V/A – Bring You to Your Knees : A Tribute to Guns N’ Roses / 14 Tracks / 2004 Law of Inertia Records / http://www.lawofinertia.com / Released 23 March 2004 / Reviewed 01 May 2004
Starting off this compilation with an amped-up version of “Welcome to the Jungle”, Zombie Apocalypse (members of Shai Hulud) mix together a punk tempo with a Helloween-style of guitar arrangements. Scarcely taking two minutes to blast through that Guns N’ Roses track, the next peak on this disc of heights would have to be Vaux’s cover of “14 Years”. Incorporating a Blind Melon/early nineties alt-rock influence to the Marilyn Manson-styled vocals of their vocalist, Vaux adds a Doors-like synthesizer to the mix and ratchet up the groove factor from the original. Dropping all their pretensions and their gruff-metal exterior, Break the Silence has fun with “Night Train”, even going farther into the hair-metal sound that Guns N’ Roses would typically going. The sizzling guitars of the original track are preserved intact, and the band really creates a solid, sharp, and on-the-dot sound for this track. Mixing together the new-age synthesizers of O-Town’s “All Or Nothing”, Most Precious Blood links together a Refused-style set of vocals and chunky guitars into a motley crew.
Pushing the envelope as far as it can go, Time in Malta approaches “November Rain” as it really should be: an opera, with a number of distinct movements. Tricking people into thinking that they would just straight-fowardly cover the original, Time in Malta are masters in creating tension, with the end result being the create orgasm that is the chorus. The Dillenger Escape Plan’s go at “My Michelle” is the one dark spot on the disc of solid and innovative covers; virtually the only thing keeping the track out of the depths of mediocrity is the thrash-punk tempo the track is in. Let’s get one thing straight, and that is Eighteen Vision’s version of “Paradise City” is a virtual clone of the original, only using a more generic distortion for the guitar and (to their extreme benefit) allowing a synthesizer to create an atmosphere and fullness to the track that was not present originally.
Yessssssssss! How is it that The Beautiful Mistake can make such an amazing track in “Estranged” into a Placebo/Weezer influenced romp that still keeps the shrill and talented guitar lines of Slash in the forefront. Law of Inertia really collected a treasure trove of bands of this compilation, and at a time at when 5 or 6 bands are about ready to or just have broken (Vaux, Break the Silence, Most Precious Blood, Bleeding Through, Unearth). Keeping the fuck-you (in many ways) spirit of Guns N’ Roses is a tremendously hard thing to do, and Law of Inertia has done just that.
Top Tracks: Time in Malta’s “November Rain”, The Beautiful Mistake’s “Estranged”
Rating : 7.6/10