Best Metal Cover Songs of All Time

Top 15, Numbers 7 through 9

Best Metal Covers of All Time—Number 9: Live and Let Die—Guns ’N Roses (original = Paul McCartney)

I’m not a fan of Guns ’N Roses, but I will admit that they picked up this James Bond¹ song—written by Paul and Linda McCartney—and gave it the bombastic heavy metal treatment it needed. Not that the original is bad—it’s quite good, and the live versions McCartney performed with Wings were also heavier than the original²—but replacing the orchestral crescendos with heavy metal guitars is simply a master stroke.

And it’s one of the few Guns ’N Roses songs where I can stand Axl Rose’s voice, as it works quite well in the restrained verses (before the crescendo kicks in again) (and again). Yet the soaring guitars lift this one above the original. Yes, sometimes heavier is most definitely better.

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Best Metal Covers of All Time—Number 8: The Green Manalishi—Judas Priest (original = Fleetwood Mac)

Before it became a greatest hit machine, the original Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green produced a great mix of blues and rock with a number of UK top forty hits³ like “Black Magic Woman⁴”, “Need Your Love so Bad”, “Oh Well”, “Albatross⁵”, and—indeed—“The Green Manalishi (with the Two Prong Crown)”. The Peter Green version of Fleetwood Mac did quite well in the UK, but hardly made a dent in the US (which would eventually change after his departure).

“The Green Manalishi (with the Two Prong Crown)” was Peter Green’s last song he wrote with Fleetwood Mac, while using LSD. It was based on a drug-induced dream in which a green dog barked at him from the afterlife and was released as a single in 1970, reaching number 10 in the British charts.

Judas Priest covered it on Hell Bent for Leather⁶ and on their seminal Unleashed in the East live album. While the original is a very good song, ahead of its time, Priest improved it greatly. Heavier, faster and more forceful, with the sharper Tipton/Downing solos and Halford’s harrowing shrieks at the end, Priest has made this song their own.

As PopMatters had it:

“[the cover] succeeded in such a way that the Priest version is now more famous than the original. […] Priest’s towering version is nevertheless an all-time heavy metal classic.”

Agreed. I’ve used the live version because that’s when I first encountered it.

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Best Metal Covers of All Time—Number 7: Into the Void—Soundgarden (original = Black Sabbath)

As mentioned in a previous post, Black Sabbath is most probably the most covered heavy metal band. I could easily fill this series with Sabbath covers alone, meaning many of you will disagree with me for singling this particular one out. Such is life.

For one, though, “Into the Void” is one of Black Sabbath’s best songs in their first incarnation with Ozzy Osbourne. To many people, the first eight albums are the essence of heavy metal in general and Black Sabbath in particular. I partly agree, because those first eight albums contained a lot of filler and failed experiments. While the great songs in that period are timeless classics (“Black Sabbath”, “War Pigs”, “Electric Funeral”, “Into the Void”, “Supernaut”, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, “Symptom of the Universe”), it’s not controversial to state that the very first Black Sabbath album that contained no filler was Heaven and Hell.

On the other hand, this leaves an opportunity for covering Black Sabbath’s weaker songs, because than the chances of improving it are much bigger. Nevertheless, Soundgarden were made of sterner stuff as they covered one of Black Sabbath’s best songs and—even if slightly—still managed to make it better.

Musically, it stays true to the original while—unsurprisingly—having a better production which makes it sound a bit heavier⁷, and more aggressive. Soundgarden’s genius move, though, is using a speech by Chief Sealth that contains an environmental message and not only seemlessly fits into the song, but greatly complements Geezer Butler’s original lyrics.

Masterful!

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Author’s note: after this we’ll switch to two numbers per post, so numbers 5-6, 3-4, and 1-2. This will get numbers one and two posted on December 28, well before New Year’s Eve. And I’ve already got a Best Heavy Metal [something] in mind for next year.

1. Insert the perennial discussion: who was the best Bond? Scots will swear it’s Sean Connery while the modern generation will prefer Daniel Craig. My late father actually preferred Roger Moore because he was a true Englishman (Connery’s Scottish brogue irked him, as the character in Ian Fleming’s books—which my father read—was clearly English). On the one hand, the Roger Moore Bond fitted seemlessly in the many high society milieus he was infiltrating, yet wasn’t quite convincing as a fighter. On the other hand, the Sean Connery James Bond was convincing as a fighter, while looking a bit off in the aristocracy evironments. My father didn’t live to experience the Daniel Craig version, and I’m wondering how he would have (dis)liked him;

2. A common thing: many songs become heavier when performed live, as the converse rarely happens;

3. Instead of reaching the top 10 in the US Bilboard Hot 100 four times in a row in 1977 with “Go Your Ow Way”, “Dreams”, “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun”, all of whom—ironically—didn’t make the top 10 in the UK;

4. Later a huge hit when covered by Santana on their album Abraxas and their seminal Moonflower live album;

5. Which reached number one in Europe;

6. Called Killing Machine in the UK;

7. Sometimes a second guitar makes the difference;