Depending on the artist and choice of songs, covers albums can be an absolute godsend. One of the reasons I was looking forward to this particular album is the eclectic mix of hits ranging from Classic Rock to 80's Pop rearranged and covered as Heavy Metal tracks, not just because of my fondness for those genres but because I like listening to a good tune in different variations...but yes, this more than other covers albums because I like Jorn's style of Metal. However, the end result of Jorn's labours is sadly nothing spectacular and possibly the biggest disappointment I've ever had to review on this blog.
I should start off with the positives, mainly being the album opener and closer ("I Know There's Something Going On" and "Die Young") for slightly different reasons. I loved the Frida cover because Jorn's rendition takes a Pop song and turns it into something that sounds like an Ozzy Osbourne track but with better vocals. The transition works incredibly well and I would call it a "necessary" cover, as far as cover versions go. "Die Young" earns its place here not just for being a solid cover of the Black Sabbath original but for doing something a little different with the source material.
If you've heard the original track, you'll know it fades out during a solo. Here, Jorn extends it and adds a proper outro that the song rightfully deserves. It can be very easy to tinker with a song's structure and cock everything up, just like all the artists who slow down "Summertime Blues" when they perform it for some fucking reason. However, the change here is small but significant enough to work. I'm guessing these two tracks were picked to bookend the album because Jorn or the studio executives knew they were awesome covers. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the rest of Heavy Rock Radio.
Whilst there are a few neat choices and interesting takes on lesser known tracks that you probably wouldn't expect to be on a Metal covers album ("You're The Voice" - John Farnham, "The Final Frontier" - Iron Maiden), none of them really hit home. They're all pretty damn faithful to the original tracks aside from a few little tweaks here, such as bizarre key changes and tarted up solos where appropriate (which puts him ahead of Zakk Wylde as a guitarist/songwriter, at the very least) and as a result it doesn't really feel like there's much point in listening to them.
The covers are OK, I suppose. I mean, there are a few duds here and there where some poor choices about the key the band played in and use of instruments in the wrong moments ruin everything ("Rainbow In The Dark" - Dio, "Hotel California" - The Eagles) but most of the covers are all pretty average, so there's that. However, I wanted something more ambitious. I wanted to hear tracks that aren't known for "rocking" being given the Metal treatment, like the excellent "Rasputin" cover by Turisas. If not that then heavier versions of softer tracks like the ubiquitous "The Sound Of Silence" cover by Disturbed that everyone's banging on about*.
I think the main problem with this is probably the thing that makes it most admirable; at the end of the day, it's a passion project. This wasn't meant to make Jorn a shitload of cash or give fans what they wanted, it's just a collection of songs Jorn likes that he wanted to cover...so he did. As I said, it's a commendable decision further proven by the lack of a Super-Deluxe-Bonus Disc edition that's becoming fucking commonplace in Rock and Metal now, so even if the music isn't to my quality standards I still have more respect for Jorn Lande than I do for, say, Dave Mustaine.
On the other hand, this passion project means the person to get the most out of this is Jorn himself. He would've chosen the tracks he wanted to cover but they're simply not the best songs he could've picked. Regrettably, this is an album that could've been fantastic if there was more emphasis on Pop than Hard Rock/Metal. Whilst I may not be a fan of the originals that were picked for this album, Jorn doesn't really do anything to improve or adapt them so the end result is just more of the same, albeit done a little better or worse depending on your personal opinions towards bands such as Queen or Journey. I can't believe I'm actually saying this but this album could've done with less Dio and more Kate Bush, or artists of those genres.
I'm giving it a 4/10 as the first and last tracks are good and the rest of the tracks are alright, but Jorn played it too safe for it to have any real impact. He should've taken a few more risks with the song choices and arrangements but instead, he refused to gamble and the result is still a loss. If you want to hear well known Rock songs faithfully recreated as mediocre Metal tracks, this album is perfect for you but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a huge fan of any of these originals, salivating at the thought of MOAR "STORMBRINGER". Hopefully at the very least Jorn was happy with how this turned out, otherwise the whole endeavour would be completely pointless.
* I would've loved to hear Disturbed cover "Hello" - Adele in the same style. Disturbed or Chris Cornell.
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