Album Review: Erock – The 80s Meet Metal (PelleK, Erock & Cole Rolland)

Take classic 80’s pop & rock songs & metal them up…sounds great, right? Erock’s The 80s Meet Metal is great & terrible at the same time.

Opening with Take on Me (A-Ha), a song that is badass in itself anyway, it features PelleK on vocal duties resulting in a fresh *ahem* take. Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer is a lazy offering seeing as it falls heavily in the rock camp anyway.

How you feel about that song & many of the songs that follow will really effect how much enjoyment you get out of this. Heavy guitar riffs, slamming drum beats…none of that really matters if you can’t stand a certain song. Which is the case with the horrific Mad World (Tears for Fears), a song that I hate with a passion. Sure, it’s a good ‘metal’ version of it but that tune is still there. There are many people who will surely get a kick out of it but if you feel like me you’re sure to hate it as much as I do.

Elsewhere though there are a whole bunch of fun ideas, songs that aren’t obviously ripe for the metal remix. Africa (Toto) is an absolute blast, Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins) captures that 80s feel wonderfully & Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) is a fun, unique take on a classic. Erock manages to capture the essence & emotion of the song but ups the tempo nicely & the subtle drum beat really makes it a special song.

After that the album kind of drifts off into nothingness. Axel F (Beverley Hills Cop Theme) is rubbish & Michael Jackson focuses heavily on Smooth Criminal which just makes you think of the horrific Alien Ant Farm Cover. Both Scarface & The King of Wishful Thinking (Go West) fall flat even if there are flashes of great guitar work. That’s something that can’t be called into question at any stage throughout though.

Thankfully the album finishes on a fun high with Rock Me Amadeus (Falco) & Careless Whisper. The latter is a tongue in cheek take on the famous George Michael song, something that has a lot more impact considering the singer’s recent death (he died on the 25th December 2016).

80’s Meets Metal doesn’t quite match the rest of the Meets Metal compilation albums. The inclusion of PelleK & Cole Rolland doesn’t really add much overall. There are plenty of nice guitar melodies & plenty of decent shredding but as stated above how you feel about the original songs will certainly colour how you see this.

It’s nothing to get excited about.

Overall Track Listing:

1. Take On Me Meets Metal (feat. PelleK)
2. Livin’ on a Prayer (feat. PelleK & Cole Rolland)
3. Mad World Meets Metal
4. Africa Meets Metal
5. Danger Zone Meets Metal
6. Bohemian Rhapsody Meets Metal
7. Axel F Meets Metal
8. Michael Jackson Meets Metal
9. Scarface Meets Metal
10. The King of Wishful Thinking Meets Metal
11. Rock Me Amadeus Meets Metal
12. Careless Whisper Meets Metal