Punk Goes Metal

by

Various Artists

Edit

Once upon a time, Joey surfed on to [the web]hoping to find the best cover album ever. He happened to stumble across "Punk Goes Metal" and gave it a disapproving glance, thinking to himself "The eighties were horrible. Come on! Look at these artists! I've never seen them on MTV!" Since Billy's birthday was coming up, Joey decided to buy it for him for a joke. When the CD finally came, Joey gave it to Billy and forced him to pop it in his stereo at once, all the while thinking they'd have a great laugh about it. The first song came on and suddenly Joey realized that this CD was actually good. In fact, this CD was very good. These bands took songs he thought [were bad]and made them great. Billy on the other hand loved the eighties, and he was impressed at how these songs he thought were perfect could actually be improved! By the end on the CD, both Joey and Billy were singing along and having a wonderful time, and they lived happily ever after.

Not bad to spin once or twice, but the whole problem with these remake/tribute/cover CD's is that many of the songs sound pretty much like the original recording, rendering the new version pretty much pointless. There's a couple of tunes on "Punk Goes Metal" that are a bit different and unique- "Love Song" by Ten Foot Pole is pretty cool and the Atari's version of "I Remember You" is fun. But most of the songs end up sounding just like the originals. The guitar and drum sound is definitely in that pop/punk vein but it doesn't do enough to set a song like "Looks That Kill" or "Little Fighter" apart from the original. And the only way you can tell the Ozzy covers apart are the American accents on the vocals. I can't really speak for the covers of Leather Pirate's "Why Rock" or St. Madness' "Sexual Abuse" since I've never heard of either of those two bands. But if you're not expecting much, it's a decent batch of '80s hard rock redone, but not all that exciting.