Covers are a part of rock music. From the early years of rock, different artists would perform the same song and some times the cover was more popular (such as The Beatles‘ “Twist and Shout” and Jimi Hendrix‘s “All Along the Watchtower”). Covers cut the teeth of fledgling musicians by putting them within a familiar musical landscape. As musician’s mature, covers are are a great way to share their musical roots with fans or their interpretations of other artists’ work. One of my own musical turning points was Metallica‘s “Garage Inc” where I was introduced to artists who were influential to my favorite band at the time.
Ohio-based Christian post-hardcore outfit, Wolves at the Gate have strung together a diverse collection of covers in their latest release, “Lost in Translation.” The phrase “Lost in Translation” connotes that meaning was lost in the translation process. I don’t think that was the intent of the title. I would suggest that WATG were lost in the creative process of translating other musician’s songs. Unlike my Metallica example that moreso showcased their roots, WATG have a good mix of songs showing their roots and interpretations of popular songs.
I did find it interesting that they picked secular artists for this project since their fan base may be looking for a faith-based lens to music. With that said, inspirations don’t have to align to their faith in order to be a musical inspiration. I put the covers on this album into two groups. One group are translations where WATG put their own flavor on the original. The other group are the faithful renditions where the cover sounds pretty close to the original.
The translations are songs that you wouldn’t connect to WATG like “Heathens” by Twenty-one Pilots and “When I was Older” by Billie Eilish. “Heathens” retains the same infectious motif, but instead of embracing the pop/hip-hop aura, they injected heaviness replete with chunky guitars and screamed vocals to match the underlying mood better than the original. “When I was Older” got a similar treatment by eschewing the insipid, airy accompaniment for their trademark post-hardcore to drive home the strength of the emotions underneath the song. Both of these songs show how well WATG take the seed of the idea from the original artist and translate it for fans who may not care to listen to the original.
It isn’t just pop artists that WATG translate, but also bands like Deftones and Linkin Park that share a sonically heavy language. WATG decided to not just perform Deftones‘ “Diamond Eyes” in its original metal form, but rather created a synth-driven atmospheric ballad. I thought it was an improvement. Close to the three-minute mark, there is a short metal episode before the fadeout that is sudden and startling. WATG’s choice from Linkin Park was a lighter track that they decided tobeef up with guitars accenting again the emotional side of the song.
In the faithful rendition category, a couple of songs sounded like straight play-throughs. Jimmy Eat World‘s “Sweetness” and Foo Fighters‘ “The Pretender” sounded like only the musicians changed between the original and the cover albeit with some personal flourish differences. However, Incubus‘ “Pardon Me” had WATG remove the turntable and replace with their own guitar effects, but besides that it was the same. It was definitely heavier, though, having an industrial metal feel over alt-metal. Muse‘s song, “Apocalypse, Please,” starts like the original with the piano banging, but with some subtle differences. WATG added more harshness in general to an already distressed sounding song through heavier guitar usage and an unhinged harsh backing vocalist. Some of the more nuanced embellishments in Muse‘s original were smoothed over, but they made up in plenty of musical interludes including a tasty Spanish guitar solo. The album closes with Thirty Seconds to Mars‘ “Attack” which required little translation for WATG as the song sounded like it was written for them.
This is a very polished covers album by one of the leading heavy Christian groups in the US with some interesting tracks to chew on. I personally did not have a great affinity for many of the originals, but WATG gave them a new life where I could appreciate them. If you are a fan of WATG (or similar post-hardcore or metalcore bands) and want to hear the band get lost in translating covers, this would be a great album for you.
Rating: 8.5/10
Written by Sean Bailey
Tracklist
1 – Heathens (Twenty One Pilots)
2 – Breaking the Habit (Linkin Park)
3 – Sweetness (Jimmy Eat World)
4 – Pardon Me (Incubus)
5 – When I Was Older (Billie Eilish)
6 – Stupid Deep (Jon Bellion)
7 – The Pretender (Foo Fighters)
8 – Apocalypse Please (Muse)
9 – Diamond Eyes (Deftones)
10 – Attack (Thirty Seconds to Mars)
Wolves At The Gate are:
Steve Cobucci – rhythm guitar, clean vocals
Ben Summers – bass, backing vocals
Nick Detty – lead vocals, keyboards
Abishai Collingsworth – drums
Joey Alacron – lead guitar
Release Date: September 22, 2023
Record Label: Solid State Records
Discography:
“Pulled From the Deep” EP (2009)
“We are the Ones” EP (2011) [review]
“Back to School” EP (2013)
“Captors” (2012)
“VxV” (2014) [review]
“Types & Shadows” (2016)
“Eclipse” (2019)
“Dawn” EP (2020)
“Eulogies” (2022)
“Lowborn” EP (2022)
“Lost in Translation” (2023)
Social Media: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Spotify
Heathens (Official Music Video)
Breaking the Habit (Official Music Video)
The Pretender (Official Visualizer)
