Achieving the correct, tasteful balance to create a perfect heavy metal cover version is a tricky proposition for even the best of bands in music. They must ensure they keep their integrity intact, bringing the heavy and showcasing who they are, while being sure not to create anything that could be considered a “novelty.” After all, heavy metal is a very serious business.
Be it refining or overhauling the original versions of songs completely, these are the heavy metal bands who took their cover versions to new heights. From Disney to Lemmy, these reinterpreted and repackaged bangers are all setting the standards by which all other metal covers will be measured.
10
Sepultura – “Orgasmatron”
Brazilian Maulers Deliver A Crushing Take On Motörhead’s Classic
Motörhead are one of hard guitar music’s most well-loved bands, and with good reason. For any group to take one of the loudest band on earth’s songs and make it work on their own terms is a difficult proposition, chiefly because Lemmy and his band’s songs are rooted in the band’s authentic, gruff, no-nonsense personality. It’s hard to replicate or improve upon songs that are so perfectly defined by their authors.
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Brazilian metal royalty Sepultura achieve that seemingly impossible task when covering “Orgasmatron” with all the power of an oncoming tank. Released on their seminal thrash album, Arise, the band play it straight down the middle, making little-to-no creative alterations, but instead Sepultura bring their own brand of “take no prisoners” primitive aggression to the track. The Cavalera brothers dip their trademark speed but none of the bone-crushing heaviness and attitude to create an all-time classic cover that they’ve also played on stage approaching 300 times.
9
HIM – Wicked Game
Metal’s Most Sensual Cover Is Essential Listening
It’s fair to say that sensuality and intimacy are not primary songwriting concerns for most bands within heavy music, the genre that gave the world Cannibal Corpse. It’s why bands like Sleep Token, The Cult, and Finland’s HIM are often given a rough ride for having more feminine attributes at the heart of their music. In the latter’s case, they would double down on their androgyny to create one of heavy music’s most iconic cover versions.
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The subtle and moody approach of Chris Isaak on his ’90s international superhit, “Wicked Game”, is a glorious example of how less can be more. Ville Valo and his gothic cohorts lay waste to that ideal, instead incorporating excessive drama and technicolor into the song and improving it in the process. The longing desire of Isaak’s vocal narrative is taken to new heights by Ville’s natural devilish charisma, as the seductive nature of the song is pushed to the fore with improved force and sexuality.
8
Killswitch Engage – Holy Diver
Dio’s Classic Is Given A Metalcore Makeover
Of the hundreds of bands that flooded the scene in the 2000s and 2010s, Killswitch Engage have always been one of the more well-respected metalcore bands. With their style having more in common with traditional heavy metal than a lot of the bands they’d find themselves on Ozzfest and Warped Tour with, Killswitch are way more palatable than the genre-dividing creative decisions made by the likes of Bring Me The Horizon. As such, covering one of the most loved metal songs of all time was not as controversial for them as it would’ve been for their peers.
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This faithful tribute to one of metal’s greatest ever vocalists is a slam dunk. Howard Jones’s beautifully rich tone and weighty, bass-heavy delivery and the band’s chugging heaviness are in direct opposition to Dio’s altogether more ’80s approach. The earnest seriousness of the original is delightfully tweaked to make Killswitch’s Holy Diver a more fun-fueled anthem.
7
Ghost – If You Have Ghosts
Tobias Forge And Dave Grohl Weave Spooky Magic
This particular cover was the title track of the band’s EP of the same name, and was a major step for Ghost in their upward trajectory. Produced by Dave Grohl before the band exploded into stardom, the Swedish retro rockers’ cover of ’60s American psychedelic songwriter Roky Erickson’s “If You Have Ghosts” is the definition of a perfect cover version. It’s faithful to the original in that it remains trippy and otherwordly, yet it takes bold steps away from the original’s tone, sound and feel.
Unbeknownst to the audience, Dave Grohl revealed he has worn a mask and played drums live with Ghost several times.
Erickson’s swinging, upbeat, surf-rock original song is a fun and carefree ditty that served as the final track on his 1981 album, The Evil One. Ghost turned it into a haunting and epic occult rock anthem fit for Papa Emiratus and his Nameless Ghouls. A staple of the band’s live show, it is one of those rare occasions where the band covering the song has taken ownership of it entirely.
6
Betraying The Martyrs – Let It Go
Elsa Ditches Being A Disney Princess To Hit The Pit
At this point in time, it doesn’t feel churlish or hyperbolic to call “Let It Go” one of the most recognizable songs in Disney’s history. More surprisingly, Idina Menzel’s signature hit from Frozen is regularly played at metal festivals all over the world by festival DJs in the intervals between bands. Rather than be greeted with anger and derision, the Elsa lead classic has been known to cause mass sing-a-longs, much to the confusion of food vendors and security guards everywhere.
Idinia Menzel’s original version of “Let It Go” has over 885 million plays on Spotify and over 3.5 billion plays on YouTube.
