"Dead Zeppelin: A Metal Tribute to Led Zeppelin"
Dwell Records
By Tate Bengtson Dwell has a reputation for releasing tribute albums by the dumptruck load, and the recent tributes to White Zombie and Led Zeppelin are a mixed bag, much like the others, with several of the contributions possessing such a quality (or lack thereof) that it is truly questionable whether or not the cover does in fact constitute a legitimate tribute to the band being honoured.. First, the White Zombie tribute. Among the interesting cuts, it is the atmospheric doom/death interpretation of “Blood, Milk, and Sky” by Silent Scream of Godless Elegy with takes the cake, followed closely by the extremely heavy groovedeath version of “Feed The Gods” by Scary German Guy (yes, that is the band’s name!). A couple of tracks get butchered, most are merely mediocre, and a few are at least interesting...but this album lacks the quality to justify it being considered a legitimate tribute, if you ask me. Second, the Led Zep tribute. I honestly feared the worst, as I hold Led Zep in pretty high esteem and covering this band would obviously be much more difficult than White Zombie, but this release actually proved to be the more successful of the two. The album kicks off with a cool version of “Kashmir” by Silent Scream of Godless Elegy, again proving to be the star of the show with an interpretation which manages to capture some of the grandiose power and atmosphere of the original - an extremely difficult task with SSGE manages to navigate with surprising success. Also of note is Solus’ frenzied tech-death rendition of “Rock N’ Roll,” the spooky goth-death-black-atmospheric version of “Immigrant Song” by Anno Daemonicus (reminiscent of Babylon Whores), and the stoner rock take on “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” by Orange Moon. I’m not sure how common fans of Led Zep AND extreme metal are, but this tribute is well worth a look...the same cannot be said for the White Zombie travesty, however. |
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