Iron Maiden, electro style

November 5, 2003 10:25 AM

POWERSLAVES: An Elektro Tribute to Iron MaidenA record label in Amsterdam has assembled 14 electro-fied covers of classic tracks by the British metal band. Vocoders, drum machines, and analog synths galore, plus influences as diverse as industrial, synthpop, and Miami bass. Loving tribute? Unholy abomination? Entertaining genre cross-pollination? You decide -- the entire album is available as streaming audio from this Dutch radio station.
posted by Artifice_Eternity (20 comments total)

POS. But I can't wait for the elektro tribute to the elektro tribute to Iron Maiden.
posted by elpapacito at 10:29 AM on November 5, 2003

What? No Flight of Icarus?
posted by euphorb at 10:37 AM on November 5, 2003

I just don't know
posted by tiamat at 10:42 AM on November 5, 2003

No "2 Minutes To Midnight," either?

I saw Maiden live back in 1985. They put on one hell of a good live show.

Projects like these make we vaguely uneasy, especially when genres like synthpop are involved. I always get the feeling that they're making fun of the group and by extension, the groups fans. And since I am one, that would kinda irk me.
posted by jonmc at 10:54 AM on November 5, 2003

I think this guy did it better.
posted by Otis at 10:55 AM on November 5, 2003

I don't know. Without "The Trooper," it'll always feel a song short.
posted by yerfatma at 10:56 AM on November 5, 2003

jonmc: Some of the songs do have a touch of humor. But it's not as if bands like Maiden never had their tongues in their cheeks in the first place. Paul Dianno (former IM lead singer) is quoted in the liner notes as saying "This album is fucking Mega, and it brought a smile to my face immediately.... Great work with a hint of a laugh throughout."
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:41 AM on November 5, 2003

Tribute Albums suck. Carry on.
posted by angry modem at 12:04 PM on November 5, 2003

This album made my day. It sounds like it shouldn't work at all, but it's great! It's a tossup between 'Flash of the Blade' and 'Killers' for my favorite cover. Thanks for the post A_E!
posted by car_bomb at 1:20 PM on November 5, 2003

"the entire album is available as streaming audio from this Dutch radio station."

VPRO make TV and radio, as part of Dutch Public Broadcasting.
posted by prolific at 2:21 PM on November 5, 2003

I am a former Iron Maiden geek that nowadays just happens to really enjoy Dutch (and actually any style of) electro. For what it's worth, most of the artists on that compilation get a strong thumbs up from me. Big thanks to Artifice_Eternity for the post.

If you want more of that stuff... Bunker, Clone, Global Darkness/Creme, Stilleben, and of course UR.
posted by Rattmouth at 2:55 PM on November 5, 2003

Die Krupps did a similar cover album of metallica songs a few years back. Truly horrible.
posted by ph00dz at 3:11 PM on November 5, 2003

METALFILTER!

Rock on, Brother Artifice!
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:06 PM on November 5, 2003

aces hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggghhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:20 PM on November 5, 2003

Could someone check on the sergeant, please? It sounded as if he were choking.
posted by skyscraper at 7:37 PM on November 5, 2003

14- PAT BENEDICT ORCHESTRA - POWERSLAVE

i read that as pat benatar orchestra at first. hmm.
posted by jimmy at 8:58 PM on November 5, 2003

Will it be in Nicko's mp3 player....hmmmm.
NO.

Interesting, strange, perplexing.
posted by RubberHen at 9:12 PM on November 5, 2003

WARNING: OVER-INTELLECTUALISING AHEAD, COMPLETE WITH FOOTNOTES: Genre-changing as a form of musical joke is so old (see Sid Vicious' "My Way", Weird Al's high-speed polka medleys of Classic Rock(tm) chestnuts, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' entire ouevre, Luther Wright and the Wrongs' bluegrass take on Pink Floyd, etc, etc) that it's not really funny anymore. Which leaves the question of whether the resulting music is any good. In order to be so, you need to display a familiarity with the nuances of both the style/genre attempted and the material being covered--a lot of these tracks seem to be from people who've only taken a cursory glance at the Maiden songbook, and for that matter seem to have a pretty generic notion of what electro/ebm/whatever ought to be[*]. On the other hand, that Pat Benedict Orchestra version of "Powerslave" managed to nick enough of the original's pseudo-Eastern flavour that it actually worked on its own terms, rather than as a joke.

Anyway, Jon, I'd be interested to know if you'd say the same about that thrash/power-metal version of "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" you linked to on your blog awhile back.

[*] I have never owned an EBM record in my life, although a few of the electronic acts I was into in the mid nineties claim Front 242 et al as influences, and my notion of what early-80s electro was stems mostly from Rhino Records' "Street Jams: Electric Funk Vol. 1" and the Vice City soundtrack (well, Wildstyle FM anyways)--both of which show considerably more musical variety than is exhibited here. I wonder, given that these acts are apparently trying to evoke an electronic sound that's every bit as much of an 80's-ism as Maiden-style metal, if they're stuck on some notion of using only "authentic" rhythms/sounds. Also, if you're not Daft Punk, Kraftwerk or Peter Frampton, give the fucking[**] vocoder a break once in a while, m'kay?

[***] And so we fulfill the MetaFilter Minimum Fuck Requirement.
posted by arto at 11:18 PM on November 5, 2003

Anyway, Jon, I'd be interested to know if you'd say the same about that thrash/power-metal version of "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" you linked to on your blog awhile back.

Well, I actually liked Lightfoot's version of "Wreck.." and 70's singer-songwriter rock is held in as low esteem as 80's metal among critics and hipsters.* And I sure as hell don't have anything against humor in music.

I was just suspicious because the genres on this record, in my experience, seem to popular with people who actively loath metal of all kinds, so I figured it must be a sniggering parody rather than a tounge in cheek tribute. Of course I could be wrong.

I also wish they had included a version of Bruce Dickinson's solo "Tattooed Millionaire" which skewers hair metal (and any other kind of empty pop star music you could name) better than anything else I've heard.

*unless they're being *yawn* "ironic" and "kitschy."
posted by jonmc at 6:25 AM on November 6, 2003

Yum, Legowelt....

:)
posted by starscream at 10:32 AM on November 6, 2003