This CD of Metallica covers made me want to rediscover the band.
That's simply because the D-list bands trying to do their songs never hit the vibe. The San Francisco Symphony did a better job. They had a quality and a depth that didn't end at the reflection in the mirror.
Look at some of the band and individuals who participated. Flotsam & Jetsam. Helmet (Unsung). Extreme. Life After Death. Ugly Kid Joe?
With all due respect to their one-hit wonders, there's a reason these bands don't have big marquees on stadium walls. That's not quite fair and Flotsam & Jetsam, especially, did things right where they were never given enough credit.
And there are bigger names - Motorhead - and names attached to bigger bands — Randy Castillo with Ozzy, Gregg Bissonette who plays with Santana regularly, Joe Lynn Turner (still Deep, still Purple) and the KISS contingent of Bruce and Bob Kulick.
Up until "The Black Album" I was one of the biggest Metallica fan out there. I'd seen them three times; once in England, once with GnR and once on the Snake Pit tour. That "Black" album, with its macho vibe and muddy, cluttered production turned me off. I haven't bought an album of theirs since and I don't plan to. Loaded? Blood and semen notwithstanding - was not something I gave a second thought to.
Let's tackle the bad, first. The Tommy Victor, Nuno Bettencourt, Joey Vera, Scott Travis version of "Enter Sandman" even manages to make the original dirge sound crisp. It's not a song I like, though a wildly different interpretation would have been fun. We didn't get that.
Damage inc. off of Master of Puppets? The original just blows the Flotsam & Jetsam attempt out of the water. Again, why try to adhere so closely to what is a lyrically and metal-worthy original?
Other than Motorhead's crazy garbage-compactor cacophony version (a good thing) of "Whiplash", "Master of Puppets" was the first track that perked up my ears and made me look up and take notice. The anti-control anthem circa 2005 was a study in emotions. With Whitfield Crane, Rocky George, Bruce Bouillet, Randy Castillo, and Mike Inez, the headbanger's dream song has a nice, string-pulling guitar backdrop. And that's the problem. The guitars are suppressed for most of the song, subservient to uneven vocals from the Cranester. But at 8:37 seconds, "Master ..." has two distinct halves. In both versions, as it switches gears over that rumbling Ent shout of anguish the guitars take their rightful thumping, head-bumping push.
In the original, the high-fretted guitars soak your speakers from the beginning and set the tone for the rest of the cynical mood for minimalist vocals.
Motorhead is the perfect way to start off the album. This author interviewed Lemmy three days before the band won a Heavy Metal performance Grammy earlier this year.
After an "eh" version of "Eye of the Beholder," Creeping Death" perked up my ears and made me look up and take notice. But the song has such a teeth-rattling crunch that anyone would be hard-pressed to ruin its power even with a Kazoo and a ukulele. From the opening - original - scream, Dark Angel performs open-ear surgery, adding a much needed flair absent on most of the disc.
Chuck Billy, Alex Skolnick, Doug Aldrich, Marco Mendoza, Eric Singer prove they are "better than thou" by out-performing the Metallica boys on a song that, though packed with meaning, is one of the weakest songs in their repertoire (except for that rolling drum and bass drive near the end). "Nothing Else Matters" also meanders along in a strike toward relevancy. And the cover version, with Joe Lynn Turner on vocals doesn't fare much better. Did I mention I don't like the "Black" album much?"
Once piece of advice if you think I'm full of it on everything else. Play around with your equalizer some before writing this off or even before declaring it the best thing since a Britney Spears bonus track. It all sounded flat for me until I boosted the treble and fiddled. This review would have been much different without that.
Though I was looking forward to hearing some of these guys again, I'm surprised they couldn't get a higher talent and star quotient for the band that's been such a presence in the 1980s and 90s (and made themselves pretentious jokes with their therapized documentary "Some Kind of Monster" late last year).
"The Ultimate Tribute? Let's hope not.
-Temple Stark,
http://blogcritics.org
