Trick or Treat. Smell my feet. Give me something good to eat!
Yes indeed. It’s that time of year once again where kids of all ages will take this day to don a disguise and pretend to be something or someone else. Whether it’s trekking from house to house for tons of free candy or just attending a friends Halloween party, it’s a night of fun, tricks, and treats. For one night, people will become naughty nurses, slutty librarians, robots, monsters, or other clever things. Even yours truly donned his own costume this year as you can see from the photo.
This week on The Great Southern Brainfart Radio hour (which can be heard on www.firebrandrockradio.com every Monday from 11am – 1pm EST) I played some of my favorite Metal Halloween Costumes. What does this mean? I’m glad you asked. Basically, I took some of my favorite bands doing cover songs and made a full show out it. I’ve decided to list 10 of my favorites for you all right here.
Jorn Lande – Shame on the Night
Originally performed by Dio
If anyone is allowed to cover the late great Ronnie James Dio it is Jorn Lande. After Dio’s untimely passing, Jorn Lande released the album Dio where he did some of the most facemelting renditions of Dio songs that I have heard from any artist to this day. “Shame on the Night” is in my top 5 Dio songs and to hear him just kill this one always has me throwing horns up.
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Iron Maiden – Communication Breakdown
Originally performed by Led Zeppelin
When you Iron Maiden, you don’t have to cover anyone because you already fucking rule. Iron Maiden does do some pretty amazing covers anyways and I love them because it shows not only their sense of humor but it shows that they are just a band that is inspired and influenced by great bands just like any other band. Among my favorite covers is Maiden’s cover of the Led Zeppelin classic “Communication Breakdown.”
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Lacuna Coil – Enjoy The Silence
Originally performed by Depeche Mode
I never liked Depeche Mode but damn if this isn’t an awesome song. I love it when a band takes a song from another genre and totally bends it to make it fit into a completely different genre. Lacuna Coil did just that with this Depeche Mode song. They took a synthy dance pop song and turned it into a metal classic on their Karmacode album. This was a big hit for the band and rightfully so. They nailed this
one.
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Axel Rudi Pell – Beautiful Day
Originally performed by U2
Much like the Lacuna Coil cover, German guitar god Axel Rudi Pell took U2’s “Beautiful Day” and added his signature, classic metal awesomeness to it creating an outstanding metal classic. I actually thought this song was ok in it’s original form but I think it’s amazing in this form. Proof that just changing the delivery of a song can make it that much better or sometimes worse. In this case, it made it all the more sweeter.
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Ace Frehley – Do Ya?
Originally performed by ELO
Leave it to Ace Frehley to actually make some hard rock fans say, “Hm. I might need to check out some ELO.” In all honesty, I knew who they were but after hearing this cover when I was in high school, I dug into some ELO stuff and found myself really digging a lot of what I heard. This song sounds like it was written for Ace in the beginning as he really stepped up and took ownership of this song making it all his own. I never get tired of hearing this version of this classic tune.
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W.A.S.P – The Real Me
Originally performed by The Who
I can’t say much more about this cover other than it is bad to the motherfucking bone. Talk about taking ownership of a song and making it your own. When I first heard this song as a high schooler I had no idea that this was a cover The Who. I love that they took this song and did very little to change it to make it into the metal powerhouse that it is. The original version of this song is pretty fucking heavy in it’s own right but Blackie Lawless’ kick ass voice just took this song to new heights.
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Dream Theater – Take Your Fingers From My Hair
Originally performed by Zebra
Probably my all time favorite Zebra song. Unless you grew up in New Orleans and/or Long Island, NY in the 70’s and 80’s, there’s a good chance you’ve never really heard of Zebra. They were (and still are) an amazing power trio that delivered some really amazing tunes teetering on the fine line of hard rock/progressive. Imagine my surprise when I heard that Dream Theater was covering this song for their Black Clouds Silver Linings album. Being that they are from NYC, it didn’t shock me that much but to see Zebra getting some love from such a high profile band was amazing. Even singer/guitarist Randy Jackson (not THAT Randy Jackson) had great things to say about this spot on rendition.
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Dan Reed – Holy Diver
Originally performed by Dio
When Ronnie James Dio passed away back in 2010, not a day later were there artists all over the world performing Dio and Black Sabbath classics in his memory. Anthrax was out doing a great version of Heaven & Hell, Tim “Ripper” Owens was performing “Sign of the Southern Cross” but it was Dan Reed’s haunting and beautiful tribute to Dio via “Holy Diver” that truly blew my mind. Reed was sincere in his love and tribute to Dio and really captured this song in an environment you would least expect.
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Skid Row – Delivering The Goods
Originally performed by Judas Priest
1992 Skid Row + Rob Halford = nothing but fucking win. If anyone ever had any doubts as to just how heavy Skid Row could bring it, just watch this video and prepare to be blown away. This cover actually appeared on the band’s “B-Side Ourselves” EP and this is another great example of lightning captured in a bottle.
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Warlock – A Whiter Shade of Pale
Originally performed by Procol Harum
You just can’t go wrong with Doro Pesch to begin with but when you have her singing one of the most gorgeous psychedelic songs of the 60’s, it will literally give you goosebumps all over. The first time I ever heard this song back in the day I was floored and to this day I still get that same feeling listening to it. She delivers it spot on and totally takes this classic song and makes it her own. There is nothing to not love about this song. Hell, even if you didn’t like the original, you will love this version.
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