Respectful.
That’s the word that immediately hit me when I ran through the new Metal Allegiance EP, ‘Fallen Heroes’, the first time. And the word sticks with me. It really is the best description of Metal Allegiance’s renditions of the three songs that were originally crafted by three of rock music’s big characters.
The news of the deaths of the three people paid homage to, Lemmy, Bowie and Glenn Frey were of course perceived differently by all of us. In the case of Frey, I was less moved I must admit, since I never came much in touch with the music of the Eagles. Lemmy’s passing was hardly surprising, but still seeming like and unlikely, even unreal event. He’s always been there, dammit! Bowie’s death, on the other hand, came as a shock, and put me on a Bowie listening marathon that lasted days, and had me moved to tears every time I listened to Lazarus from ‘Black Star’.
The Metal Allegiance core team, Skolnick, Menghi and Portney, have summoned Troy Sanders from Mastodon, Mark Osegueda from Death Angel and Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy to do the vocal honours for Iron Fist, Suffragette City and Life in the Fast Lane respectively. They do a fab job, each in their own right. Osegueda surprises by not sounding Death Angel at all – the man has a completely controlled and thourgh-and-through perfect rock voice. White-Gluz shows again that she’s so much more than the death grunt and delivers a wonderful version of Life in the Fast Lane. Sanders is a good choice for the Motörhead tune – raw, direct, true to Lemmy.
I’m sure that many Bowie and Eagles purists will hate this, but, you know, a bit of double bass drum rolls on properly written rock songs never hurt a soul!
Good stuff.
Track listing:
01. Iron Fist (Motörhead)
02. Suffragette City (David Bowie)
03. Life in the Fast Lane (Eagles)
Playing time: 11 minutes
Release date: 12th of August, 2016
Label: Nuclear Blast
Website: www.metalallegiance.com
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