2021 Compilations, Reissues And Covers Albums

Don’t expect the biggest Heavy Metal band in the whole darn world to do anything subtle. To celebrate 30 years of their self-titled “Black” album they asked 53 different artists from across the music world to cover songs from the record. Getting through all 53 songs is an achievement in itself. Nobody needs to listen to 12 almost identical renditions of ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and that is the problem, very few of the approached artists are brave enough to really fuck with Metallica’s originals. Very few of the artists decided to reinvent or at least desecrate the songs. So, what we get is 53 rather reverential tracks that tinker at the edges with the originals but do very little to stamp the covering artists identity onto it. A real missed opportunity.

Tragedy have a concept and they are not going to deviate from it. They reinvent cheesy disco tracks as Metal. This is a fun irreverent album. It also gets a huge thumbs up for the joy that is ‘Raining Blood/Men’ cross over which is utterly wondrous.

America’s Pink Floyd. Pretty much unheard of over here, they have been doing what they do since the early 70's. This is a collection of unheard or at least completely ignored stuff from across the career. Serves as an interesting starting point for prog aficionados who may have passed them by.

Bloody Covid and bloody lockdown. It seems every buggering band decided the best thing to do with all the time on their hands was to interpret their past stuff with acoustic guitars. The Melvins at full pelt are a hypnotic and hyperactive maelstrom of grungy noise. Slowed down it loses that danger and unpredictability that makes the Melvins such an amazing band.

Someone somewhere must like Raven Age. Someone must be listening to their stuff and buying their albums. However, I am yet to find anyone with a good thing to say about them. This is their “adult” reflective lockdown album. They have taken most of the bouncy stuff from “Conspiracy” and slowed it down in the hope it will make them sound dark, mysterious, and vaguely interesting. They needn’t have bothered as this just sound morose and dull.

Monster Magnet have always been obsessed with that experimental period of rock n’ roll development in the late 60’s when rawness and progression met. The Stooges and MC-5 may well be the names that we all know, but here Dave Wyndorf and the boys dig deep and resurrect 13 little know slabs of psychedelic garage goodness. So little known is the material that if they weren’t so honest about it being a covers album, you could easily pass this off as original songs.

The Polish Death Metal veterans once again release their mid 90’s demos. Originally released in 2000 they have repackaged them again, this time with rare photos and several essays on the band’s importance in the development of Death Metal this century. Once again there is nothing here that a fan would not already have but the packaging is nice.

The greatest NWBHM that did not go on to have major success. This is a fairly comprehensive compilation of both their glory moments but also their lesser-known stuff. Again, nothing here that a big fan would not have already heard or got but provides a really good jumping on point for those that they have previously passed by.

Moby’s career has been essentially in free fall since he decided to tell lies about Natalie Portman in the second volume of his autobiography. In an attempt to recover lost ground he has gone back to his back catalogue and decided to reinterpret some of the greatest piece of electronica as nonelectronic tracks. A complete disaster as every song turns out to be a pale interpretation of the track it once was. Complete waste of time.

Purporting to be a new album, this is actually previously recorded stuff but now sung in their native tongue of German. Probably the dictionary definition of pointless.

This is appalling, utterly appalling. This is essentially a bad wedding cover band doing atrocious versions of Soul and Funk covers. The only reason that it has been released and that I have given it a small bit of my time and attention is that Paul Stanley is at the centre of it. But it is so devoid of any positive points that I may be scarred for life by it. Horrible!

Completely pointless cover album. I love Saxon but I have no need in my life for them covering the Beatles, Zeppelin or Thin Lizzy. Sounds like someone recorded a karaoke session.

The most important dance band of them all. They have laid dormant for nearly 25 years with their entire back catalogue deleted. Then there were stirrings last year with the appearance of a book and suddenly not one, but four albums appeared on streaming sites this year. The first Solid State Logik is the singles, never before available together in their original form. Come Down Dawn is their ambient travelogue, unheard since the early nineties. The second Solid State Logik is the 12” versions of the singles and a couple of other rarities, including their magnificent contribution to the HELP charity compilation album. And then, then there is the White Room. Not quite the version I wore out on tape in the 90’s, but it’s still identifiable as the White Room and once again you can revel in the greatest dance album of them all.

Christian Nu-metal band. They have taken their already safe and sanitised back catalogue and nurtured it further by doing stripped back versions. AVOID!

Another “Jesus Christ are they still alive?”. Highly influential but hugely underrated, you can hear echoes of them in any band that combines rock and dance. This is a collection of remixes from across their carrier. It’s alright.

Those rocking out in the mid-eighties may remember German hair metal also rans Bonfire. Well thirty years later they are still here, even though they now consist of one original member (Hans Ziller) and lots of place fillers. Unable to tour 2020 album “Fistful of Fire” they decided to do a mammoth acoustic version of their back catalogue. Pleasant but really only for their handful of devotees.

Before Whitesnake were a slick hair metal juggernaut, they were a fine blues band and here they polish up their blues repertoire. There is nothing on offer that a dye hard hasn’t already got, but nice to have it all in the same place.