Best Covers Albums

Always thought a whole album of covers was a bit of a money grab.  But, for me, a couple jump to the top of the heap in both song selection and interpretation.  How about you?


Powergod - Long Live the Loud




Treasure Seeker - Tribute to the Past

I have that Powergod CD and it's incredible!

A lot of my favourite bands have put out covers CDs. I'll have to look through my collection and think about this.

One of my favorites is, In Conspiracy With Satan - A Tribute To Bathory. It's a bunch of different black metal bands paying tribute to one of my favorite band, Bathory.



Slayers, Undisputed Attitude would be another favorite.


And Iced Earth, Tribute to the Gods is another great one.

I always liked Overkill's Coverkill album.

Tesla Real to Reel & Real to Reel 2

That Powergod is a good one. I really like Strypers The Covering as well.

I picked up both Powergod cover albums while in Greece lately, along with 75 other cds. I am gonna be kept busy until early summer .

The Powergod covers album rules!!

I second Reel to Reel and Tribute To The Gods.

Does Fozzy count? Combining cool cover songs with a backstory and a mockumentary, together with the humour and charisma of Chris Jericho made for an appealing package. The first two CDs could be considered cover albums, though there were originals sprinkled in (and often those were really good).

I was going for 1 band doing an all covers album ala Krokus - Big Rocks. But whatever works for everybody. I dig those Fozzy albums, too.

Are we talking only "metal" albums here?

If not, try anything by Me First And The Gimme Gimmes. Talk about interpretation; power pop/punk interpretations of everything from 70s top 40 to show tunes.

HammerFall's Masterpieces
Tesla Real to Reel & Real to Reel 2
Overkill's Coverkill
Krokus Big Rocks

These are the few that get the most spins from me.

Need to get hammerfall's cover album. I have been missing this one for years. Has some really good tunes on it.

For The Lions - Hatebreed

Brownout's Brown Sabbath records and Me First & the Gimme Gimmes

Powergod's That's Metal Lesson 1 and 2 are my absolute favorites.

Those Brownout albums are good fun too.

It's funny to me that no one does these anymore, and how popular they were for a few years.

Temple of Blood wrote:

It's funny to me that no one does these anymore, and how popular they were for a few years.

One of my favourite bands Mystic Prophecy did one this year.

Deadline records used to do a whole bunch of these "tribute" albums for hard rock/metal bands, often with the same artists (Mitch Malloy, Jani Lane, Jack Russell, Phil Lews, Jizzy Pearl seemed to be on every single "tribute" album they put out).

UNCLE SAXON'S KICKASS CDS wrote:

I was going for 1 band doing an all covers album ala Krokus - Big Rocks.  

I went by this rule and dug up all my cover CDs.

Powergod - Bleed for the Gods
This is it. The GOLD STANDARD for cover albums. An insane selection of underrated (AWESOME) metal tunes, all updated in sound and performed with earnest enthusiasm. 67 minutes of glorious heavy metal bliss. I doubt another cover album can ever top this. It's better than any original Powergod CD (I know, I have them all), and really is their mark in metal history.

Second-tier (in no order):

Metallica - Garage, Inc.
They weren't doing much creatively at this time, so it was probably a good thing Metallica focused on re-arranging other bands' songs. A very good song selection (though I'm not into all these bands), and it's done well with the signature sound of Metallica that really brings bite into some classics. It's good. The Blue Oyster Cult cover won me over, and I'm a bigger fan of the Cult than Metallica. That second disc with all those b-sides and demos make it a real good package.

Powergod - Long Live the Loud
Due to the success of the first, the band did another cover album. It's good, even very good at times, but it feels they used up their sharpest blades on that first CD, and kind of fail to pierce the skin with this one. What's left is still good, and holds up against most other cover albums by other bands. It's still very metal, I love their rendition of Deathrider for instance. But I'm a fan of Powergod, so others may disagree. This album is for a true metal fan.

Powerwolf - Metallum Nostrum
(bonus disc for Blessed and Possessed)
A cool set of metal songs and Powerwolf doesn't disappoint in making them all sound their own. I like any band covering Savatage (Edge of Thorns), but the real highlight here is Conquistadores by Running Wild. Priest's Nightcrawler really fits the Powerwolf style as well.

Side note: this CD was not sold separately, but I think this is exactly how a covers CD should be released as to not seem like a money grab. A limited edition of a new album with a bonus disc. It warrants the higher price tag. Powerwolf is good with this kind of stuff, as there's a tribute CD featured on the latest album as a bonus well - but this time it's the other way around: it's other bands covering Powerwolf songs.

These mentioned so far were all good and enjoyable. The rest I don't recommend as much:

Iced Earth - Tribute to the Gods
I want to like this, because it's a great band covering great songs by other great bands. But it's just too stock. In sound and song selection. They don't play around with the arrangements nearly enough to make it interesting, and the list of bands featured is predictable, and really Iron Maiden just doesn't NEED their sound updated. They do a great job on the KISS and AC/DC tracks though. This is decent, but lacks depth.

Axxis - Rediscovered
On this list, this is the most oddball collection of songs to cover. From Celine Dion to Kraftwerk, from Yes to the BeeGees, you get an interesting look at a melodic metal band doing their take on mostly pop rock tunes. But it's just too far out. I do like the vocals.

Mystic Prophecy - Monuments Uncovered
About half is good. The other half is useless, and stock. Shadow on the Wall works wonderfully well with the thick heavy Prophecy sound. I'll even mention the Elton John track as a highlight. And I'll always have a soft spot for Because the Night, a wonderful choice. But mostly the arrangements are forgettable and not nearly as good as the originals. Just making old songs "heavy" with no other catch.

And the rest...

Helloween - Metal Jukebox
This one falls into the failed category. I don't think the Helloween sound works well with pop rock tunes, and the album is a bit chaotic as a whole. I like Deris' voice, but it's not terribly versatile. The fact all three of Helloween, Axxis and Mystic Prophecy do a lot of pop songs must come from the old German schlager tradition.

Queensryche - Take Cover
Terrible. The band at it's most limp, lifeless phase, performing mostly dull songs they manage to make even worse. No exceptions, really. Yes, I mean even the Pink Floyd and U2 songs...

So that's a look at what I have. I may have missed some while shifting through my CDs.

I hate how Iced Earth played the main riff to "The Ripper" incorrectly. Really annoying.

Another note on that Queensryche album: their Welcome to the Machine sucks. If you want to hear a good metal cover of the song, try Arjen Anthony Lucassen:



Now that's a great, interesting new take.

Cool reviews, Lari. I agree on PowerWolf's take on the marketing.

Hadley wrote:

Deadline records used to do a whole bunch of these "tribute" albums for hard rock/metal bands, often with the same artists (Mitch Malloy, Jani Lane, Jack Russell, Phil Lews, Jizzy Pearl seemed to be on every single "tribute" album they put out).

I have quite a few of those and like them well enough. A lot of the tunes make my covers comps, but as a whole, I wouldn't rate them in my top five. Also, I thought Uncle wanted covers albums by the same band, not a tribute.