How Awesome is the New Kerrang CD?

[K]

Lostprophets covering Machine Heads Davidian, Soulfly covering Marilyn Mansons Beautiful People, Bullet For My Valentine covering Metallicas Creeping Death, hell, even The Blackout covering Limp Bizkits My generation is awesome. The whole thing rocks. Fightstar covering Judas Priest, Breaking the Law is going to take a couple of listens, but I reckon it'll grow. Run out and buy Kerrang now.

Full track listing and an article...

Lostprophets 'Davidian' (Machine Head)

Aiden 'Drain You' (Nirvana)

Fightstar 'Breaking The Law' (Judas Priest)

Bullet For My Valentine 'Creeping Death' (Metallica)

The Automatic 'Epic' (Faith No More)

Funeral For A Friend 'The Boys Are Back In Town' (Thin Lizzy)

Madina Lake 'Today' (Smashing Pumpkins)

Sign 'Youth Gone Wild' (Skid Row)

TheAudition 'Livin' On A Prayer' (Bon Jovi)

Soulfly 'Beautiful People' (Marilyn Manson)

The Blackout 'My Generation' (Limp Bizkit)

Yourcodenameis:Milo 'Feel Good Hit Of The Summer' (Queens Of The Stone Age)

Darkest Hour 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off' (Dead Kennedys)

Gallows 'Nervous Breakdown' (Black Flag)

Bring Me The Horizon 'Eyeless' (Slipknot)

Fifteen of rock's hottest bands have contributed cover versions of classic songs for the second instalment of Kerrang! magazine's free 'High Voltage' CDs.

'Higher Voltage' - which includes exclusive recordings by Lostprophets, Aiden, Fightstar and Madina Lake and rare covers by Funeral For A Friend and Gallows - will be given away free with Kerrang! issue 1164, which goes on sale June 20.

"We had such an amazing response to our 25th birthday 'High Voltage' CD that we figured it'd be a good idea to do it all over again," says K! editor Paul Brannigan. "'Higher Voltage' is quite possibly the best Kerrang! CD ever and we know you're gonna love it."

Welsh sextet Lostprophets are set to surprise readers with a brutal cover of Machine Head's 'Davidian', a track which appeared on the Bay Area metaller's classic 1994 debut 'Burn My Eyes'.

"I hope people will be freaked out by our version when they hear it," laughs frontman Ian Watkins. "We were metal kids and 'Davidian' was our anthem! I remember getting the album and just being completely blown away and the band we were in at the time were full-on metal . We were called Fleshbind and it was just pure thrash metal. We were totally into Sepultura and Pantera and all of that good stuff. After that I was in a hardcore band called Public Disturbance. But then we started Lostprophets because we wanted to be free to experiment and not be restricted but I still love all that old thrash stuff. You can tell we love it from the enjoyment that went into the recording of it.

"People would expect us to do an '80s pop cover or that sort of thing," he adds. "We thought 'fuck it', we'll just go for it and do an all-out metal song. You can't fuck with 'Davidian'! That's the fucking shit! I want someone at Kerrang! to play it to Robb Flynn and I want to get a quote from him about what he thinks... unless he says really bad things about it and then just say you couldn't find him."

We did find Machine Head's Flynn to discover what he thought of the idea Lostprophets re-recording one of his most memorable songs.

"I was quite shocked when I first heard they were covering it, actually," says Flynn. "I thought, 'Lostprophets? Really?'. But then I read somewhere that they were big Machine Head fans, I think Lostprophets will do a good job too. I just hope they hope they don't butcher it like Funeral For A Friend did with 'Damage, Inc' on Kerrang!'s 'Master Of Puppets' tribute album. If Lostprophets do that to our song, then we'll fucking kill them!

"I'd be stoked if they did a good job, and I've got a hunch they will," he smiles. "I don't know too much about them but something tells me that they know their Machine Head!"

Merthyr Tydfil sextet The Blackout pay tribute to nu-metallers Limp Bizkit on the track 'My Generation'.

"When we started this band, we all loved nu-metal," reveals vocalist Sean Smith. "We all fucking loved Limp Bizkit. The reason I got into music was through hearing that band. Before that, I was a trance DJ! I heard Freddy D swear a few times and then I decided 'I want in on that!'. 'My Generation' is one of our favourite Limp Bizkit songs. Simple as that. We decided to do a song with lots of rapping in it, because I can spit some rhymes."

The band have altered Fred Durst's lyrics to give the nu-metal anthem a distinctly Welsh flavour.

"Take us to the Merthyr Bridge!" laughs Smith. "It's where we come from, so why not give our hometown a bit of props! And instead of rapping 'welcome to the jungle', we changed it to 'welcome to the valleys', because they're just as dangerous. It was a dream come true to record this and hopefully people won't hate us for it!"

