I…Don’t (?) Have You Covered?
Songs that aren’t covers
So last week we looked at some cover songs. This week we’re doing the opposite. Granted, every week is a week without covers, but this week I’m looking at songs that have the same title but simply aren’t covers. You’ll catch the gist of it soon.
AC/DC (AUSTRALIA) – HAVE A DRINK ON ME, FROM BACK IN BLACK (1980)
VS.
PAIN (SWEDEN) – HAVE A DRINK ON ME, FROM CYNIC PARADISE (2008)
Thematically, the songs are somewhat similar and even the guitar twang has some similarities to it as well, but these are completely different songs. Did AC/DC play a prominent role in the title of this song? Well, you can be the judge on that.
BATHORY (SWEDEN) – TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, FROM TWILIGHT OF THE GODS (1991)
VS.
BLIND GUARDIAN (GERMANY) – TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, FROM BEYOND THE RED MIRROR (2015)
Bathory was experiencing major changes in the early 1990s. My first ever article on aeither.net detailed how they went from more or less defining black metal to defining Viking metal. This was the follow up album to Hammerheart and continued their direction into epitomizing the genre. Bathory takes a more traditional approach to the idea of polytheism, trying to be as accurate as possible, celebrating the mythos. Blind Guardian, on the other hand, has always shown a disdain for the gods and many of their songs encourage deicide, particularly of those pesky Norse ones that everyone loves so much. Aside from basing the song on the same concepts, the songs are completely and utterly different. In most cases, you’re either a Blind Guardian person or a Bathory person. Both are totally different styles and sounds, but I found enjoyment in both.
HYPOCRISY (SWEDEN) – BORN DEAD BURIED ALIVE, FROM THE ARRIVAL (2004)
VS.
THE AGONIST (CANADA) – BORN DEAD, BURIED ALIVE, FROM ONCE ONLY IMAGINED (2007)
The Arrival comes after a brutal and scathing review of Catch-22 from Hypocrisy. The Arrival is an attempt to rectify the damage that was done and it accomplishes that goal fairly well. This was recorded prior to Peter Tägtgren doing his one-off album for Bloodbath (which clearly impacted the way Hypocrisy would sound in the following years). The Agonist was beginning their debut album and Alissa White-Gluz was completely new to the scene. The difference in song titles is subtle: One has a comma and the other does not. Both songs are in the death metal genre but are significantly different otherwise. I wonder if they are aware the other song exists. Fun fact: The singer of Pain and Hypocrisy are the same guy. Listen again to see if you can tell the difference.
BEHEMOTH (POLAND) – AS ABOVE SO BELOW, FROM ZOS KIA CULTUS (HERE AND BEYOND) (2002)
VS.
THE AGONIST (CANADA) – AS ABOVE, SO BELOW, FROM EYE OF PROVIDENCE (2015)
Despite changing out singers in 2014, The Agonist was still down to use the name of another death metal song to claim as their own by again inserting a comma into the title. Another interesting thing to consider is to look at the sound The Agonist has adopted in an eight year period. Behemoth has also gone through some fairly significant changes as well. These songs, while are somewhat in the same genre, are completely different subgenres and the songs are not the same.
MEGADETH (UNITED STATES) – IN MY DARKEST HOUR, FROM SO FAR, SO GOOD…SO WHAT! (1988)
VS.
SYMPHONY X (UNITED STATES) – IN MY DARKEST HOUR, FROM UNDERWORLD (2015)
The annotated text from genius.com says that the Megadeth song refers to “This song is about Mustaine’s former girlfriend who didn’t pay enough attention to him. He tells her how important she was to him, but how she was never there for him. Mustaine wrote the music for this song in one setting after having found out that Cliff Burton from Metallica had died in an accident. He immediately took some dope, started crying and wrote the song in one sitting. The lyrics, however, have nothing to do with Burton.” The Symphony X song refers to a journey into Greek mythology. I touched on this a little bit in the review of Underworld.
So there you have it, songs that you would think COULD be covers, but in fact, are not. I saw a concert last week, I’ll probably talk about that next time.
-Ryan