Come Cover Me: Australia's Chaos Divine Covers Toto's "Africa"

Just found out about this band from Perth, western Australia, tonight on Facebook.  A friend posted this cover they did of Toto's "Africa", a song I have loved since I was in like grade 3.

Check it out:

Chaos Divine has some great stuff, I have to say; I was really impressed by the few tracks that I heard.  You can find out more about them on their Facebook page here.

Here is Toto's original:

Come Cover Me: Elvenking Does Belinda Carlisle...?

And now for something completely different.  Thanks to one of my colleagues at Black Wind Metal, I just found this very...interesting cover of Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth" done by power metal outfit, Elvenking.

Who says you can't take an 80s pop song into a piece of power metal?

Elvenking hails from Italy.  Check out their FB page here.

Here is Belinda Carlisle's original:

Here is Elvenking's version:

What do you think?  I'm a little stunned...

Come Cover Me: South Africa's Terminatryx does Animotion's "Obsession"

I just came across Terminatryx, an industrial metal act from South Africa this morning, via my contacts at Sonic Cathedral. I don't mind industrial metal at all, and this is a pretty good cover of a song that was popular in the 80s, which of course I remember well.

Here is Animotion with the original.

And here is Terminatryx's cover.

Terminatryx should have something out soon, so the buzz goes.  Enjoy!

Come Cover Me: Paradise by Within Temptation

Recently, Within Temptation did a cover of British rock band Coldplay's hit single "Paradise" to promote  their special 15 year anniversary show - Elements. The show will take place in Sportpaleis Antwerpen, Belgium on 13 november.

Coldplay's version

Within Temptation's version

Come Cover Me: Evenoire does Within Temptation's "Somewhere"

Evenoire is one of the many fantastic Italian bands I've been talking about recently here, and today they posted a YT video of a live version of their cover of Within Temptation's "Somewhere."  It's a lovely duet (not sure who the other singer is, but Lisy, Evenoire's vocalist, is the first singer you hear) accompanied only by the acoustic guitar.

Here is the original, by WT.

And here is Evenoire's version.  Enjoy!

Come Cover Me: Lyriel's "The Star of the County Down"

Last week German folk metal band, a band I have long been a big fan of, released their fourth album.  I've had a listen and I think it's excellent and shows a really different side of the band and of Jessica's voice.  One of the bonus tracks is a cover of the Irish folk song "Star of the County Down."  I love that song!

My favourite version has been done my my favouritest musician ever, Loreena McKennitt, and it appears on her The Wind That Shakes the Barley CD.  Here it is:

Loreena can do no wrong in my world!

And here is Lyriel's metal version.  It's fantastic.  Take a listen:

I love how fast it is, I love how edgy is is, I love how you can headbang to it.  Great job, Lyriel!

Come Cover Me: Spythriller's Nemo

Thanks to one of my colleagues at Sonic Cathedral, I saw this on Facebook this morning.  Though not my typical style of music, I really, really like this a lot.  It has a great ethereal quality to it that really goes well with the themes of "Nemo."  I've never heard of Spythriller before, but I think I'm going to check them out.

Here is the original by Nightwish:

And here is the cover by Spythriller:

Come Cover Me: Angra's Phantom of the Opera version live Rock in Rio 2011 with Tarja

When I found out that Angra was performing live with Tarja in Rock in Rio 2011, I was so excited that I nearly exploded! Haha, just kidding but you know what I mean. I was excited until I heard the performance itself. I myself am a big Angra fan, but to be honest, their performance at Rock in Rio this year was pretty lackluster compared to what I have heard out of this band before. This video showcases Angra covering the famous Phantom of the Opera song with Tarja Turunen:

Nightwish's version of this song is obviously far superior and it is apparent that both Edu and Tarja are out of key. Apparently from metal gossip on YouTube, they were both mic'ed up very poorly and could not hear the music well at all. Well I can actually see that, but Edu's singing is just not very good here at all. I actually like his voice with the band normally, but he sounded very course and rough at this concert. He must of had a rough night because he even sang Angra songs very poorly as well. Here is a video of Angra's setlist in Rock In Rio 2011:

If you look up any Angra live video besides RIR 2011, you will see that they are normally a very good live band and that Edu is usually an excellent vocalist. I myself find them to be one of the best live power metal bands around, and this performance actually shocked me. We all have bad days and experiences so rest assured that Angra is still a very good band but had some issues that day.

So yeah, this is not a very good version of POTO.