Bullet For My Valentine revisit Metallica's back catalogue for the second time. The band covered 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)' for our special 'Kerrang! Remastered' CD in April 2006.

"This time, we covered 'Creeping Death'," says frontman Matt Tuck. "We chose it because we used to play it years ago before we got signed. We love this song a lot and played it on our last tour and it went down a treat.

"We only spent about eight hours on it - from setting up to mixing it - so we're so happy how it came out.It's pretty fucking heavy! Maybe we'll get to jam it with Metallica on the upcoming summer tour! Hell yeah!"

TheAudition took time out of their recent tour with The Academy Is... to record a turbo-charged cover of Bon Jovi's 'Livin' On A Prayer' with a handful of Kerrang! competition winners in Livingstone Studios, London.

"We chose 'Livin' On A Prayer' because it's so recognisable and thought it would be a challenge to record," says frontman Danny Stevens. "It was really strenuous to sing. Apparently Jon Bon Jovi even had a hard time singing it a lot of the time. It was great getting some of our fans to sing 'wo-ah!' on the choruses too!"

[Liam]

I was going to start a topic last week letting people know they were doing it again, but I thought people would find out themselves. Glad to hear it is good.

Is the Lostprophets cover version good?

[MalaCloudy Black]

The only song on there I'm interested in right now is the Soulfly song.

[Cactus Drags]

Saw it advertised at Download, not been out the house since it came out, so I've not got it yet, but I love the idea, I thought the first one rocked (especially Aiden ).

[Summers]

I remember the last time a good Kerrang! CD came out, Keith supplied me it like a pirate.

If only lightning struck twice.

IF ONLY.

Edited June 21, 2007 by Delirium Trigger

[MalaCloudy Black]

I wouldn't mind it if lightning struck once.

[Turbo Yannis]

Yourcodenameis:Milo's version of Feel Good Hit Of The Summer is fucking great. theAudition's Living On a Prayer, not so much.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Holy crap, how did I overlook Darkest Hour doing Nazi Punks Fuck Off?

[Nerf]

I wouldn't mind it if lightning struck once.

[Regia]

I want to hear this

But I'm guessing that BMTH's version of eyeless is gonna blow, mainly because they do, in my opinion at least.

[ROC]

Do emo/goth bitches in Britain love Aiden as much as they seem to do here?

[Colly]

Is that free with the magazine then? YCNI:M and Funeral sound listenable and I'd assume Automatics 'Epic' would be amusing. The rest is miles out of my musical spectrum (Aiden? Fightstar?) but if its only a case of spending £3 or whatever I'd be up for it.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Sounds like a decent cd

What does Kerrang cost now anyways? I'm sure it's gone up since the last time i bought it (sometime last year)

[K]

Kerrang costs £2.10, and the CD is free with that.

Go out and buy it. For two squid it is a quality album.

I'd love to upload the trax for you, but I don't have a computer at the moment. I post from work, or steal a few minutes on my sisters,

[Nerf]

It only takes a few minutes to rip a CD

Nah, I'll probably buy it. It looks awesome, and Lostprophets covering Machine Head has me very much intriuged.

[MDK]

For two squid it is a quality album.

With two squid you can get some quality Calamari.

[Farmer Reil]

It's gotta be worth £2.10 to laugh at the lostprophets.

Or be really, REALLY shocked and awed.

But let's face it, the former is more likely.

[Nerf]

Based on my experience of Ian Watkins trying to sing rough or screaming - they're going to fail.

[Colly]

Well I bought it, and the CD is as expected poo, with one or two I might listen to more than once.

But the magazine!! Its like Smash Hits for people who dress in black. 'Dear Kerrang, I was so stoked my mam bought me Muse tickets for the Saturday, then My Chemical Romance were announced so she bought me Sunday tickets too. Aren't we so delightfully middle class!!'. With maybe two pages I actually felt like reading, it will not be a repeat purchase.

[Cactus Drags]

If you ever expect quality reading from the letters pages of a magazine, particularly one with a predominantly teenage audience, you're going to be dissapointed.

I don't find Kerrang! nearly as offensive as, say, NME. It's far more forgiving of other genres of music, and arguments and reviews are generally well-written and articulate, and on the whole I tend to agree with them (although there is occasionally a tendency to suck up to larger acts such as Marilyn Manson). Ok, it's no Rock Sound or playMusic, but it's not nearly as bad as you make it seem. It's certainly no "Smash Hits for people who dress in black" as that magazine, oher than no longer existing, was essentially Hello or OK for pop-related "celebs".