Trick or Treat: Some Great Metal Costumes

Halloween-Desktop-WallpapersTrick or Treat, smell my feet, give me metal and candy to eat. Ok, ok, that was corny as fuck I know. Tis the season right? Tis the season for guys to dress up like dorks and women to dress up like sluts and for copious amounts of candy, alcohol, and only God knows what else to be consumed. That’s right, it’s Halloween! All Hallow’s Eve. Free Candy Day. Ok, at this point I’m just running out of shit to say. What’s the point of this? Well, I’ll tell you. All of this is to say that it’s the one day of the year where we can don a costume and pretend to be something or someone else so why not celebrate by showing bands wearing costumes for Halloween?

No, I’m not going to talk about GWAR or anything like that. That shit is just way too obvious. How about bands doing covers? I always thought that this was very much like Halloween costumes in a sense. A band doing a song by another act is a kin to wearing a costume and for just one moment taking on the identity of another band. To celebrate this awesome holiday, I have chosen 10 of my favorite “costumes” to share with you all on eve of Halloween so get out your pumpkins and much like Charlie Brown, prepare to get rocked! HAHA. That worked surprisingly well!

Enjoy these and don’t eat all the Reeses you pigs!

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W.A.S.P – The Real Me (originally by The Who)

W.A.S.P nailed this Who classic and surprisingly didn’t stray far at all from the original version. This was another example to me of just how closely related to heavy metal The Who were. Blackie Lawless just shines on this song and proves once again why he is one of metal’s greatest voices. Everything about this song is just facemelting and W.A.S.P totally nailed it on this song without a doubt.

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Holy Grail – Fast as a Shark (originally by Accept)

Holy Grail arrived in the metal scene and quickly grabbed the crown as the reigning kings of what I consider to be what many have come to call the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal. These you guys are old souls with a true love and passion for all things classic metal while putting their own modern touch to it. Holy Grail is known for doing some pretty outstanding covers but this is one of my all time favorites.

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Ace Frehley – Do Ya (originally by Electric Light Orchestra)

Leave it to the Ace to cover an Electric Light Orchestra classic and make it sound totally kick ass, fun, and just rocking. This is such a fun song and even when I hear the original version the first thing I think is, “This is totally Ace Frehley’s song.” Ace took this song and totally made it his own and made it an even better song in my opinion.

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Jorn Lande – Shame on the Night (originally by Dio)

In my opinion, nobody, and I mean NO-BOD-DY can cover Ronnie James Dio and pull it off like Jorn Lande. After Dio’s passing, Jorn released the album “DIO” as a tribute to his fallen friend and he attacked these songs with all the heart, soul, and passion that Ronnie himself put into these songs. The first time I heard this a chill literally shot down my spine. This is a powerful version of an already powerful song.

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Doro Pesch – A Whiter Shade of Pale (originally by Procol Harum)

This cover never ceases to give me goosebumps and put a lump in my throat. I already loved the original of this song but Doro Pesch totally took this song to a whole new level and pretty much made this song her own. It’s one of those covers that once you’ve heard it, it just sticks with you and never leaves your mind. Every now and then I just get this urge to revisit it and every time it’s just as awesome and awe inspiring as it was the first time I heard it.

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Saxon – Ride Like The Wind (originally by Christopher Cross)

A New Wave of British Heavy Metal band covering a lame ass Christopher Cross song? You betcha and guess what? They fucking rocked the shit out of that song. That song sucks so fucking band when Mr. Cross is singing but put that shit in the hands of Biff Byford and company and they’ll turn that lame ass song into a kick ass piece of awesomeness. I love this cover and it makes just about every mix CD I make for people.

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Bruce Dickinson – All The Young Dudes (originally by Mott the Hoople)

Say what you want but I fucking LOVE this cover. This is another example of a song that I really didn’t like at all until I heard Bruce do it. There’s just something about hearing him sing this song that just connects with me. It’s almost like you can hear Bruce being all introspective and really connecting with the song on a personal level in some sense. I just love this one and I think my boy Janick did some awesome shit on this song as well. Just an all out great cover that proves sometimes a great song just needs to be done by a truly great artist in order for it to get through to the people.

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Gypsyhawk – Rock N’ Roll Hoochie Koo (originally by Rick Derringer)

I love this fucking song and I fucking love Gypsyhawk. I’ve been liking Gypsyhawk long before those dumbasses on That Metal Show so there. That really has no relevance to anything but I just wanted to get that out there. Everytime I hear this song I think of the movie Dazed and Confused and I just love this song. When I heard the Hawk doing this song the first thing I thought was it just sounded like it was supposed to happen. Eric Harris does some great vocals on this song and his gruff, whiskey/smoke wrecked throat just gives this song a health does of balls.

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Dream Theater – To Tame A Land (originally by Iron Maiden)

Dream Theater covering Iron Maiden. Yeah, not a whole lot needs to be said about this other than it fucking rules. Dream Theater can at times be hit or miss for me when it comes to them covering songs. I thought they missed the mark when covering Pink Floyd and Metallica but for this Maiden classic they just nailed it every which way.

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Gorky Park – My Generation (originally by The Who)

Ok, the 2nd Who song to make this list. What I love so much about this cover is that Gorky Park totally took this song, re-arranged it, and totally made it their own song. You know the minute Ruskie singer dude starts singing that it’s The Who but everything is just changed up and given a new, more metal kinda of facelift. I loved that they put some thought and inventiveness into this cover and that is why it’s one of my all time favorite covers.

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