Come Cover Me: Van Canto does "Primo Victoria"

The timing of this was nice: the day before I went to see Sabaton in Vancouver, I came across this new video by German a capella metal band Van Canto.  It features Sabaton singer Joakim Broden.  You'd think I'd have used this tiny piece of news as a conversation piece when I actually met Joakim at the Sabaton merch table after the band's set, but no, I acted like a tongue-tied teenaged twit instead.  More on all that later, though...

I've always liked Van Canto, but they seem to get a lot of haters.  I think they are innovative, creative, and excellent.  I wasn't as stoked about their last album because I thought the female vocals were not playing as big a role as they had in previous releases, but I have yet to get hold of their current CD.

I like this version of Sabaton's "Primo Victoria" a lot.  Here is the original.

And here is Van Canto's version:

Come Cover Me: Amaranth by Raevyn

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have male classical singer in Nightwish? This YT video will give you a bit of idea. I found it on official forum of Nightwish today and I have to say I don't like it at all. There are comments which are very positive but I can't understand why. I mean, I don't mind the fact that the song is sung by male, but the voice itself is bad. But whatever it is just my opinion after all. This guy calls himself Raevyn and has couple of Nightwish songs on his official YT channel.

 "Reach", the demo version of "Amaranth" sung by Marco, sounds much better and it is no secret that I like it more than the album version "Amaranth". 

So, do you like it?

New Find/Come Cover Me: Dama

Thanks to my new colleagues over at the Sonic Cathedral Zine, I'm on the path to discovering all kinds of great new music, something that always gives me immeasurable pleasure.  It's especially pleasurable when, after downloading a whole bunch of new music, the first new CD you play is just killer.  Such is the case with Italy's Dama, which was recommended in a review of their CD, Eirwen, by my colleague Doctor T.

Dama is, to my ear, a symphonic rock-symphonic metal cross-over band and I have been listening to Eirwen all afternoon.  I love it!  The singer, Barbara Schera Vanoli, is fantastic, and Dama's music is just beautiful.  Not super heavy, but heavy enough, and very vocal and keyboard-centred, with great symphonic elements to boot.  They are tagged on Last.fm as "Gothic" but I disagree with that.  They are not gloomy or dark enough to warrant such a label and their sound is lighter.

One song on the album, which is their first, that really stuck out for me is a remake of Madonna's "Live to Tell."  It's fucking spectacular and I have been playing it over and over again (probably driving my neighbours up the wall).  This cover is fresh and keeps the songs integrity while making it more interesting than the original.  And I liked the original; it's one of my favourite Madonna songs.  But this is better, in my opinion, than hers.

Here it is:



Dama also has a single out in Italian called "Regina d'Inverno" which they have translated as "Your Winter."  There is an English version of this song, too, but here is the Italian, which is quite lovely.



What do you think?

You can find Dama at these fine locations:

Last. fm
Dama's official web site
MySpace
Facebook

Come Cover Me: Little Lion Man by DareDevil Squadron

Power meta/progressive/hard rock band DareDevil Squadron from New York covered my favourite song "Little Lion Man" by Mumford & Sons.
DareDevil Squadron came up with new genre (if we can call it like that) or perhaps term - "Next New Wave of British-Inspired American Heavy Metal" shortened - NNWOBIAHM. To find out more about DareDevil Squadron visit their official website.

"Little Lion Man" is a song by British folk rock band Mumford & Sons. This song received Grammy Award  nomination for "Best Rock Song".

I might be biased, because Mumford & Sons are one of my all time non-metal favourite band, but I really miss the "lightness" of the original version. The folk-ish touch is replaced with guitar riffs and I also find DareDevil Squadron's version less emotional than Mumford & Sons'. OK I know that this is a cover so it is different but once and again I prefer origianl version over covered one.

DareDevil Squadron    

                                                 

Mumford & Sons

Come Cover Me (Sort Of): Draconian Does Wordsworth

This isn't a cover per se; it's a famous poem put to music by Draconian, a Swedish doom/Gothic band that recently came to my attention and who I am really enjoying.  This is William Wordsworth's "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal", one of his famous poems that most English Lit students get to spend time with in high school English class or first year university English Lit class.  I quite like Wordsworth, actually, and I got to see where he spent time moping about his cottage in the Lake District during a trip there in the 1990s.

I think Draconian did a great job of turning this poem into a metal song.  It captures the mood and atmosphere very well, and the female vocals are lovely.  The band's style really lends itself to the poem.  I love it!

Come Cover Me: Linkin Park & "Rolling in the Deep"

Why I'm including this on a metal blog is questionable, I know, since LP seems to have left metal behind.  The connection is tenuous to this blog, I know, but I thought it was worth posting nonetheless, mainly because I think this song is so good.

