- Neon Knights by Anthrax: Not to long ago Anthrax released their Anthem Ep consisting of covers. Nice to see this isn't on that and was saved for this. This was originally on Sabbath's 1980 album Heaven and Hell. I will say that they did a good job at covering this song, it sounds very similar to the original. It's obviously not, but it sounds similar enough to enjoy. Also the production on this isn't hurting the cover. So they didn't really try to make it sound like "they used to" with "new technology". If you know what I mean by that.
- The Last In Line by Tenacious D: With their last album a huge disappointment, I listened once or twice through and haven't revisited the album since it first came out, I wasn't sure what to expect out of this track. This is the title track off Dio's 1984 follow up to Holy Diver. The original reminds me a little of 80's Rainbow but the cover is an acoustic version, opening the song until the song "explodes" that sounds unlike The D at the usual. They aren't kidding and using tongue and cheek lyrics. I think that did what you should do for a tribute album, your best and show you honestly care. While I don't really care for this track, it's what tribute albums should be about and the similar sounds here are great. That flute solo really reminds me of The Chauffeur and is probably my favorite part of this song.
- The Mob Rules by Adrenaline Mob: I don't know why they used a previously released cover. In my opinion that ducking stupid. At least re-record the cover. This is the title track to 1981's album of the same name by Black Sabbath. This is very similar to the original, but I just don't like it. There is no click. At this point the only thing I can say is that this track's inclusion hurts the outcome of my view on the album.
- Rainbow In The Dark: This track features Jason Christopher, Christian Martucci, Roy Mayorga , Satchel, and one Corey Taylor. Don't get me wrong, Slipknot have some great tracks like Wait And Bleed, Danger - Keep Away, The Heratic Anthem and some tracks as recent as Psychosocial. But outside of my favorites I don't care for them, and Stone Sour kinda stink. I guess the Steel Panther guy solos here and to be completely honest it's 2014, aren't we done with found footage and parody bands. There was Dred Zeppelin but at least they were somewhat interesting, Steel Panther is potty humor mixed in with 80's glam metal. Most 80's glam metal wasn't ever good and lacks anything. Also I'd rather listen to a Rize of the Fenix, which honestly wasn't in any shape or form redeeming or a come back and honestly on par with The Weirdness as an album I've heard one or twice then never wanted to listen to again. This sounds like most covers and I don't think that Corey should be singing this, also a little much Satchel you can play this solo great, if I took the time I could too. But overall this is just a sub-par cover.
- Straight Through The Heart by Halestorm: Lizzy got me a little pumped for this too, she's hot. I enjoy some of their stuff, but she's hot. Let's be honest, I'm not huge on Halestorm and it only pisses me off they keep doing covers. Now I'm not gonna let that effect this view of this track. To be completely honest, I think that this isn't as impressive as some of the other covers. Covers lack in that if the original is EPIC then they need to capture that EPICNESS. No one can capture that epicness that Dio did on some of his tracks, and it's why this album was ultimately doomed.
- Starstruck by Motörhead with Biff Byrofd: After re-listening to the original, this is straight up Lemmy's alley. Biff really sounds similar to Ian Gillian on the new Now What?! (I plan on reviewing that soon, what I've heard I really enjoyed). This sound more like a Deep Purple cover than Motörhead with another singer. It's literally kind of disappointing.
- The Temple Of The King by Scorpions: Great track by a band 100% better than Dio. Screw their 80's career, I'm talking Krautrock influenced 70's material. The 70's was one of the most consistently amazing decade for Scorpions, let alone most any other band. But as the decade ended and the 80s started, then ended and time passed they progressively lost their punch. 2010's album wasn't terrible, but ComeBlack had no memorable moments. The covers were just sub par and I was disappointed. So I didn't know what to expect of this track, I did but I didn't want to admit it. Listen to this, then listen to The Best Has Yet To Come, and you'll see what I mean. Based on the rest of this album, this is probably an outtake from ComeBlack. I am looking forward to reviewing their MTV Unplugged album and Studio Edits verison. They played some of my favorite tracks on there, by that I mean the ones from the 70's.
