Tribute to the Beast

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 30, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nuclear Blast Americ
• ASIN: B00005Y2KF
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #331,883 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something old, something new, July 24, 2005

By 

Dan Horvat (Zagreb, Croatia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tribute to the Beast (Audio CD)

This album proves why Iron Maiden is the Beast - because of best songs. But, after hearing around 200 of their songs a thousand times, it starts to get boring to hear the same style over and over again. Now we have some huge hits in a new, more modern and powerful interpretations. It's good for Iron Maiden to keep the spirit alive, and good for the small bands to get their names heard.

In my opinion, Cradle Of Filth did an awesome cover of Hallowed Be Thy Name - adding more power and horror to the song. The second riff is so powerful now that it's beyond comprehension. Dani Filth's best performance, I guess his vocal chords surgery had a meaning afterall.

Children Of Bodom added clarity, power, and speed to Aces High, a good cover.

Sonata Arctica did the same with Die With Your Boots On, but they made a song that was almost a B-side an excellent, fast and powerful song. That heavy metal song just needed to be covered by a power metal band.

Therion did a huge job with Children Of The Damned, made a completely new song, dark and scary. Much better than the sad attempt by Skid Row, which basically only played the song, never covered it to make it something different.

Burden Of Grief's Prowler is great for my ear, powerful grunts with melodical riff in the background. Who would say that such an old song can sound so new? And different than similar attempts from new bands.

Disbelief did a great job with Stranger In A Strange Land, Maiden's riffs are powered up, and vocals show despair that the original song was meant to show. However, it gets boring before the end of the song.

Grave Digger's cover of Running Free is very interesting. They captured the spirit of the song.

Tierra Santa's Flight Of Icarus shows good potential in the beginning, but later gets boring and shows the limited abilities of the singer.

Other songs are just bad (Steel Prophet, Sinergy) or bring nothing new (Rage, Iced Earth, Six Feet Under).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best Tribute album for the "Beast", October 21, 2004

By 

8Ball Chaos (Las Vegas, Nevada USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tribute to the Beast (Audio CD)

How many so called tribute albums are there for Iron Maiden? 10, 22, 666...it doesn't matter. This one, along with Vol. 2 are all you need if you are a fan of Maiden. As to all those of you who are downplaying the female vocals, I would like to point out that there exists and ALL female band known as the Iron Maidens that can destroy any cover of any Iron Maiden song with perfection. Check them out if you don't believe me www.theironmaidens.com. Unfortunately, unless you are on the left coast, you may never see them because they are based out of so-cal. That being said, this album does an excellent job of recreating many of the classic Maiden tunes that we all know and love. Some of the highlights I think include Darkane's version of "Powerslave", Opeth doing "Remember Tomorrow", fairly close copies of "Number of the Beast" by Sinergy and "Die w/Your Boots On" by Sonata Arctica, a fantastic cover of "Hallowed By Thy Name" by Cradle of Filth which also appears on their Cruelty and the Beast Bonus CD, and an awesome cover of Transylvania (done instrumentally) by Iced Earth. Their are many other covers that will knock you out of your mullet too including "Children of the Damned", "The Trooper", "The Flight of Icarus", and "22 Acacia Avenue" just to name a few. Many casual metal fans may be reading this and not recognize some of these bands. This is because most are Death Metal/Black Metal outfits that play music that is influenced by many British and Scandinavian Metal bands of the past. What better way to pay homage to them than to honor the kings. These bands do an excellent job. In my opinion, and you are entitled to disagree, this and its' partner CD (VOL. 2) are the best tribute albums that exist for Iron Maiden.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite an interesting mix..., February 23, 2005

By 

Sam Allen "A zealous individual" (Newburyport Mass.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tribute to the Beast (Audio CD)

If you have read my review of 'Keepers of Jericho: A Tribute To Helloween,' then you probably know how I feel about tributes. This is a bag of interestingly mixed tunes from an even stranger mix of artists. I have sampled the album here, and I will say that with a vast majority of the contributions, I am most impressed. However, like on the Helloween one, this does have it's share of butcheries. Let's take a look.

1. Steel Prophet-"The Ides of March/Purgatory": Well, unfortunately, all I heard was about half of "Ides of March," but I know Steel Prophet's sound well enough to be able to picture what "Purgatory" will sound like. Probably, pretty good.

2. Children of Bodom-"Aces High": It seems that melodic death actually does a pretty good job with Iron Maiden, and "the Bodom bashers" are no exception. A lower key than the original, and much shriller vocals, but ultimately, it's just as good as the original.

3. Rage-"The Trooper": Not too hot. Rage's singer just doesn't pull this one off well enough.

4. Cradle of Filth-"Hallowed Be Thy Name": My favorite on the album! In spite of a massive difference in vocal sounds, this is perfect!

5. Grave Digger-"Running Free": Meh, this is faithful to the original, but the singer, who generally sounds awesome, doesn't sound too hot here.

6. Burden of Grief-"Prowler": A more extreme death metal band covers the song that pretty much introduced Iron Maiden. Good, but the key is a bit low, which might turn off some hardcore fans.

7. Sonata Arctica-"Die With Your Boots On": Well, this is not quite as extravagant as the Cradle of Filth cover, but my current favorite Finnish group does a worthy contribution here, with vocals that fit perfectly.

8. Therion-"Children of the Damned": Not too hot. The singer just can't hit the high notes that Bruce can, and he sounds really bored.

9. Iced Earth-"Transylvania": Awesome. Though Matt doesn't get to sing here (it's an instrumental), I find it quite faithful to the original.

10. Opeth-"Remember Tomorrow": Also awesome. Though the death vocals aren't as emphasized as Opeth normally would emphasize them, it's actually for the better.

11. Sinergy-"The Number of the Beast": Awesome! And to think, the singer is a CHICK! This actually Alexi Laiho's second appearance here; he plays 1st guitar with this band, and also plays 1st guitar and sings for Children of Bodom.

12. Disbelief-"Stranger In A Strange Land":UGGGGHHHHH! By far the worst on the tribute. The vocalist for this band is okay in general, but Disbelief just doesn't sound right for this in the first place.

13. Tierra Santa-"Flight of Icarus": Not awful, but a bit strange; it starts out as more of a ballad, and slowly builds up.

14. Dark Tranquillity-"22 Acacia Avenue": Another Scandinavian melodic death band contributes. Overall, it sounds pretty good, though, naturally, the vocals don't fit...at first. Once I got used to it, I really enjoyed this one.

15. Six Feet Under-"Wrathchild": Actually, you don't need to buy this to get this; it can also be found on their 2000 cover album, 'Graveyard Classics.' It's pretty much what you might expect from Chris Barnes, him being the master of death metal and all like that.

16. Darkane-"Powerslave": Meh, this isn't nearly as good as the original, but for an extreme thrash act, this is pretty good.