This is definitely one of the most interesting compilation ideas done yet. HM got a bunch of bands together and let them pick songs which influenced them to cover for the project. There's plenty to smile over here, as an eclectic mix of "hard" bands cover a wide variety of songs. So much subjectivity is involved--depending on one's taste for the original songs, one's opinion of Christians covering "secular" songs, and one's dislike/like of certain bands' sounds--that everyone will have their own favorites and disappointments. I was unimpressed by Doug Pinnick's U2 cover being a poorly-produced past demo, Tourniquet's awkward job on King's X's "Dogman," and Larry Norman's cheesy dance version of dc Talk's "Jesus Freak." Highlights were Echo Hollow's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" (U2) and Blackball's "Message in a Bottle" (The Police), possibly due to the original strength of the songs but also because they were the only two bands with vocalists who possessed comparable style and personality to the originals. Other pleasant surprises were Paul Roraback's (Grammatrain) loose organic version of Rush's "2112 Overture", the Channelsurfers' spooky-funky Veggie Tales song, and Atomic Opera's acoustic "Water Grave" (The Imperials).
Although the production goes up and down, the quality of the bands represented varies widely, and this will no doubt end up being one of those rarely-played novelty discs in many a collection, The Mother of all Tribute Albums is a must-hear for any fans of the bands playing or even the bands covered. Let's hope HM does it again.
3.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
Art for the Ears 1999Reviewed by Marco PovervestFrom the magazine covering Christian Hard Music this pleasant CD comes. The idea is simple: Let fifteen bands cover a song each from one of their favorite bands and put it on one CD. Bands featured here are: Tourniquet, Doug Pinnick, Echo Hollow, Spy Glass Blue, Reflescent Tide, Justin Fox, Paul Roraback, Crimson Thorn, Guardian, The Channelsurfers, Blackball, Atomic Opera, One Bad Pig, The…The Phantom Tollbooth 1998Reviewed by Tony LaFianzaHM magazine mogul, Doug Van Pelt, has put together a tricky tribute record. Usually a tribute record honors one artist's work with cover versions by an assortment of admiring artists. What has happened here, however, is that Van Pelt has asked individual artists to pick any song by any artist they wanted to do, and put it on a multi-artist tribute album. He has ended up with a huge variety of…
