Helloween – Metal Jukebox (Release Year-2001)
I am betting that you won’t hear a more unique batch of covers than the ones offered by the power metal band, Helloween.
The opening track, He’s a Woman – She’s a Man is a high speed rocking affair. It is a track that demands several replays. Roland Grapow and Michael Weikath tear it up on the guitar on this song.
The version of Jethro Tull’s Locomotive Breath is far heavier than the original. Helloween has nearly turned this into a thrash song. Very cool!
One of the strangest groups for a metal band to cover would have to be Abba. The progressive metal elements that Helloween adds to the track, Lay All of Your Love on Me, makes this one of the coolest sounding covers in a long time.
He’s a Woman, She’s A Man
Lay All of Your Love on Me
The cover of Space Oddity remains pretty true to the original, and doesn’t really add anything new. It sounds ok, and I do like the original. It would have been cool to see Helloween do something different with it, but they didn’t.
It is interesting to hear Helloween’s version of Faith No More’s From Out of Nowhere. I thought it was strange that Helloween would cover a newer track like
this, considering the age of the other songs on this record. Quite frankly, I like the Faith No More version of this song better.
The super fast bass licks on the Beatles, All My Loving turn this into an interesting sounding track. It is very short, and is over in the blink of an eye.
I am sure that you have heard Hocus Pocus a thousand times on mainstream rock radio. Helloween’s version is a little bit heavier than the original. I like this version a lot.
I have not heard the original version of Faith Healer, so I do not know how it compares to the original. It takes far too long for this song to get going, and it doesn’t hold my interest.
Juggernaut is much better than the track preceding. Once again, I am not familiar with Frank Marino’s music. If it sounds anywhere near as good as this Helloween cover, then I need to be finding some of his stuff.
Helloween’s cover of the Cream song White Room, has a much heavier edge than the original version. It is an above average remake of this song. This sound of this song reminds me a bunch of older Leatherwolf tunes. It has that same kind of feel.
The final two tracks, Mexican and Rat Bat Blue didn’t really do anything for me. They are just ok.
Much like the Overkill release, Helloween’s Metal Jukebox is a solid cover disc, but not exciting enough for most fans to pick up. This is a disc that will be essential to Helloween fans only.
Rating:
Out of 10
Track Listing:
1. He’s a Woman – She’s a Man (Scorpions)
2. Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull)
3. Lay All of Your Love on Me (Abba)
4. Space Oddity (David Bowie)
5. From Out of Nowhere (Faith No More)
6. All My Loving (The Beatles)
7. Hocus Pocus (Focus)
8. Faith Healer (Alex Harvey)
9. Juggernaut (Frank Marino)
10. White Room (Cream)
11. Mexican (Babe Ruth)
12. Rat Bat Blue*(Deep Purple, Bonus Track)
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Full albums of Heloween in mp3 256-320 kbps
http://kirdyk.wordpress.com/category/helloween/
The ONLY covers CD I think is worth playing. Some great interpretations of songs and a band that with subsequent releases have proven it was just a gap filler not a loss of ideas.
Some other good covers by Helloween include The Beatles’ Something and especially Status Quo’s Rain.
Good choice!