Thursday, January 5, 2012

under-covers: Judas Priest/Hellsongs

Perhaps, one of the greatest guilty pleasures in my life: the perverse enjoyment I get listening to musicians covering other artist's songs. The weirder the cover, the better! It doesn't matter how awkward or horrible the quality (shitty cell phone video, I'm looking at you), I'm an absolute sucker for this stuff. Here's the latest installment of "under-covers."

Today we feature legendary heavy metal icons Judas Priest and their anti-authoritarian anthem "Breaking the Law." This song is over 30 years old and still gets heads banging and fists pumping like nobodies business.

That riff, dear lord it's that riff! Catchy and just cool as hell.

And now we head to Hellsongs' version of this classic tune. Don't let their name fool you though, despite their rough moniker, the band is anything but (411 on Hellsongs HERE).

HA. I love it. So mellow and un-metal that it works. At least I think so. Once again, that riff grabs you by the throat, only this time its the acoustic, tropical lounge version. While I appreciate the quirky nature of this version and love how it breathes new life into a three decade old song, nothing tops the original and Halford's gnarly high pitched wails.

What do you kids think?

23 comments:

  1. Havent heard these befre but they sound awesome

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  2. What the fuck did I just watch? Though I do love Priest and Breaking The Law. That cover was quirky, but not as bad/good as the Down With The Sickness cover. That was crazy.

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  3. Breaking the law was a great one, second I liked somewhat.

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  4. Know what issue I had with the cover? The keys. Just a different sound, not so organ-y and it would've made a huge difference for me, because I like where it was heading.

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  5. It sounds like such a different song! I love it! Thats the best kind of cover! When the cover is a different style then the origanal!

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  6. Awesome video- the close up of the guy in the bank is fantastic. Who knew that the power of rock could shatter eye glasses? I mean other than people with a knowledge of acoustics and the Mythbusters who succeeded in breaking glass with just the sound of one guy's voice.

    I like the pause for clapping in the cover.

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  7. Hey Hellsongs version is pretty good!! She has an amazing voice.

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  8. This is actually great. I love Breaking the Law but this cover is great as well, her voice is awesome man, absolutely amazing.

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  9. Woah certainly not what I expected. Sounds really good!

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  10. I never thought a different version of Breaking the Law wouls actually be pretty good. :D

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  11. I love metal songs covered in a mellow groove, and also the other way around, like the Lemonheads doing Mrs. Robinson.

    Oh, that sentence came out badly.

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  12. this song was the best back in the day on beavis and butthead

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  13. i love metal and the like and that mellow way it was covered wasn't all that bad. keep at it.

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  14. covers like these are great but imo the original is always the best.

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  15. yeaaahh great and amazings videos exellnt song dont you think =)

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  16. I love it when artists cover a song and make it their own. It is dreadfully dull to play something exactly the same way someone else played it and dull to listen to it. And it's a bonus for me to find someone on Blogger who likes the same kind of music I do. Love Judas Priest.

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  17. It's a guilty pleasure of mine, too. Although I have to admit that up until now I completely forgot about the playlist I made of songs and their respective cover songs.

    And that's an awesome cover :)

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  18. havent heard judas priest in a while. love it.

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  19. lmfao that comment that u left me, did u just come up with that off the top of your head? that was beautiful man.

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  20. All I can think about when I hear breaking the law is beavis and butthead :)

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  21. These bring back memories - cheers

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