayhem covering Witching Hour by Venom

Can't think of anything else at the moment

Fad

nonamemark wrote: »

Christ that Priest cover completly butchers the song, its sounds too modern

But what'd be the point of doing a straight up cover?
Thats what makes me like that AND holy diver, i CANT stand the original breaking the law OR white wedding (not denying how influential the songs were) it seems as if rob halford or billy idol put no effort into singing they just kinda spoke, with charlie simpson, he put loads of effort into it, bringing screaming and what seems to be passion, and i just prefer the vocals and all round heaviness

rant over

FunkZ

Poison by Tarja?

Actually what the fcuk was I thinking for a second.

Otis Driftwood

Amazing Grace(yes,that amazing grace)by Entombed

Tourettes (Nirvana) by Impaled

Caveat

Thought the Lemonheads doing Madonna's Borderline was inspired - they made the song sound enormous.

Nightwish

FunkZ wrote: »

Poison by Tarja?

Actually what the fcuk was I thinking for a second.

I hate that cover. I always skip it on the cd.

SxE Punk

Blood for Blood's cover of Ultra Violence(The Oppressed) is an absolute classic.

Den_M

I also love that Disturbed cover of land of Confusion. Much better than In Flames version. Great video too. And I completely disagree with the OP's opinion of Tallica's cover of Whisky. Why would they want to understand the nuances of trad, they're Metallica- they whacked the gain up to 11 and tuened it into a monster!

ec18

Den_M wrote: »

Tallica's cover of Whisky. Why would they want to understand the nuances of trad, they're Metallica- they whacked the gain up to 11 and turned it into a monster!

Yeah completely agree!!!!

DeadSkin

I like Faith No More's version of Sparks' 'This Town ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us'.
Someone mentioned earlier Johnny Cash's version of 'Hurt', brilliant, but I must say most of those covers he's done have been fantastic, my personal favourite, Depeche Mode's 'Personal Jesus'.

ec18

Manson's version of Tainted Love is pretty cool as well

Jay P

I was watching Q a few weeks ago and they had the 20 best covers or something, and the had American Woman by Lenny Kravitz, and I was just left thinking that it was one of the worst covers I have ever heard, it just did not have the soul that the original had.

My favorite cover mus Hendrix's All Along The WatchTower, even Dylan admits its better than his version.

mp3guy

Cradle Of Filth covering Britney Spears' "Hit Me Baby One More Time"

peter1892

mp3guy wrote: »

Cradle Of Filth covering Britney Spears' "Hit Me Baby One More Time"

Cradle of Filth's version of Cliff Richard's 'Devil Woman' is a bit of a laugh. Just slightly ironic

nonamemark

nonamemark wrote: »

Tom Waits covering I Don't Wanna Grow Up by The Ramones,

Eh.... Wrong way round. Ramones covered Waits. Google is your friend

Can't beat Vanilla Ice covering... Himself! Except in a Nu-Metal way (Actuallly, its still ****)


Therapy? doing Breaking the Law rocked though.

Fad

the automatic coving epic-faith no more that was brilliant

spiritcrusher

Death's cover of Painkiller is pretty damn good (wouldn't say it quite tops the original though);
Priest's Johnny B. Goode is brilliant too.
One time where a cover definitely tops the original is Edge of Sanity's cover of Blood of my Enemies (Manowar).

GhostInTheRuins

spiritcrusher wrote: »

Priest's Johnny B. Goode is brilliant too.

Uggh, that's probably the worst song they've ever recorded :eek:

(parental guidance being the exception)

Jrad

Children of Bodom - Dont stop at the top (scorpions) Class cover!
Nightwish - Phantom of the opera
Children of bodom - She is beautiful (Andrew WK) Bit of a guilty pleasure!
White Stripes - Joleen
Sepultura - the hunt
Six feet under - Death or glory

SirLemonhead

I like the Children of Bodom cover of Rebel Yell a lot. Pretty similar to the original but edgier (spelling?)

The fightstar cover of Breaking the law is hilariously bad. They make it sound so serious that it loses all its charm completely

Degag

Lombardo and trujillo did a cool cover of battery a few years ago, tis on my ipod.

MoominPapa

Come to think of it Bowies version of Lets spend the night together tops an already great original

Dave H

Foo Fighters and Brian May doing Have a Cigar will always go done as a beaut for me. And apparently Taylor Hawkins sang it too.

Jrad

Megadeth - White rabbit = Goodth!

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

Fad wrote: »

Breaking The Law - Fightstar (its brilliant!)

:eek: ITS TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!

its way too heavy, sounds nothing like the original.

Nightwish

CoB's cover of Oops I Did It Again and Some Body Put Something in My Drink are fantastic. I wonder what cover they'll do for the new album.

Within Temptation do a great cover of Running Up That Hill. I much prefer it to the original.