Pedro's Pop Goes Metal Ultimate Playlist

Pop Goes Heavy Metal Playlist

What?!?  Heavy Metal covers of pop songs?  Are you insane?  That's too daggy for heavy metal.

Yeah yeah, get over yourself.  There are a lot of metal groups doing covers of pop songs.  Mostly they are fun, and (egad!) catchy (gasp!), sometimes they are sheer massacres of the originals (Ten Masked Men, anyone?).  And sometimes, they are solid gold.  Now that's real heavy metal right there.

Here's a playlist I whipped up when doing a couple of Metal Goes Pop shows on my weekly metal radio show.  Filmclips when I found them, all linked with much respect.  

My Top 40 Metal covers of Pop songs starts here.

Mr. Sandman (The Cordettes)  Blind Guardian
Blind Guardian kick off this list with this memorable little ditty from The Cordettes.

In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins)  Nonpoint
A seriously good Phil Collins metal cover?  I wouldn't have thought so either.  Nonpoint proved me wrong.  

Land Of Confusion (Genesis)  Disturbed
This works.  Good cover, and good original.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (The Police)  Ra
Another catchy cover, chunked up.  

In The Court Of The Crimson King (King Crimson)  Saxon
I would never have imagined Saxon could do such an authentic cover of a King Crimson song.  Proved wrong again.
 

 

Rasputin (Boney M)  Turisas
Solid Gold!  the filmclip is a classic, and an instruction on dramatic entrances.

Can You Forgive Her? (The Pet Shop Boys)  Finntroll
The Pet Shop Boys get Folk Metal-ized, courtesy of the irrepressable Finntroll.

Logical Song (Supertramp)  At Vance
Logical choice.

The Neverending Story (Limahl)  Dragonland
The Daggy-o-meter has just broken!

Cars (Gary Numan)  Fear Factory
Better than the original?

It's A Sin (The Pet Shop Boys)  Gamma Ray
German power metal cover of The Pet Shop Boys, to balance out Finntroll.

Rock Me Amadeus (Falco)  Megaherz
Solid chunk!

Crazy (Seal)  Mushroomhead
Crazy by Mushroomhead set to Transformers clips.  You know you want it.

Mongoloid (Devo)  Sepultura
A bit monotone, but searing and heavy nonetheless.

Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr)  Vomitron
A brilliant no-respect version.  Silly as all hell!

Losing My Religion (REM)  Graveworm
Black metal cover of REM?  Sure, why not?

Unbelievable (Epsom Mad Funkers)  Anal Cunt
Utter massacre as only Anal Cunt can.  Awful version, which makes it soooo good!

Oops!  I Did It Again (Brittney Spears)  Children Of Bodom
The hoik and spit at the start says it all.  No remorse.  

Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)  Bad News
Bad News give Queen a serving, and terrorize this classic pop anthem, with a little help from producer Brian May.  

Another Brick In The Wall (Pink Floyd)  Korn
Seriously good effort, and chunky guitars from Korn.  

Welcome To The Machine (Pink Floyd)  Shadows Fall
Another Pink Floyd classic falls victim to a metal cover.  

Cry Me A River (Justin Timberlake)  Ten Masked Men
Ten Masked Men specialize in Metal Pop covers.  Bless.

Who's That Girl (The Eurythmics)  Mandrake
This works.  All good.

The Lotus Eaters (Dead Can Dance)  Imperia
A Metal Band taking on Dead Can Dance is a brave endeavour, I reckon.  This is a good one.

White Wedding (Billy Idol)  Deathstars
Doro has done a somewhat famous cover of this song, but I reckon the Deathstars did a better job.

Scarborough Fair (English Traditional Medieval Ballad, popularized by Simon & Garfunkel)  Queensryche
Geoff Tate has an amazing voice, and is suitable to tackle the big songs.

Blue Monday (New Order)  Orgy
Another song begging for a chunky cover.  

Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division)  Moonspell
Not quite as bleak as the original (and who wants to go there), but Moonspell are an obvious choice for a cover.

Vienna (Ultravox)  Celestial Season
A solid doom metal cover of this new romantic classic.

Shout 2000 (Tears For Fears)  Disturbed
Another Disturbed cover.  Should they stick with just covers, and join Metallica?  (Wake the trolls and start the flame war!)

My Sharona (The Knack)  Destruction
German Thrash smash The Knack!

Red Rain (Peter Gabriel)  Queensryche
One epic voice covering another.  'Nuff said.

(Oh) Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison)  Van Halen
Van Halen made this song their own.  But what about that clip?

Message In A Bottle (The Police)  Machine Head
The Police never sounded so good.  Or maybe they did.

Come Together (The Beatles)  Aerosmith
A classic band covering a classic band.

Stayin' Alive (The Bee Gees)  Ten Masked Men
Ten Masked Men do it again.  The lip-synching in this clip is awesome!

The Sounds Of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel)  Heir Apparent
Forgotten gem of a cover from the 80's

Wicked Game (Chris Isaak)  HIM
For the record, I can't stand HIM as a band.  And I love Chris Isaak.  So, on paper, I would have thought this combination a disaster.  But it's actually a half-decent cover.  There are a few versions, and a few clips (all of which are awful), but the later version is better.

Kids In America (Kim Wilde)  Lawnmower Deth
A fun frantic cover. 

Light My Fire (The Doors)  Amorphis
Death metal voice and authentic synths?  The Doors deserve nothing less.

Bonus Cover:  All The Things She Said (t.A.T.u.)  The Berzerker
The cover isn't a great one, but the clip is solid gold!  Enjoy!!