Things are really hit-or-miss when it comes to heavy metal covers of pop songs. There's been some great ones (Exodus' "Low Rider," Marilyn Manson's "Tainted Love"), and some not-so-great ones (Children of Bodom's "Oops I Did It Again," Evile's "Born This Way"), to be sure.
But when you get some legendary heavy metal figures together to cover one of the most influential pop musicians of all time, the potential is nothing short of spectacular. I'm talking about none other than Michael Jackson.
As a heavy metal fan, you're entitled to your opinions, but you can't deny that Jackson has influenced pop music across genres. When he was alive he collaborated with Guns N' Roses and Eddie Van Halen on tracks, and already there's been a ton of great covers of his work by heavy metal musicians. Take John 5's cover of "Beat It" for example. Damn, that was good.
But this month marks the first ever all-metal tribute to late pop icon Michael Jackson. Released on October 22, it features members from Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Testament, Guns N' Roses, Fozzy, Icarus Witch, Queensryche, Asking Alexandria, and more.
And given the people involved and Michael Jackson's most famous music video, this tribute album couldn't be timed more perfectly.
Thriller--A Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson is dropping right before Halloween, and it will contribute some great material to a list of already incredible heavy metal releases this year.
Plus, the last new material we heard from Jackson was a collaboration with Justin Bieber--well, an unreleased Jackson tune remixed with Bieber's vocals. I don't know about you, but I need some heavier re-imagining of Jackson's music just to get that bad taste out of my mouth.
Below is the tracklist of Thriller--A Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson, with some of the King of Pop's classic tunes turned into double devil horns hits.
1. "Thriller" - Chuck Billy of Testament 2. "Man in the Mirror" - Danny Worsnop of Asking Alexandria and Billy Sheehan of Mr. Big 3. "The Way You Make Me Feel" - Angelo Moore of Fishbone, Doug Aldrich of Whitesnake, and Rudy Sarzo of Queensryche 4. "Black of White" - Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust, Bruce Kulick (ex-KISS), and Troy Franklin of The Firm 5. "Beat It" - Priya Panda of Diemonds and Ron Bumblefoot Thal of Guns N' Roses 6. "Billie Jean" - Corey Glover of Living Colour and Phil Campbell of Motorhead. 7. "Shake Your Body" - Elias Soriano of Nonpoint 8. "Rock with You" - Doug Pinnick of King's X 9. "Dirty Diana" - Chris Jericho of Fozzy 10. "Bad" - Paul Di'Anno (ex-Iron Maiden) and Craig Goldy of Dio 11. "They Don't Care about Us" - Icarus Witch 12. Never Can Say Goodbye - Lonnie Jordan of WAR 13. "Smooth Criminal" - Alien Ant Farm
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