life, and a little more

Iron Metallic Ivory

Nov 12

metalman777audio, music iron maiden, metallica, music, piano, piano tribute, tribute album No Comments

I’m a hypocrite…I’ll admit it.  Yesterday I wrote that I was taking a break and yet, here I am posting a new entry today!  What gives?

Well, as you might know, I’m rebuilding my music library, and as I was looking over music to put back into iTunes, I ran across two albums that really caught my eye (ear?)

The first album is entitled Pianotarium: A Piano Tribute to Metallica by Scott D. Davis.

This is from Mr. Davis’ official website:

Pianist/composer Scott D. Davis has been referred to as “the rocker of new age/contemporary classical music”. Perhaps New Age Reporter best described him by saying “his exuberance and originality are invigorating and his upbeat attitude contagious.”

Interestingly enough, if you ask Scott about his musical background he might surprise you. He comes not from a background of polished piano music, but grew up a typical 1980′s teenager strongly under the influences of such progressive rock artists as Rush, Queensrÿche, and Metallica. Scott pursued rock music as a career throughout his college years, playing keyboards for a number of local bands

I have to say that Mr. Davis really captures the mood and emotion of the songs he covers.  The piano is actually quite haunting at times.  Below is Master of Puppets, piano style:

[audio=https://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/Music/03%20Master%20of%20Puppets.mp3?w=323166e5]

Davis does choose a good variety of songs to cover, as well as adding three original compositions.  Here is the track listing for the album.

1. “Enter Sandman” – 5:39
2. “Until It Sleeps” – 4:27
3. “Master Of Puppets” – 8:44
4. “The Unforgiven” – 6:06
5. “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” – 6:23
6. “Nothing Else Matters” – 6:02
7. “One” – 6:17
8. “Fade To Black” – 6:49
9. “The Renewal – I – Lament” – 2:28
10. “The Renewal – II – Inner Battle” – 3:50
11. “The Renewal – III – Return to Sanity” – 3:53

The second album is another piano tribute, but this album gives tribute to metal gods Iron Maiden.

Scott Lavender has released The Piano Tribute to Iron Maiden.  Lavender takes some very classic Iron Maiden songs and translates them into piano interludes that, for the most part, capture the magic of Iron Maiden.

Information about Mr. Lavender was hard to find, but here is what I did scrounge up:

Scott Lavender is a both a talented conductor as well as a fantastic pianist, he has worked with the National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, The Los Angeles Philharmonic and many more. He holds a Bachelors Degree for Music in Piano Performance from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. After this he was awarded a Masters Degree in Instrumental Conducting from California State University. (found here)

Mr Lavender selects some wonderful Iron Maiden covers.  The tracklisting is:

1. Two Minutes to Midnight [6:33]
2. Wasted Years [5:11]
3. Can I Play with Madness [3:46]
4. The Trooper [4:54]
5. Brave New World [5:04]
6. Run to the Hills [3:49]
7. Caught Somewhere in Time [5:55]
8. Aces High [4:46]
9. Hallowed Be Thy Name [6:55]
10. Flight of Icarus [3:55]
11. Number of the Beast [6:02]
12. Eddie’s Lament (Original Track) [4:49]

I do like this album, but the piano sounds a little thin and tinny at times.  It sounds like Mr. Lavender has done an almost note for note translation of music, which normally wouldn’t bother me.  But after hearing Pianotarium and hearing the heart of the songs revealed with much passion and vigor, The Piano Tribute to Iron Maiden could seem a little lackluster.  The album artwork for this album is much better than the Metallica Tribute though!

Listen for yourself.  Below is the track Two Minutes to Midnight:

[audio=https://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/Music/01%20Two%20Minutes%20To%20Midnight.mp3?w=91076491]

Maiden Heaven: A Tribute to Iron Maiden

Jul 29

metalman777music avenged sevenfold, black tide, dream theater, iron maiden, machine head, maiden heaven, metal, metallica, tribute album No Comments

So I’m in my car yesterday and I catch the tail end of the local DJ saying “And that was Metallica’s new single, a cover of Iron Maiden’s Remember Tomorrow”.  Craptastic! How’d I miss that?  Metallica covering Maiden?  Can you say freakin’ awesome!

I do a quick Google search when I get home and find the album on which this song resides.  It is called Maiden Heaven:  A Tribute to Iron Maiden. Now this is a monster tribute album!  It is mostly great, with a few sucky covers thrown in for good measure.

Black Tide starts us off, and boy do they.  Their cover of Prowler is amazing.  Black Tide pulls off the energy and feeling of the song.

Next up is Metallica, covering Remember Tomorrow.  Awesome song!  Metallica stomps and pushes and thrashes their way through it.  Great to hear Metallica on top of their game again.

Avenged Sevenfold nails Flash of the Blade.  I’m liking them more and more as I listen to them.

Glamour of the Kill (who?)  tries to cover the classic 2 Minutes to Midnight and just can’t pull it off.  They sound like some bad 80′s glam band trying to sound tough. 

Coheed and Cambria step things up with their cover of The Trooper.  Although the singer’s voice is, um, unique, it still fits with the song.

Devildriver delivers one of the worst covers on the record.  Those cookie monster vocals just don’t give the song what is needed.

Maybe I spoke to soon….as Sign slaughters Run To the Hills.  How the crap did this band get onto the record?  I know covers are tricky.  You want to stamp the song with your own touch, but you have to pay homage to the original.  You would never ever in a million years recognize this song as the Run To The Hills that all Maiden fans love.

Thankfully Dream Theater does a phenomenal job on the next song, To Tame A Land.  Dream Theater is a natural fit on this cd.  They have their own bootleg album, where they covered the entire Number of the Beast record.  That is a must own for any DT or Iron Maiden fan!

Madina Lake (again, who?) gives us crap with a version of Caught Somewhere In Time that is sucky and horrible and should never have been made.

Gallows covers one of my all time favorite Maiden songs, Wrathchild.  This version is punky/hardcore, but still lets you know it is an Iron Maiden song.  Personally, I like Ultimatum’s cover way better.

Fear of the Dark is covered by a band named Fightstar. It isn’t bad.  They keep the feel of the song pretty well.

Machine Head rumbles in with Hallowed Be Thy Name and they rip it up (in a good way!)  This is a straight cover, almost note for note, and it sounds great!

Trivium brings us Iron Maiden and they do a good job too.  Again, the sound of the song is mostly kept, but with a lot of the growling vocals that Trivium is known for.

Year Long Disaster tries to cover Running Free, but like all of the alternative bands, they just can’t pull it off.  Sounds like a bad sleaze band trying to sound cool.

This last song, Brave New World, is performed by Ghostlines and it is soooooooooooo horrible that it barely deserves mention.  Sounds like The Cure or some crap like that.  How the heck did this even make it on the album?

All in all, this is a great tribute to one of the greatest Metal bands that has ever graced our planet.  It is worth the download!