RE-RECORDING OLD MATERIAL: WHAT’S THE POINT?
Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 3:32pm by Axl Rosenberg
Last night I heard the “new” Vader album, XXV, for the first time. In case you’re not hip to this release, it’s the Polish death metal masters’ 25th anniversary album, and is basically a greatest hits compilation – except that all the songs have been re-recorded with the band’s current line-up. Which, naturally, means that late drummer Krzysztof “Doc” Raczkowski appears nowhere on the album (or, at least, not in the audio content – I still don’t have a copy of the DVD which will accompany the disc’s release).
Of course, Vader aren’t the first band to embark upon such an endeavor. Living Colour, Twisted Sister, and even The Sex Pistols have all re-recorded some of their old songs for purpose of being able to license them without having to share the wealth with their former record labels, which is a brutal, and brutally honest, reason to re-visit your old catalogue. Dave Mustaine re-recorded “A Tout Le Monde” as a duet with Cristina Scabbia just last year; Anthrax re-recorded a bunch of old Joey Belladonna tunes with John Bush for their Greater of Two Evils* collection; hell, Dimmu Borgir re-recorded their entire album Stormblast because they were so unhappy with the original, and as I understand it, it’s only by the grace of God that we don’t have Appetite for Destruction 2000, featuring Axl Rose’s “revamped” GN’R in place of the original (although a half of a re-recorded “Sweet Child O’Mine” does roll over the closing credits of the Adam Sandler vehicle Big Daddy).
What, one has to wonder, is the point of re-recording all the band’s old songs?
Of course, it’s basically impossible to make broad-yet-accurate generalizations about the results of such re-recordings, but speaking generally, all of the projects I’ve listed above strike me as more or less completely pointless – even if none of them are exactly “bad.” I didn’t listen to XXV in its proper running order – I skipped around to my favorite songs to see whether or not this whole idea was just a total fucking disaster – and the changes were, by and large, pretty minimal. I mean, they’ve added some symphonic keyboard flourishes to “Kingdom” (which will probably annoy purists but didn’t really move me one way or the other), but, to be honest, I found the whole album much less ridiculous than the “A Tout Le Monde” redux, or, for that matter, the too-slick Sex Pistols retread or the new version of Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” where Vernon Reid has replaced his classic guitar solos with mindless shredding.
But do I think I’ll ever put XXV on again when I can just listen to the original recordings I know and love from De Profundis and Kingdom and The Beast and Litany? Absolutely not.
Which brings me back to my original question: what was the point of this project? I hate to say it, but the answer I keep coming back to is “money.” Wouldn’t XXV, or The Greater of Two Evils, or “A Tout Le Monde Deux” all primarily appeal to younger fans unfamiliar with the originals, and more likely to purchase something shiny and new? Fuck, I prefer John Bush to Joey Belladonna, and even I’d rather listen to the original version of “Caught in a Mosh” than the (supposedly) Greater recording. So maybe Dimmu Borgir really were so unhappy with Stormblast that they felt like they just had to re-record it – but thinking that anyone other than a newer fan would accept the re-recording as a replacement for the original is a foolish error of George Lucasian proportions.
So here’s my quick word of advice to all the bands out there: your fans love you, warts and all. What’s done is done; keep your eyes on the road ahead.
-AR
*Does this mean we can now anticipate The Greatest of Three Evils, a re-recording of Belladonna AND Bush-era material with new vocalist Dan Nelson?
Didn’t Dave Mustaine re-record most of the Megadeth back catalog a while back? And hasn’t Kiss done the same, multiple times? 2 biggest examples I could think of off the top of my head.
I always assumed it was so that Dave & Gene, others like them could assume a greater share of the profit? Does it work that way?
I have to agree, I don’t really see the point behind it a lot of times.
I’d just as soon listen to the older stuff.
That said, I actually love the Anthrax re-recording, since Bush is about 500 times the singer Belladonna ever was. Sort of a fresh take on some kickass material.
Plus, the production on the newer recording was pretty solid. Good stuff.
The worst re-recording EVER in my opinion is one that you failed to mention…Shout At The Devil ‘97 off Generation Swine.
The whole concept is wack, but I give The Crown a pass on their Crowned In Terror/Crowned Unholy re-recording. The intensity of the original is diminished, but the re-recording is just more … them. I alternate between the two. Luckily, i listen to The Crown every fucking day. Nobody gets left out.
Dude… Doc has died a few yeras ago…
@Dimelg: Yes, I am aware. That is why I referred to Doc as “late.” I did not mean “tardy.” I meant “dead.”
The Greater of Two Evils sounds like Anthrax is old and tired. I really can’t listen to it over the originals – even if the production values are better, Benante’s drums sound like he’s out of breath.
99% of the time, I agree with you. However, Testament did this on “First Strike Still Deadly” and I think it came off brilliant. The older albums did not have as good production.
NuMall- I was going to mention that Testament record too.
The old records are way more raw, which is good.
But the new recordings fucking slay too.
Jim, Megadeth didn’t re-record their back catalogue, they simply remixed and remastered them. It worked with Killing is my business, because with the guitar drops and overall shitty mixing (where are the guitars), that album is 10x better remixed. One of the few times it happens.
I didn’t like the re-recording of Stormblast. The original sounded fine. The only Vader material that could stand a second goes is their first proper album, the Ultimate Incantation.
I think ultimately you’re right, they want new fans to buy the new stuff because they signed a shitty record deal when they were young and want to screw over those jerks. I don’t blame them but, hey, I already bought my copy. I don’t need another.
How can everyone forget when ozzy had the bass and drums re-recorded on his first two albums, to fuck bob daisley out of royalties? Ok, totally Sharon’s idea i’m sure, but I think that is FAR worse than just re recording for the sake of updating a sound…
Two exaples that this can actually work are Testament’s “First Strike still deadly” and Anthrax’s “Greater of two evils”. I think both are fantastic.
In Megadeth’s case, Mustaine actually re-recorded some guitar solos and cut parts to some songs.
About the Living Colour and Sex Pistols rerecordings… weren’t they just for the purpose of getting Guitar Hero III mastertracks? I was under the impression they couldn’t find the original masters, at least for the former.
Jaime: Ozzy’s first two albums = worst rerecordings ever.
Iced Earth rerecording stuff with Matt Barlow over their first vocalist totally makes sense. the first vocalist blows; Matt made those early songs listenable because he fucking rules.
Well, I know some bands will re-record their lesser-known or hard-to-find songs so it’s easier for the fans to get a hold of them. Also, some bands will do it because the original sounds so bad. Which both often go hand-in-hand, especially with demos.
The tracks for Guitar Hero III were re-recorded only the game. Living Colour re-recorded the track b/c the original masters could not be found.
[...] I was just talking about re-recordings a little while back, and I think at the time that I came to the conclusion that this was a pointless but ultimately harmless excercise. [...]
I think more bands should re-record their old stuff that doesn’t have production quality that’s all that good, I for one don’t like lo-fi recordings a good reason to re-record other than money, is to make a good song sound as good as it possibly can.