Five Hard Rock Songs to Avoid Covering

A friend of mine recently put me on to Halestorm's new covers EP, ReAniMate, which features an eclectic (read: terrible) selection of tracks, including Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike." And though their ballsy take on Guns N Roses' "Out Ta Get Me" is rather enjoyable, the most dumbfounding inclusion is their version of Heart's "All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love To You)." [Listen to "Bad Romance" and Skid Row's "Slave to the Grind"]

Yes, Halestorm chose to avoid classics like "Crazy On You" and "Barracuda" in order to spotlight Heart's adult contemporary transition by way of 1990's Brigade. These kids today. But rather than cutting them down for it, I chose instead to put together a primer of five off-era hard rock songs to avoid in the future. Should they ever decide to churn out ReAniMate 2 (but also appropriate for your band).

1. Motley Crue's "Raise Your Hands to Rock" | It's still better to "Shout at the Devil."



2. Starship's "We Built This City" | This is not the same band that created "White Rabbit."


3. KISS - "Crazy Nights" | No, you so crazy.


4. Celtic Frost's "Cherry Orchards" | d00d, cred. Wink.


5.  Extreme's "Little Girls" | Creepy, yo. And that's coming from me.

Ugh, Hatebreed... Why?!!

Everyone knows that I'm a huge fan of good (or intentionally bad) cover songs. This is probably why hearing about Hatebreed's forthcoming covers album, For The Lions, wounded my soul just a little bit.

Sure, it's cool that Jamie Jasta (the Tony Robbins of metalcore) wears his influences on his sleeve, and he probably thinks he's doing bands like Judge, Black Flag, Negative Approach and D.R.I. a favor by increasing their awareness within Hatebreed's fan base of mouth-breathing mosh mongers. But he's really not. And seriously, just because they named themselves after the Misfits song doesn't mean they have to cover it.

After all, once a song goes through the Hatebreed monkey music grinder, it all pretty much sounds the same. I'm sure Metallica's "Escape" will sound just as br00tal as Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist," but not as good as Black Flag's "Thirsty & Miserable."

Want more proof that nothing good can come of For The Lions? Here is a teaser of Hatebreed butchering Slayer's "Ghosts of War." Oh, the monotone horror...