Bring You To Your Knees
A Tribute To Guns N’ Roses
Law of Intertia
I honestly wonder how many of the current crop of metal-core bands would list Guns N’ Roses among their primary influences. Not many, I’d guess. But maybe I’m wrong, because the guys at Law of Inertia have managed to enlist a large number of the scene’s most potent underground acts to pay tribute to the bad boys of ’80s heavy metal.
Although the majority of this disc is dominated by predictably bland hardcore/screamo takes on classic GnR tunes (Most Precious Blood, Bleeding Through) and a smattering of straight-up, largely boring but inoffensive covers (Eighteen Visions, Break The Silence), there are a few pretty good nuggets that manage to save it from being a complete waste. Time In Malta’s cover of “November Rain” is fantastic – they successfully add their own complexly unique hardcore twist to the song, and yet still manage to channel the sprawling, epic feel of the original in all its excessive glory. Every Time I Die unplugs to deliver a surprisingly classy neo-country take on “I Used To Love Her” that retains the gritty, tongue-in-cheek spirit that made it a favorite in the first place. Finally, The Beautiful Mistake’s poppy take on “Estranged,” which somehow sounds more like a Weezer tune now than it ever did a GnR one, also ends up being one of the best tracks on the disc. The rest of the set is mediocre at best, and embarrassingly bad at worst.
All in all, Bring You To Your Knees is an inconsistent but occasionally interesting tribute to one of the most influential sleaze metal bands of all time. I guess it’s just a little strange that the bands chosen to toast Axl and company here aren’t necessarily their direct descendants in the hard rock family tree. And maybe that partially explains why the effort in general is so lacking.
Law of Inertia: http://www.lawofinertia.com/
