the Metallica Blacklist pt 5

 

The new tribute to the Black Album called the Metallica Blacklist, is a collection of artists each covering a song from the band's biggest selling work. To review this as a whole would be a daunting task since there are 5 to 6 artists covering each.   So I broke this down by song,  So you are getting an installment of this review for each song.  Though when we get to some of the deeper cuts there are only a couple versions and in this installment we are covering those. 

First up is "Whereever I May Roam" . J Balvin has proved himself as garbage for just using the opening riff and rapping over it. Why is this even on here?  What makes things worse is this exact form of utter bullshit takes place on the track right after thanks to " Chase & Status, who are an equally shitty hip hop project. Then the Neptunes just do a dance remix of it which is easier to digest and I can actually listen to. Country artist Jon Pardi, saves the day and does a pretty impressive job, by picking up real instruments and learning how to play the god damn song. When I wonder why country music is so popular now, this experience is answering that question. 

Next- "Don't Tread on Me" , first there is a bullshit mash up of 'Don't Tread and nothing else matters". Skipping over that to Portugal the Man who finds their balls in every way but the vocals. When they do try to give the vocals more heft on the chorus it is multiple voices in a chant. . Really with Volbeat after then there is no real reason for them to show up as they dominate this. I think we could have had one really great tribute album if we took the best cover of each song and stripped the rest of the fat. Volbeat is not a band I am into as they are too radio friendly, but I normally like what I need to cut them some slack. 

Through the Never"- Ok here is the thing, the Hu are a lot of hype and work of the novelty of what they do, they are not legit metal. I think this cover shines light on that fact.It is weak. But when the only other person covering this song is a female pop singer, then I guess it makes more sense, if that is the best they can do, though I can name 20 metal bands I would rather here cover this song... Machine Head, Life of Agony, Watain, Megadeth, Flotsam 7Jetsam, Down, I can keep going all day