Singles Roundup: Dragonforce, Cold Years, & Whom Gods Destroy

The release of interesting singles has been pretty slow, so let's deal with the few we do have:

Dragonforce - Wildest Dreams

Metal covers of pop songs are often fun, but sometimes they reveal just how lame metal can be. This is a perfect example of that phenomenon. "Wildest Dreams" is a wonderful song, and is easily Taylor Swift's most sensual track. Listening to the original, her vocal is sultry, and the sense of lust and longing palpitates through the recording. You could easily describe it as 'hungry', and it would be a fitting term.

Dragonforce took all of that... and turned it into absolute garbage. Not only do they speed through it so much that the hook get squashed into nothing, it's delivered with all the passion of breaking down the scientific fallacies in a random episode of Star Trek. Mark Hudson's vocals are devoid of anything resembling a personality, turning this 'wildest dreams' into something so boring it sounds like a rote story you tell your therapist to keep them from asking about what you're really thinking.

Look, my criticism isn't about them daring to besmirch Taylor Swift, it's that they're covering a song they clearly don't understand in the slightest. I've heard fun metal covers of Adele songs, and even Taylor's "Blank Space". There is absolutely a path to do this, and it's amazing to me that Dragonforce has decided to show the world that they will invest the time and energy arranging and recording a song they actively drag down and make worse.

For all the talk metal fans like to partake in about how great the musicians are, and how terrible pop artists are (Let's be honest; Taylor has gotten a lot of flack over the years for not being an 'elite' vocalist), Dragonforce is taking a massive shit on their own case. Sure, they might pick the riff faster than anyone who has played on a Taylor Swift record could, but they play with absolutely zero feel, zero heart, and with zero concern for what the song actually requires. And then there's Hudson, who is in every way over than volume an inferior singer to Taylor Swift. She was able to breathe life into a simple song, giving it depth with the emotion of her performance. Hudson sounds no different than if he was singing about Pokemon. Utter fail.

So if you want to know everything not to do when covering a song, this is a perfect example of it. If you can't play it or sing it better than the original, you're only going to make yourself look foolish. Not all attention is good attention. Learn that lesson.

Cold Years - Roll With It

One of the biggest surprises of 2022 was discovering Cold Years, who came from nowhere to nearly win Album Of The Year. Needless to say, after loving "Goodbye To Misery" that much, their new record is one of the more anticipated releases of the year. The first single from that record is here, and it offers up something to think about.

Spanish Love Songs segued from a pitch-black album to the rosier "No Joy" last year, and I feel like Cold Years is doing something similar. The darker undertone of "Goodbye To Misery" is replaced with a bit more bounce, and a bit of shimmering guitar in the background of the mix. With a vocal that's also cleaner, it all adds up to a song that's more carefree and almost breezy. By the time Spring rolls around, perhaps it will be the perfect sound for the impending change of seasons. Listening to this song right now, I'm left a bit perplexed. The elements are here, and I certainly like the song, but I'm in a place at the moment where I'm not sure I like seeing the light starting to beat back the darkness.

We'll have to see how this goes.

Whom Gods Destroy - Over Again

Single number two from this project is deeply concerning. As feared, the lesson Bumblefoot and Derek Shirinian seem to have taken from Sons Of Apollo is that being even heavier is the best path forward. That is clearly not true, both because the fans of their generation are not gravitating towards bands of that style anyway, but also because these guys aren't all that good at it. Sure, they can tune down the guitars and beat out some sludgy riffs, but for what purpose? Despite being 'virtuoso' players, they lack the requisite songwriting skills to make use of those talents.

This song is heavy for the sake of being heavy, with Dino barking through the verse before the 'chorus' is him straining his voice to bend the nothingness of the composition into a melody. He sounds uncomfortable pushing his voice to overcome the tepid song he's been given, and the rest of the band isn't doing anything to support him. It's a song that screams at us to be impressed by their talent, no matter what that talent is doing. Bumblefoot is also a part of Art Of Anarchy, and they just put out a record with a lot of very similar guitar playing, but the difference in how the music comes across when you have a singer who doesn't sound like he's passing a kidney stone is immense.