It turns out metalheads have a great sense of humor when their porridge is just the right temperature. The OTT-nature of the song and its dedication to being as overblown as possible lends itself to the genre spectacularly. French maniacs’ Betraying The Martyrs’ explosive metalcore cover will still scare the pants off of a preschooler, but it’s really fun for everyone over the age of 10.
5
Fu Manchu – Godzilla
Stoner Rock Legends Help Bring The Notorious Monster To Life
Dedicated to the world’s most infamous kaiju, Blue Oyster Cult’s “Godzilla” is a staple on classic rock playlists and played by radio stations all over the world to this day. It’s a track that’s almost flawless in its execution, arriving with an iconic guitar riff that could flatten a city all on its lonesome. So, how did a bunch of stoner rockers improve on this brilliance?
System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian also covered “Godzilla” for the 2019 movie, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters.
The answer is simple. They made it slower, nastier, and added even more weight to the song, culminating in the track having a more lumbering pace and a destructive feel that’s more fitting for the King of the Monsters. There are more well-known songs on this list, but Fu Manchu’s spectacularly heavy take on this classic is arguably the most satisfying of them all.
4
Guns N Roses – Live And Let Die
Hollywood’s Finest Ditch James Bond And Get Dangerous
Regularly given the title of The World’s Most Dangerous Band, it was the element of chaos and ferocity that Guns N’ Roses brought to Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Live And Let Die” that made it such an improvement. Cinematic in scope and fearless in its willingness to genre-hop from hard rock to reggae and big band, neither version of the song lacks bombast. In fact, the reason for Guns N’ Roses being able to make such drastic improvements may not even be down to something musical at all.
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Originally released in 1973, “Live And Let Die” was the lead song from the James Bond movie of the same name. As such, Paul McCartney was obligated to make it the perfect soundtrack to a ’70s 007 flick. It makes the end result a little hammy, with “cops and robbers”-style musical interludes holding back the song. With no such considerations and Slash’s enormous guitar sound in tow, Guns N’ Roses turned the song into a powerhouse of fat riffs, wailing lead guitars, and blockbuster movie energy that makes the end result far more satisfying.
The Biggest Band In Heavy Metal Makes This Diamond Head Classic Their Own
There are a myriad of ways in which Metallica stand out from their contemporaries, and one of the most notable is their litany of classic cover versions. The Misfits enjoyed notoriety because of Metallica’s cover versions, and the likes of Budgie, Blitzkrieg, and the Anti-Nowhere League received attention for their life’s work, purely based on the immense cover versions Metallica cranked out in the ’80s and late ’90s. Replicating the song note-for-note, Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?” is perhaps the best Metallica cover of the bunch.
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Crucially, it sounds like a Metallica song despite being released years before their formation. Diamond Head’s influence on Metallica was so enormous that the threatening riffs, wailing leads, satisfying turns of pace, and sinister narrative of witches and curses on “Am I Evil?” all somehow feel more native to the Bay Area thrashers. It also sounds way more convincing with Metallica’s trademark ’80s sound powering the engine room.
2
Pantera – Cat Scratch Fever
Dimebag And The Gang Embrace Fun For This Electric Cover
There’s always plenty of Southern energy in the hard-hitting riffing of Pantera, but on this cover of Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever”, the Abbot brothers really lean into their Texas roots. Indeed, it’s Dimebag Darrel and Vinnie Paul’s love of all things KISS and ’70s glam metal that makes this such a perfect choice for the band to cover. Bursting with bombast, sleaze, and star appeal, it’s a genuine joy to hear Pantera dropping metal for almost 4-minutes of perfect backyard BBQ hard rock.
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In truth, there isn’t a lot of difference in terms of the original song and this cover. The fun for fans comes when you hear that Pantera are clearly having a blast recording this song. Originally captured for the Edward Furlong KISS movie, Detroit Rock City, Pantera’s “Cat Scratch Fever” is made much more enjoyable by the omission of the macho seriousness that they made their forte throughout their latter years.
1
Anthrax – Bring The Noise
New York Thrashers Drop The First Nu Metal Song With Public Enemy
Public Enemy has always been popular with the fans of heavy music, despite how judgmental the fanbase can be when it comes to accepting artists from outside their genre. Hank Shockley’s hard-hitting production and Chuck D’s natural aggression spoke to legions of headbangers, as the New Yorkers bum-rushed the mainstream in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Being joined by fellow New Yorkers Anthrax, it is not hyperbole to suggest that this cover song changed the history of heavy music.
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Aerosmith and Run-DMC’s take on “Walk This Way” is often cited as a major influence on nu metal, but, in truth, that collaboration is a million miles from the genre in terms of musicianship, attitude, heaviness, and aggression. Adding bouncy down-tuned riffing, a subtle lead guitar line that replicated the sound of a turntable, and panic-heightening DJ scratches to PE’s already catchy and hard-hitting rhymes, Anthrax and Public Enemy struck gold. The likes of Rage Against The Machine, Limp Bizkit, and all artists who are known for blending rap and metal owe this song a debt of gratitude.