Nightwish, Phantom of the Opera

I was never a fan of musicals so the thought of a cover of "Phantom of the Opera" didn't really enthrall me.....and then I heard this....

Holy crap!!! Nightwish just rock! This is so awesome it cures hangovers!

The Satan Song

OK - so this isn't really a metal song, but it's about Satan so that's gotta count for something :-)

It has to be one of the funniest songs I have ever heard and I can't wait to hear a metal band do a cover - that will rule!

Actually, anything by Stephen Lynch would make a great cover - this guy is brilliant! Sick and twisted, yes, but brilliant :-)

All we are - Doro and Sabina

Probably the best known song by Doro - with or without Warlock - but joined here by Sabina from Holy Moses.

I'd LOVE to hear a pro recording of this track by this pair! The levels at the gig were badly set for Sabina's mike and as a result her vocals are mostly drowned outm, but it's an owesome track never the less.

OK - so it's not really a proper song.....just the chorus repeated over and over, but it sounds awesome dammit!

Sonata Arctica - Still loving you.

The old Scorpions classic!

I used to have the origional on a limited edition white picture disc and always ejoyed this song, but when my brother introduced me to this Sonata Arctica version I nearly flipped!

It's very seldom that a cover version is better than the origional, but in this case the cover is downright awesome! It retains the same feel and mood of the origional and sounds very much the same, but adds a fresher more modern twist.

Despite the speed of the drums it doesn't actually feel faster even though it is quite a bit quicker.

Brilliant musicianship and awesome production make this a killer track - one of my favourites of the past decade and I'm still expecting a lot more from Sonata Arctica who get my vote for "Best Power Metal Band"!

Angra - Wuthering Heights

This was recorded back when Andre Matos was still the vocalist and although I find his voice a bit "whiney" at times and I definitely prefer Eduardo Falaschi on the vocals in general, this is still a master track. I mean how the hell is it possible for a guy to hit those high notes??

I mean at times it hard to distinguish his vocals from the origional Kate Bush version - it's just not natural man! Brilliant!

One of my favourite Maiden tracks performed by a solo Bruce Dickenson at Wacken 2002.

He did a blinder of a gig with a few Maiden trackes mixed in with some of his solo stuff from "Tattooed Millionaire", "Skunkworks" etc but what made it really special is that Blaze Bayley also did a solo gig during the same festival and Paul DiAnno was booked but had to cancel at the last minute.

How cool would it have been having all three Iron Maiden vocalists on the same bill!! Even better...all on the stage at the same time doing a couple of Maiden classics!

Doro and Holy Moses

Let's face it - Doro has always been the ultimate metal chick. I had her poster on my wall more than 20 years ago and I was always a big Warlock fan!

It's only fitting that the younger female vocalists are paying hamage to her and her Sabina Claasen of "Holy Moses" gets her to do some guest vocals at Wacken. Damn I wish I could have been there!

I saw Dorro at Wacken in 2002 and if you've never been to Wacken, you can't call yourself a headbanger...Like all Muslims must go on haj to Mecca once in their lives, all metalheads must go on rampage to Wacken at least once in their lives!

I love the way Doro's clean vocal counterpoints Sabina's rotweiller growl. Even though I was never a big "Dead Kennedys" fan, this was always my favourite song by them.t the title is enough to really piss of a crowd of conservative disco bunnys!

Peace Sells - Megadeth

The bass intro to this cut always blew me away! I got an advanced promo copy on tape waaaay back in '86 and wrote my matric prelims with this blaring out of my walkman (remember them? - anybody remember casette tapes for that matter?!)

I was one of the earliest to get my hands on "Killing is my business" but it didn't really rock as hard as the first couple of Metallica albums of most of the other thrash bands of the day (Exodus, Exciter, Raven etc) but when I heard "Peace Sells" I was sold!

I saw Meagadeth at the Hammersmith Odeon in about 1993 I think. It was a real scorcher of a gig and I nearly did my nut when they played this track as an encore!

Lawnmower Deth

I can't believe that is already around 15 years since Lawnmower Deth broke up - they were one of my favourite bands since I heard "7th Church of the Apocolytic Lawnmower" on a British Thrash compilation album many years ago.

I had all the albums and saw them live a couple of times when I was over in England so I was pretty miffed when they dissolved.

Ok, granted, "Billy" was a lousy album and didn't sell because it didn't deserve to, but is that any real reason to give up and throw in the towel? We all learn from our mistakes and Lawnmower Deth could have bounced back simply by recording a stonger follow up album.

"Ooh Crikey" was and is still an all time classic. A few more songs along those lines and Lawnmower Deth coulds have still been going today!

Lordi - Bringing back the balls to Rock

I don't know if any of the nu metal kids will get this one but anybody who rocked out in the golden era of 80's metal will love it.

Lordi have a great sound - very retro, but it works in a modern world and their outfits are awesome. Super cheesy, over the top, Gwar inspired, latex, rubber monster kitch! That's what metal is all about - not all this emo, I'm so sad, nobody understands me bollox!

The title says it all - rock and metal have lost a lot of balls over the last few years and it's time to bring 'em back. Let's get back to the true rebeliouse spirit of metal...long hair, denim and leather, lots of beer, pissing on passing dogs, disregard for authority, Maiden T-shirts, speaker trashing volumes, air guitar hero's, a few more beers and a bottle of Jack, studded jackets covered in badges and patches - you know...the good stuff!

I love the one verse in this song...We are the SMF's, we are the youth gone wild... I suppose only us old schoolers who were there would understand it and catch all the references but even the youngest nu banger would ewnjoy the song!

Iron Maiden (Running Free)

One of my favourite Maiden tunes and an all time classic. The best bit about this video is that I was there!

Yup - Donnington '92... what a killer lineup! Apart from Maiden headlining, other bands included Slayer, WASP, Thunder, The Almighty and Skid Row.

So watch the crowd carefully and see if you can see me (I was standing near the guys with the Welsh flag) and listen carefully...I swear I can hear me singing along out there!

Trans Siberian Orchestra

Even though this track is credited to TSO, it's identicle to the origional version which first appeared on Savatage's "Dead winter dead" in the early 90's. No matter - it's freakin' brilliant no matter what!

It starts all sweet and gentle and then BANG - it kicks you in the face! A perfect example of what can be achieved when a metal and and and orchestra play together and play song that were written with BOTH in mind.

Metallica's S&M totally failed because they just played thier usual songs and treated the whole orchestra as one big backing instrument. The Scorpion with the Berlin Philharmonic was a thousand times better because all the songs were re-scored for band AND orchestra.

Twisted Christmas :-)

I just LOVE this track :-) Over at Youtube.com there are a bunch of geniuses who think they are sooooo cool for figuring out that the solo of this song sounds a bit like "We're not gonna take it". Like really?? Didn't the whole "what kind of a man are you" intro give it away from the beginning? The drums at the beginning are stolen wholesale from "We're not gonna take it" (well - I guess it's not really stealing if you're stealing from yourself...) and when Dee Snider opens his mouth and sings " Oh come all Ye faithful..." instead of "We're not gonna take it" I nearly wet myself laughing!

Shear brilliance!