Artist: Metal Allegiance
Title: “Fallen Heroes”
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: 8/12/2016
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4/5
As most music fans will recall, 2015 ended on a really bad note when Motorhead main man Lemmy Kilmister died of cancer. It was a jarring way to close a year and while 2016 was loaded with hope and promise, it quickly slapped us with a hard dose about our hero’s mortality when it took the iconic David Bowie and master songwriter Glen Frey from us one after the other. These three deceased legends are the musical inspiration for this solid EP by Metal Allegiance, that supergroup comprised of Mike Portnoy, Alex Skolnick, Mark Osegueda and many more. The idea for the EP came from the bands founding bassist Mark Menghi and fans will get a track apiece from Motorhead, Bowie and The Eagles. I’ll opine on each of them briefly below.
Motorhead’s seminal “Iron Fist” starts off this brief roller-coaster ride and is a pretty straightforward delivery with very little changes from the original tune. How much heavier can you actually make “Iron Fist” anyway without ruining its overall intensity should your experimenting go wrong. There is a hefty amount of double bass drumming by Portnoy which fits perfectly and its sung in closest Lemmy aspect by Mastodon’s Troy Sanders. A good one and best played loud on the stereo (but not so much on a crowded train since that’s just rude).
David Bowie’s “Suffragette City” was a solid choice and this one is sung by Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda. Now I will admit to being a Bowie purist and I own so many of his works and hold them of the utmost musical importance to me so I can very fussy about any cover of his works. It’s much heavier than I anticipated but that was done on purpose with this and the Eagles track. Skolnick offers up some tasty lead work that would make Mick Ronson smile and Portnoy tosses in drum fills that propel the tune ahead and were interesting to find in the mix. I think Ziggy would have liked what they did with this one.
Closing it all up is “Life In The Fast Lane” which comes at you harder and heavier than I could have imagined and the pace is set right away with Portnoy’s rigorous double-bass drum pattern at the track beginning. This one is sung by one of our personal favorites, the talented Alissa White-Gluz (formerly of The Agonist and now a card carrying member of Arch Enemy). Alissa growls here and there but for the most part in the track uses a clean voice and more of her soaring register which I have always enjoyed. Great guitars by Skolnick.
Overall a very solid but quick listen and one that fans of these three legends will enjoy as much as those who are currently following the Metal Allegiance band.
Track Listing:
1. Iron Fist (Motorhead)
2. Suffragette City (David Bowie)
3. Life In The Fast Lane (The Eagles)
Official Website: http://www.metalallegiance.com