Review of Various Artists - A Tribute To The Beast Vol. 2

The tribute album . . . perhaps the best way to gain exposure for your band - or for a label to make a few extra bucks. Either way, it always gains my interest, as I’m very curious to see how other bands interpret some of my favorite songs by metal’s most legendary force, Iron Maiden. As far as tribute albums go, this one is probably one of the best, with a great variety of covers, almost all of which are done quite well. Here is the track-by-track review: The album opens with a killer cover of “Killers”, done with the fury and precision of none other than Destruction. An excellent choice for the band, seeing as they are at their best when playing songs with prominent bass lines and aggressive lyrics. Second is Sentenced’s take on “The Trooper”. This was originally released on the aptly-titled The Trooper EP with original vocalist Taneli Jarva, so the vocals are very gruff and death metally. Sentenced plays a mean Trooper, what with their heavy, low guitars and such, but it lacks the sheer energy conveyed by the Iron Maiden version. Primal Fear, the band everyone loves to hate for some reason, presents us with “2 Minutes to Midnight”. Love him or hate him, since this is a vocal-heavy track, it plays well with the excellent vocal talent of Ralf Scheepers. One of the best and most emotional Maiden tracks, “Wasted Years”, is covered by Thunderstone. While they absolutely BUTCHER the opening riff by creating a weak, emotionless intro (it needs some echo), they really do play the rest of the song quite well. I’m torn on whether to not like this one because of the terrible intro (probably the best intro to a song EVER when performed by Iron Maiden), or if I should like it because of the emotional and progressive way they perform the rest. A conundrum, for sure. Stuck Mojo plays my title track, “Wrathchild” (originally released on their Violate This collection) like only they can. Some people think of this as an abomination because of the rap vocals, I find it very interesting and original. Plus it features Devin Townsend as well, so how can you go wrong? A very true-to-form version of “Remember Tomorrow” is done by Anthrax. Most of us have heard this one (having been previously seen on the Stomp 442 import), and it is played just as the original is played. Tankard plays a very thrashy “Iron Maiden”, a fun headbanger to get you in the mood for metal! A truly EXCELLENT cover of “Moonchild” is performed by Necrophobic. Despite a funny attempt at clean vocals for the “Seven deadly sins” part at the beginning, this one is full of energy and sounds incredible with the death vocals and eeriness of Necrophobic. By far the worst cover on the album, Mägo De Oz destroys “Strange World” in a disgusting display of melodramatic prog crap. However, once the music gets started, the combination of the renaissance folkish flute and good guitars resurrect this one from the grave . . . almost four whole minutes into the damn thing. Wolf does a standard musical and sort of annoying vocal version of one of Maiden’s most underrated songs, “Déjà Vu”. At times he almost sounds like Geddy Lee of Rush, which is terrible. But there are points when he sounds fine, so this is a good but non-ambitious cover. Harkening back to the first album, Mystic Prophecy plays a little “Sanctuary”. Not much to say here, pretty standard stuff. My very favorite song on this compilation would have to be Graveworm’s cover of “Fear of the Dark”. Beautiful violins in place of vocals playing the opening title, and powerful, atmospheric black metal annihilating the rest makes for some DAMN GOOD metal. The song is good to begin with, so add these elements and you’re in heaven. There’s even a bagpipe thrown in about half way through for good measure! Therion plays a song that I’ve never been too keen on, “Revelations”, in the live setting. While done well, I’ve never much cared for the song. Its good live, but not much on disc. Closing out the album is Iced Earth’s somewhat stale (having previously appeared on their Tribute to the Gods disc) cover of “Hallowed Be Thy Name”. It too is done well, but it lacks the power and excellence of the Iron Maiden version, and there really aren’t any stylistic additions to it, so it just comes off as average. A Tribute to the Beast volume 2 is a very good tribute album. For anyone looking to spice up their Maiden collection, this is for you - or anyone for that matter. I highly recommend it. Wrathchild

Graveworm “Fear of the Dark” Destruction “Killers” Necrophobic “Moonchild”

Release Details

Various Artists

A Tribute To The Beast Vol. 2

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