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: "Over the Hills & Far Away"

Alas, I didn't know the work of Gary Moore well apart from this song, which I only ever knew because of Nightwish's cover. I noticed on YouTube someone saying this is a traditional song that Gary Moore covered. Not so; for info on the traditional song of the same name, you can go here, and the traditional tune can be heard here (it's loud, just so you're warned).

Gary Moore died today at the age of 58.

Here is the original of "Over the Hills and Far Away", which was a big hit back in the 1980s (the decade in which I was apparently living under a rock):



Swedish Viking metal band, Thyrfing, did a pretty good cover that appeared on their album Urkaft.



Actually, now that I am listening to some Thyrfing, I am kinda digging them...I do enjoy Viking metal a lot...

Anyway, here is probably the best known cover, done by Nightwish. I do think this is one of Tuomas's best covers, and Tarja is just completely majestic here. Not a bad video, too, and I think I've been to the place where they filmed this, though my memory of it is a bit foggy since I was very ill when I was travelling in Scandinavia and for some reason, tragically, Finland was the place where my memories are dimmest.

Come Cover Me: "Walking in the Air"

Ah, the joys of Facebook! Recently a FB friend of mine posted a cover of "Walking in the Air" done by Tarja Turunen, and if she hadn't, I don't think I would ever have known about it. It's lovely. We'll get to it in a minute.

Here is the original, written by Howard Blake and sung by Richard Auty, and it was used for the animated called The Snowman, which was adapted from a children's book of the same name, written by Raymond Briggs.



If you check out the song's Wikipedia page here, you'll see that it's been quite heavily covered by just about everyone under the sun, including Cliff Richard, Kenny Loggins, and Barry Manilow, who sung it as a duet with Celine Dion.

Most popularly, though, and of significance to a heavy metal music blog, the song was covered by Nightwish. It was released as a single and appeared on Oceanborn. Here is that version, sung live.



Tarja did her own version of the song, too, as mentioned above, and it appeared on one of her solo Christmas albums, Henkäys Ikuisuudesta. Here is a fantastic live version of it, the one my FB friend shared. Incidentally, the dress Tarja is wearing here has got to be my favourite Tarja outfit ever.



Beautiful! I actually like it better than the Nightwish version, to be honest; I find it to be much more expressive. And you have to love the red mic, too!

Come Cover Me: "Hymn"

As with quite a few bands these days, I really enjoy Lunatica's older material to their newer stuff. Their second CD, Fables and Dreams, is their best release, IMO, and it contained a little number called "Hymn." I loved it the moment I heard it, but had no idea until quite a bit later that it was actually a cover.

The original was written and performed by British New Wave rock band Ultravox and was released as a single in 1982. As you can see here, it was covered quite a bit. What I particularly enjoy about this song is the rather cynical attitude towards the Bible, referring to that particular work as a "storybook." The lyrics are great:

Give us this day all that you showed me
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come

Give us this day all that you showed me,
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come
Give me all the story book told me,
The faith and the glory 'til thy kingdom comes

And they said that in our time,
All that's good will fall from grace
Even saints would turn their face,
In our time

And they told us that in our days,
Different words said in different ways,
Have other meaning from he who says,
In our time.

Give us this day all that you showed me,
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come
Give me all the story book told me,
The faith and the glory 'til thy kingdom comes

And they said that in our time,
We would reap from their legacy,
We would learn from what they had seen,
In our time.

And they told us that in our days,
We would know what was high on high,
We would follow and not defy,
In our time.

Give us this day all that you showed me,
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come
Give me all the story book told me,
The faith and the glory 'til thy kingdom comes

Faithless in faith
We must behold the things we see

Give us this day all that you showed me,
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come
Give me all the story book told me,
The faith and the glory 'til thy kingdom comes

Here is Ultravox with the original:



Edguy did a cover in 1999. It's...OK.



And here is Lunatica's version.