- Egypt (The Chains Are On) by Doro: This is a track on their 2012 Raise Your Fist come the fuck on. Also this is taken from a fucking covers album....... >:-{{ . I'm done with fake swears, now on to the real deal. I doubt I'll like this, since the original was pretty impressive. PS this cover kind of blows.
- Holy Diver by Killswitch Engage: COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My only comment is that this is the only track that I genuinely love on this thing. >:\
- Catch The Rainbow by Glenn Hughes: There are other people playing here too, including past members of Dio. This was originally from 1975 and I hope can try to live up to what I need it too. So far, the intro is pretty cool, and isn't making me angry. While I don't know what Glenn's doing in the beginning, this kicks the FUCK out of just about every other track here. I don't dig his singing here, but the instrumentation is great, and impressive. {7/10}
- I by Oni Logan: This also features other people who've worked with Dio or Ozzy. This is a track originating from BS's 1992 album Dehumanizer. While this is a good cover, it sounds like the new singer of Journey trying to be Steven Perry. Just keep that in mind.
- Man On The Silver Mountain by Rob Halford: This is a great track, of it's respected album Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow from 1975. Rob sounds phoned in, and this sounds like he doesn't give a shit. It kind of hurts to listen to.
- Ronnie Rising Melody by Metallica: Now I was a little excited for this to come out when I heard Metallica would be on here. Then I saw they'd be playing a melody of the songs off Rainbow's 1976 classic Rising. I was hoping for this to be in the way they did Mercyful Fate or Last Caress/Green Hell both off Garage, Inc. and also for this to not be like Lord Of Summer which sounded like an outtake from Death Magnetic. I mean goddammit, you released an Ep of unused tracks why make another album like that.... COME ON! This is though, the most creative track. It's something that reminds me of some of the live melody Rainbow would do. Though I'm not on board with the sound, it's a proper tribute.
- This Was Just You Life by Dio: This is what this album needed, seriously, a Dio track, one of his was an unreleased track from some point in time, it almost makes up for Holy Diver and Mob Rules and Egypt. Oh wait, no sorry I was wrong. This is off 1996's Angry Machine. And while this track is great it can't save this compilation/tribute album. You can wait for what I have to say about this on it's proper album. Since this shows up elsewhere I can say that this is kind of invalid, and so is the other Killswitch track. Saying this helps the score is like saying that Aerosmith's Greatest Hits is their "best album"... it's not by a long shot, but it's not fair. So heads up, the score suffers mainly because of the lack of material here. I'm only counting 10 of the 14 tracks towards the score, and two of the non-counting tracks really would have helped the score big time.
Overall I have to give this album a not very good looking score out of ten. Now in terms of a tribute album, what do you expect, no one will be as good as the original. They couldn't have redone Holy Diver or Mob Rules, and on a tribute album with such big names... it's a sin that is somewhat unforgivable. This is really more of a compilation rather than a tribute. I mean look at the Fleetwood Mac tribute from 2 years ago, all tracks were unique to that album. This is just laziness and what could have been great turns into a Jimi Hendrix let's make a quick buck off his death by doing a half ass job and making an interesting, engaging real tribute to his work. And anyone who touched this thing, production/recording/contribution wise, should be ashamed to say their a fan. Now if you bought it or enjoyed it I'm not putting you down, I'm putting down the people who made it. This cover is too cool for this shit. I'm also not gonna forget to mention that the proceeds go to stomach cancer, but you know what that's not gonna let this slide. If I'm gonna be 100000000% honest I probably won't ever return to this album again, you know know the last track is on another album and so is everything else pretty much.. But at least they didn't have Disturbed on here, that'd be another story. Let's not get too hung up, I still have more 2014 review to do this month. The score translates to a 4/10. PS why no Elf tracks... I mean COME ON!!!
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