Customer Reviews

Tribute to the Beast

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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).

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.

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.

Ugh...where to start. Maiden is by far my favorite metal band ever so when I saw this album on the shelf, I had to get it. Unfortunately I would have been better served grabbing the MP3's off the net first. Cradle of Filth doing Hallowed Be Thy Name? Travesty. Utterly horrible. Painfully repulsive. Why people buy their albums is beyond me. Yes, I have listened to them. No they are not good. Children of Bodom's Aces High? These boys need to grow up. Iron Maiden was more than just high speed mayhem. They were probably the most melodic metal band around. Dickenson gave them a unique sound that helped them rise above the crop. It seems that having a talented vocalist is no longer a requirement in metal and that is a shame. Most of these inbred fools just grunt their vocals and its ruined metal far more than those whining grunge acts ever did.

Anyway, the album is not entirely bad. Sonata Artica's Die With Your Boots On is the best song on the album and breathes new life into the song. Speaking of breathing new life into a song, Tierra Santa's Flight of Icarus does just that and in a good way to boot. Iced Earth's Transylvania is a welcome treat as is Rage's The Trooper. Sinergy's The Number of the The Beast is okay, nothing special really but decent compared to the other [stuff].

This is NOT a good album.

To start with, half of the band lack the emotion of real 'Maiden.

* The Steel Prophet cover isn't too shabby, something I can't say about some of the other covers.

* As much as I love Children of Bodom, I don't like their covers: Alex doesn't have the voice.

* The vocalist of Rage sings like a japanese woman with a sore throat which is strange because last time I checked, Rage's singer was a man. I don't mean that women can't sing 'Maiden, on the countrary, the After Forever cover of "The Evil That Men Do" is magnificent, but Rage's cover is terrible.

* Then the good, old Cradle of Filth. Never a band with a more fitting name walked the face of earth. Except that, in case of this one, "Filth" isn't strong enough to describe what I think of them. No, I like the instrumental part of *SOME* songs, but the singer seems like he is dying from a lung disease.

* Grave Digger's cover is unremarkable.

* The Burden of Grief cover is just what to expect from a Death Metal band. I like it.

* Being a big Sonata Arctica fanboy, my opinion is biased: I love Sonata's cover of "Die With Your Boots On" but then I love everything Sonata Arctica has done before.

* Therion's attempt at "Children of the Damned" would've passed if the singer didn't sound to be bored to death singing this song. I admit I never liked that particular Maiden song, though. I can understand this chap.

* Iced Earth's instrumental-only piece is a joy and I never was fond of IE in particular (there are better bands than them).

* I always had a great interest in Opeth as the band has plays in two completely different styles. This cover has a typical Opeth sound.

* Surprisingly Sinergy's cover of one of IM's most popular songs sounds very close to the original Maiden. A good cover.

* Disbelief did to "Stranger In A Strange Land" what the barbarians did to Rome. 'Nuff said.

* Tierra Santa's cover of "Flight of Icarus" is interesting: it is made in the ballad/alt-rock style for the first half. It's an interesting piece of music.

* My feeling for Dark Tranquility is reminiscent of my feeling about Cradle of Filth. Since 22 Acacia Avenue is one of the first songs by IM I heard as well as one of my favorites, I am annoyed by this particular song.

* Six Feet Under's cover is bland.

* The last song is also unremarkable. I can't find anything good nor bad to say about it.

This is a pretty interesting album. I know I won't listen to it for long but it's worth listening to.

First I would like to respond to neon buttmunch. The reason that your so called 'crazy/thrash/screaming' heavy metal bands play music written by a 'power metal' band such as maiden is because they were INFLUENCED by them. And by the way, maiden is as straight up metal as they come. Now, these covers appeal to all metal fans of all metal sects. Sure youve got 6 feet under and Dark Tranquility playin the tuff guy hardcore style, and therion and sonata arctica playing the riff heavy power style, and cradle doing a the BEST version of Hallowed be thy name that I have ever heard (Excepting, of COURSE the original) This cd is a must have for ALL metal fans, whether they be followers of old school Iron Maiden or not, this disc kicks ass!

Basically, after reading a lot of other reviews, I've noticed the point of view they had, for the most part, was from a strictly power metal opinion. Nothing wrong with that, but to down-credit Children of Bodom, and Cradle of Filth due to their style and speed is rather unfair, though I like Children of Bodom's cover of "The Trooper" better than "Aces high". Sinergy was an interesting touch to hear a female vocalist try to cover Bruce's soaring vocals. She did alright. I don't mind the screaming vocals of Cradle of Filth, or lower vocals of Dark Tranquility, but I can't get into Six Feet Under's cover. Cookie Monsters from Sesame Street need not sing on an album. Opeth... Best Clean vocals ever!!! And Sonata Arctica aka Stratovarius II is also a great addition this album.

Absolutely amazing! This album is a masterpiece! Their covers sogs are simply fantastics! Grave Digger, Tierra Santa, Rage,Children Of Bodom..all formaidables bands paying reverence to the matser of metal.
Highly recommended
Not only 5 stars.. this album deserve 10 stars!!

Well, let's see, where should I start? Hmm, I love Iron Maiden, they are the inspiration to many of my current favorite bands and I have an unmeasurable amount of respect for them, but some of the covers on this album are complete crap. For example, Sinergy sings "The Number of the Beast." That statement alone ruins the song, because the lead vocalist of Sinergy is a woman, and I don't believe that a woman can sing Maiden songs correctly. I, for one, hate Rage and Steel Prophet and strongly dislike their covers. Despite some horrible covers this album is decent because of Opeth, Children of Bodom, and all above the others, Cradle of Filth. I am a huge fan of Mikael Akerfeldt, lead vocalist/gutairist of Opeth, and they did a great job with "Remember Tomarrow." The best song in the album is Cradle of Filth's "Hallow Be Thy Name." Danny Filth puts his heart behind the lyrics; it is simply amazing.
All in all, if you are a huge Scandinavian Metal fan then this is a good album for you. If your favorite band is Iron Maiden, then please stear away from this one, because it isn't as good as Maiden's albums. Just keep in mind, every band in this album is completely different, so you might find yourself liking only 2 or 3 songs. It could have been better.