About a month ago, a friend of mine introduced me to British sensation Adele, and I have to say I really dig her stuff.  This song, "Rolling in the Deep" is one of her big hits and I quite like it.  Earlier this month, LP covered it at the iTunes festival in England.  Say what you want about LP, Chester Bennington is an amazing singer, even if LP has gone down the tubes a bit.

Here is the original by Adele.



And here is LP's version:

Come Cover Me: Eva Urbanova does some Nightwish

Apparently, if you're a Tarjaholic you might be up in arms over this interview snippet in which Czeck opera diva Eva Urbanova states that she doesn't think Tarja is a great singer.

I am so over Nighwish/Tarja dramas that I don't really care who says what about whom anymore, but listening to Eva's covers of two NW songs was an interesting experience indeed.

First up, "Deep Silent Complete".  Vocally, it's fine-ish.  Performance-wise, way to turn a great metal song into a pop parody with silly back-up dancers!  Ridiculous!  Check it.



Eva also covers "Wish I Had an Angel" and I have to say this is pretty bad to my ears.  It completely loses all impact in her translation of the song.  It's awful. It's hideous.



What do you think?

Come Cover Me: Zombie by Sarah Jezebel Deva

Deva covered Zombie on her new album The Corruption Of Mercy, which will be released on 27th June.

Zombie, one of the biggest hits of Irish rock band The Cranberries, was released in 1994. It's a protest song from No Need to Argue album.

In my opinion it is qutie good cover. Though I am not fond of the long guitar ending, the piano part at the end of the song fits in well.

The Cranberries

Come Cover Me: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Tarja

If you think that Poison and Still of the Night are the worst covers she has come up with yet, let me disappoint you! In my humble opinion, this one is definitely the worst song of her repertoire (so far). The song was performed during the Marimekko fashion show in 2007.

Smells Like Teen Spirit is a song by American rock band Nirvana and since its release, it has been massively covered by lots of bands and artists from different genres.

Let's have a look at couple of recent but also older covers.

Miley Cyrus 

      

      

The Ukulele Orchestra (could be better without singing)

Jazz cover by Paul Anka 

My personal favourite Herr-A-Chick

Come Cover Me: Meadows of Heaven by Gregorian

I almost forgot about this song until 2 weeks ago. While ''studying hard'' for my final exams I made a little break and tried to find something interesting on TV. As I was checking every channel I stopped on Christian channel because I heard very familiar music. It was Gregorian's cover version of NW song. This song was covered in 2009 and released on Masters of Chant Chapter VII album where you can find covers of artists such as Kate Bush, Depeche Mode, or ABBA. 

Gregorian is a German band which performs Gregorian chant-inspired versions of modern pop and rock songs.  To find out more about this band check out their website

In my opinion this song suits more female vocals. Although the guitar solo sounds interesting, I miss the ''soul'' ending of the original version. So I go for the original version this time.

Here is the original version

Come Cover Me: Vika Yermolyeva's cover of "Master of Puppets" live

Vika Yermolyeva out of Iceland... wow.... in my opinion the best piano player on Youtube by far! She covers pretty much any hard rock or metal song with her awesome piano skills! She is such a unique talent and her ability to perform and execute these songs are very impressive! I have been listening to her for about a year now and I always look forward to her covers of my favorite rock and metal bands. This video here is her performing Metallica's "Master of Puppets" live in Zurich:



Like how Apocolyptica is to cellos, Vika is with the piano in metal! She needs to be more well known because I have never seen anyone cover metal songs on piano like this before! I would not be surprised if she had the title of "Metal Pianist" soon, if not already! A great talent indeed! Here are some links for you to check out:

Vika's YouTube page
Vika's Homepage
Vika's Myspace
Vika's last.fm page

Come Cover Me: Running Up That Hill by Within Temptation

This song was covered by WT in 2003 released as a single. The original song is by the British singer/songwriter Kate Bush and was released in 1985. This song has been covered by many bands and appeared in couple of TV serials such as CSI, Vampire Diaries or Bones. I came across this song last year and it was Placebo's cover. Later on I realised that I had heard that song already. It was WT's cover which I saw many years ago on VIVA channel but I totally forgot about it. I am not a big fan of this song. The video and movements of Sharon are awkward and as I already said I have never really been fond of the white line across her eyes. I must admit that Placebo's cover is the one that I like the most.

So here you go:

WT's version:

                   

Placebo's version:  

Icon & The Black Roses's version:  

Club For Five's version:

Kate Bush's version: