In celebration of the group’s 15th anniversary, German thrash act Godslave felt the need to record some special cover songs as Champions. Paying homage to some of your childhood influences or current favorites, this album incorporates more than the conventional fare one would expect in this genre. Beyond heavy metal classics, you’ll also hear punk songs, extreme artists, and even David Hasselhoff given these musicians attention. With over an hour of material to absorb, it’s quite a hefty, diverse offering that many may enjoy, while others possibly sift through slowly at a comfortable pace.
Opener “Full Nelson” showcases Godslave taking a global Limp Bizkit hit and twisting things into a semi-thrash, semi-reflective effort that still maintains a lot of the nu-metal, rhythm-oriented groove that put this band on the smash path in the 90s/early 2000s. From there we get a mix of songs from more conventional artists like Trivium, Whiplash, The Haunted all the way through to Iced Earth, Twisted Sister and Judas Priest – as well as punk notables like NOFX, Pennywise, and The Offspring. Other surprises include “Rain” by Samael, the early Sentenced cut “Nepenthe” plus Dog Eat Dog for “Rocky”. What makes this scribe smile is the band’s ability to not go for the obvious choices in certain cases – as “Hard as Iron” probably isn’t in the top 10 of Judas Priest tracks under tribute consideration, plus the very energetic “Stay Hungry”, the title track from an album that helped vault Twisted Sister into international superstars. A couple of surprises also shine the spotlight on fellow German speed, power, and thrash artists that may have slipped under the collective radar – “Carrie White” from Warhead and “Totmann” from Cripper. The modern production advances bring a lot of the older originals some extra adrenaline-fueled punch to the proceedings – further enhancing the value of this endeavor.
Providing that peek into where these musicians gained an appreciation for music overall, Champions isn’t a typical tribute trip that has a cash grab mentality for Godslave. Let’s see if the curiosity factor could get more fans into the band’s original works – as much like Children of Bodom did back in 2009 with Skeletons in the Closet, this effort explores heavy music as well as the occasional outside the box number with high quality results.