The Hu : "Hun"

This project feels a little contrived to me. I think the folk elements of what they do work, but the metal side sounds like a Temu version of Black Album-era Metallica. If they were jsut a Mongolian band playing metal, it would be one thing, but they are being marketed like it's It's a Small World of Metal. The fact that they are dressed like extras from Dr Strange only makes the point clearer. You mean to tell me they just broke out of their homeland, which has little contact with the music industry, or they were founded and developed? Almost liek the male version of Babymetal

 It opens with the most commercial song, Nothing. More guests on "Lost Soul," which is well written and produced, though nothing groundbreaking. But for big dumb metal for the summer festival beer-drinking crowd, it works."The Men" would sound like Nickelback if it were not dressed up as folk metal. There is a little more nuance to "Echoes of My Father", but vocals are not these guys' strength.  The song " Shadow " was such generic metal that it just faded into the back, and I had to give it a second listien to pay more attention to what is going on, which is not much. The first song that grabs me is "The Real You"; the riff is kind of thrashy and feels more like actual metal. Though the vocals continue to be weak.

There is more swubg in the groove to "the Gray Hun" but it makes it sound more like warmed-over Metallica. At their best vocally, you can tell it's taking a great deal of love from the producers. They go for a more melodic tone on "Universe," but the vocals hold them back; it feels like it is for a Disney movie. I think another thing I don't like about what they do is that none of this sounds dark; there are more introspective moments, but just anthemic rousing, which is also the thing I do not like about most power metal. I will give this album an 8  in trying to hear this from the perspective of a fan, thanks to the production and couple trong songs, but this whole thing feels highly contrived,

pt305

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