Come Cover Me: Bring Me To Life

I found this video for Katherine Jenkins's verions of Evanescene's "Bring Me to Life" on Anette Olzon's blog and gave it a listen. Here it is:



My first impression was "interesting." Knowing nothing about Katherine Jenkins, I was stunned, however, at the end of the song, that the sang out in full on classical mode, which was quite a pleasant surprise. Since then, I've learned that Katherine is a classically trained mezzo-soprano from Wales. I am currently dowloading some of her music so I can check her out a bit more, because her voice really is beautiful.

As for the cover, it's OK. I miss the angst, and the imagery in the video is a bit ho-hum given the subject matter of the song. I still prefer the original, but I am looking forward to hearing more of Katherine Jenkins's stuff.

Here is Evanescence's original.

Come Cover Me: Crawling

OK...I have been bold enough to admit here before that I like Linkin Park. On their Hybrid Theory CD, the opening song was this piece called "Crawling." It's definitely not my favourite track on that album (that would be a toss-up between "In the End" and "Papercut") but it's still a song I like well enough. Here it is:



Now, while surfing around YouTube a couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a German act called Angelzoom. The brainchild of Claudia Uhle, I did some listening and I actually liked what I heard. She has a great voice, and her music is...relaxing. It's kind of hard to categorize: sort of electronica, sort of New Age, very ethereal. Whatever it is, it's certainly not metal. Why they are signed with Nuclear Blast I cannot tell you, but signed they are (same goes for Indica :|). Anyway, the band's self titled album contained a very familiar song...You guessed it - a cover of Linkin Park's "Crawling."

When I first heard this version, I thought, WTF? Now when I listen to it, my thoughts are pretty much the same. Not a fan of this cover at all. Take a listen yourself.



The original has power and edge and anger. The cover is as limp as a wet noodle and lacks all the energy the original had. As I have said before, some things you should just not fuck with!

Come Cover Me: Herr Mannelig

I first heard this song upon listening to Haggard's Eppur Si Muove, a band and an album recommended to me by someone on Metal From Finland. I loved this immediately: so atmospheric, so achey, so beautiful...And I didn't understand a single word!

According to Wikipedia, Herr Mannelig is a Swedish ballad about a female mountain troll who wants to marry a knight. The lyrics can be found here, in both Swedish and English. Wikipedia says that Haggard performs the song in Italian, even though they are a German band.

Here is "Herr Mannelig" being performed in Swedish by the band In Extremo, a German medieval metal group.



Here is a Belarusian version done by Litvintroll, a folk metal band from that country.



And here is my favourite version, sung by Haggard! And yes, I chose the LoTR video on purpose!



Which one do you prefer? I think all of them are interesting in their own way, and as a good cover should do, each band brings their own character into the song. But I have a special place in my heart for the Haggard version because I think it really captures the emotion of the lyrics. I also love the sound of the guitar in this song; it's so crisp.

Come Cover Me: Hijo de la Luna

The first time I head this song was on Sarah Brightman's CD, La Luna, which I bought when it came out in 2000. I am grateful to my grandparents, of all people, for getting me into Sarah Brightman to begin with! Anyway, this is still such a rewarding album for me to listen to and I have always loved Sarah's version of "Hijo de la Luna", which is Spanish for "Son of the Moon." According to Wikipedia, "Hijo de la Luna" was first performed by a Spanish band called Mecano. Since then, it has been covered numerous times in addition to Sarah Brightman's version.



One of my favourite folk metal bands, Lyriel, also has a cover version of this song I really like, and I was so pleasantly surprised when it appeared on their Autumntales album.



Then there is Haggard, who does perhaps my favourite cover of Hijo, which appears on their Tales of Itheria album.



Finally, I just discovered a Finnish version of this song, performed by Katra, and named "Kuunpoika." I honestly wasn't too sure what to think of Katra when James first introduced me to her, but I have to admit, she is growing on me. This version of Hijo is good, but I find it a bit slow for my taste. It does have a nice guitar solo in it, though, which is quite cool.



What do you guys think? Which is your favourite version?