Best Metal Cover Songs of All Time
Top 15, Numbers 10 through 12
Best Metal Covers of All Time—Number 12: Blinded by the Light—Manfred Mann’s Earth band (original = Bruce Springsteen)
Without cover songs, it’s entirely possible that Manfred Mann’s Earth band would have only been known by a small amount of dedicated fans1. The best of the lot—IMHO, of course—is their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Blinded by the Light”, which originally appeared on Springsteen’s debut album Greetings from Asbury Park. Where the original sounds quite samey throughout the song, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band added some great—and desperately needed—dynamics to the song, especially around the chorus.
Having said that, while Manfred Mann’s Earth Band also took some liberty2 with the original lyrics3, these were mostly changes for the better. And introducing the keyboards really improved the original, as does the guitar loop plus soaring keyboards before the chorus4. With the a cappella vocals mixing the verse and the chorus at the end being the icing on the hard rock/prog cake. Let’s just say that in the original Springsteen’s lyrics where way ahead of his music5.
As it is, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band successfully managed to unearth6 the full potential of this song.
🤘🤘🤘🤘
Best Metal Covers of All Time—Number 11: White Rabbit—Sanctuary (original = Jefferson Airplane)
Whiole the studio version of this cover—on Sanctuary’s Refuge Denied debut album7—is good, this live version kills it. While quite a few people cannot stand Warrel Dane’s vocals8, they fit both Sanctuary’s and Nevermore’s songs to a ‘T’, displaying a versatile range in both tone and emotion.
It also neatly foreshadows several Nevermore songs with a similar theme, like “Lost” (The Politics of Ecstasy), arguably the whole Dreaming Neon Black album, “Narcosynthesis” (Dead Heart in a Dead World), “Noumenon” (Enemies of Reality), and “Medicated Nation” (This Godless Endeavor). It demonstrates another thing a good cover does: complement the band both musically and thematically.
Unfortunately, singer Warrel Dane died in December 2017, leaving a legacy of three Sanctuary and seven Nevermore albums of which I consider three—Into the Mirror Black, The Politics of Ecstasy and This Godless Endeavor—as essential. I miss him and the bands he fronted.
🤘🤘🤘🤘
Best Metal Covers of All Time—Number 10: The Trooper—The HU (original = Iron Maiden)
This one came out on October 4 this year (2024), so was not part of my original Top 15. Yet I like it so much I had no choice but to include it (and kick another one out9). I mean Mongol warriors10 covering Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”? With a morin khuur solo that gives Dave Murray and Adrian Smith a run for their money? With the “Hu” shouts after the “Who-o-o-o-o” chants as the cherry on the metal cake? How can I resist? Answer: I can’t.
This is metal reaching across language barriers, across cultures, across borders, across everything! It reminds me of the time I was in India for the day job back in the early nineties where I—to my surprise—met quite a few young Indians11 who loved metal. Or of the time a waiter in a restaurant in The Philippines—also back in the nineties—became nervous because he thought I was Lars Ulrich12. Just to say that metal has fans—and bands—in every country of the world13.
And while I like the mix of modern and traditional Mongolian instruments in the video, I strongly suspect the cover might have worked even better if The HU had resticted themselves to traditional instruments, as they do on most of their original songs. Now please come back to play in Europe14?!
🤘🤘🤘🤘
Support this writer:
Like this post!
Re-stack it using the ♻️ button below!
Share this post on Substack and other social media sites:
Join my mailing list:
(Alternatively, you could buy me a coffee.)
Author’s note: this is another post that I will appear automaticaly while I am at work at sea. This one’s planned for Saturday November 30. I should be back home on Thursday December 4, after which I am free for the rest of the year, hallelujah!
The fate of many great hard rock and heavy metal bands, just ask Savatage, Threshold, Armored Saint, Fates Warning, King’s X, Nevermore, Pain of Salvation, Satan/Skyclad, Voivod, and many others;
Moving the fourth verse forward to second while skipping the fifth and the sixth (which was for the better);
Even if ‘cut loose like a deuce’ and ‘revved up like a deuce’ basically mean the same (‘deuce’ referred to the 1932 Ford Coupé which was an iconic hot rod);
Now if they’d just cut the slow guitar solo in the middle it would’ve been perfect;
Which he eventually corrected, bringing him world fame;
Pun intended;
Produced by Dave Mustaine, no less;
I’d say they’re an acquired taste;
Apologies to Emm Gryner’s cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train”;
And in the days of Ghengis and Kublai Khan, the Mongols know a thing or two about cavalry charges…;-)
I ended up giving the casstte tapes I brought with me to them, as I could always re-record them, and much music wasn’t available in countires like India yet (this was before the internet, lat alone spotify and other streaing services);
Lars would wish he was as tall as you, André Verhuysen said when I told him the anecdote;
As far as I can tell, obviously;
The HU were and are Iron Maiden’s support act on the American part of their “The Ftutre Past” world tour, but not in Europe.