Beatallica Masterful Mystery Tour Review by Gary Hill
The latest CD from Beatallica, this is perhaps not as consistent as the previous one. That said, the highlight of this disc seem to stand taller than those on its predecessor and this has a lot to do with that lack of consistency. There’s a lot of great music here. Fans of the Beatles who enjoy metal and have a good sense of humor will enjoy this. I’m guessing Metallica fans are pretty obvious fans of the band. It should be noted that there is a parental advisory on this disc for a reason.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2009 Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
The Battery Of Jamyz And Yoko As “The Battery of Jamyz and Yoko” opens the set, the acoustic guitar duet from the obvious Metallica song drives it. It drives out into the thrash section from there. Then it twists toward the Beatles sound and the sound gets pretty convoluted and muddy. It really doesn’t work all that well. The instrumental sections work better and the bridge is good. I really love the instrumental segment that seems to work between both songs.
Masterful Mystery Tour This one works far better – probably because it seems less about merging the two songs (“Master of Puppets” and “Magical Mystery Tour”) than it is about sewing the two various pieces together in a metal barrage. It’s a great piece of music and one the highlights of the set.
Fuel On The Hill Here’s another of the more successful musical marriages of the set. In some ways I’d say that it’s even heavier than what Metallica does. I like this one a lot.
And I'm Evil This has its moments, but overall doesn’t do too much for me.
Everybody's Got A Ticket To Ride Except For Me And My Lightning We need to mention that there is a parental warning when it applies to the lyrics on this one. Overall this track is much more effective than the previous one. I wouldn’t consider it a highlight of the set, but it definitely has its moments.
Running For Your Life Assuming this is based on both an actual Metallica and an actual Beatles song, I don’t think I recognize either one – although the lyrics seem to be familiar at times. I like this track a lot and would chalk it up as a highlight of the set.
The Thing That Should Not Let It Be This cut should be my favorite from the band for so many reasons. It probably is, but not for all of those reasons. For one thing, as many of you reading this might know, I did a whole book on music inspired by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft (The Strange Sound of Cthulhu) and obviously if I do an updated version this song will make its way there as the lyrics are inspired by one of the songs featured there. I think they did a great job of merging the two sets of lyrics here. For another reason the two songs that they draw from (“The Thing That Should Not Be” from Metallica and “Let It Be” from The Beatles) are possibly my two favorite songs from those two bands. All in all, then, this track is really built for me. I’d pick it as my favorite cut on the set for sure. The thing is, I wish there had been more of the original Metallica track in terms of music here. Otherwise, this is just about perfect. I should mention that there is another parental advisory earned for this one.
Hero Of The Day Tripper Here we have another fairly successful mash up. I’d say that it’s more heavily linked to the Beatles songs than to Metallica – but still, it works quite well.
Got To Get You Trapped Under Ice This is good, but sort of middle of the road in terms of the rest of the material here.
I'll Just Bleed Your Face I’d say that the opening section here is the most successful part of the song. That said, the hard edged thrash movement is quite cool, too. It’s quite a strong piece with some more parental advisories in place.
I Want To Choke Your Band More like Metallica covering the Beatles, I don’t think there’s any real Metallica songs in the midst of this. That said, I haven’t really kept up with the last several Metallica studio discs – and the various rarities, so I could be wrong. The lyrics are definitely different from The Beatles.
Tomorrow Never Comes This is definitely another highlight of the set. It really has a unique sound – compared to anything else on this disc or the previous one. I like it a lot. It’s got more Beatles in than Metallica, but the arrangement has plenty of ‘Tallica. It’s a great tune.
