American metal specialists Roadrunner Records celebrate their 25th birthday by releasing an album featuring a collaboration of artists from their past and present. For a roster boasting the likes of Machine Head, Trivium and Slipknot (not to mention *ahem* Nickelback…) that has to be impressive…
Which means?
Every single song has a different line up, but the whole was co-ordinated by four ‘team captains’: Robb Flynn (Machine Head), Joey Jordison (Slipknot), Dino Cazares (ex-Fear Factory) and Matt Heafy (Trivium), who assembled the personnel for each track and took the lead in writing the music – though guest vocalists generally wrote their own lyrics.
Is it much cop?
If you’ve ever envied the collection of ‘talent’ involved in something like Live Aid, then it’s almost worth buying just for the huge assembly of metal stars – even if they don’t all appear at once. Of course, if metal isn’t your thing, then this isn’t for you – but the wide range of inputs mean it has some surprising diversity.
How many good tracks?
Ironically the biggest successes are probably those that break the usual metal mould, such as the two-person Opeth/Type O Negative collaboration ‘Roads’ or Offspring-on-drugs ‘I Don't Wanna Be (A Superhero)’. Nonetheless most of the rest is as solid as you’d expect with the pedigree behind it, with highlights including ‘The End’ and ‘Tired ‘N’ Lonely’. I’d say about three-quarters of the 18 tracks.
And the worst?
The diverse mixture of styles means you’re unlikely to appreciate everything. Personally, for example, I find King Diamond’s high-pitched delivery on the old-school ‘In The Fire’ a bit much. If you can’t stand Dani Filth’s screeching then ‘Dawn Of A Golden Age’ probably won’t change your mind either. A room full of metal fans could probably have very different opinions on best and worst tracks though.
Biggest disappointment?
One problem with putting together, say, one part each of Fear Factory, Chimaira and Slipknot is – as many new metal bands have found out – it does tend to sound rather derivative, and often as not less than the sum of the parts. If your expectations are too high, you may be disappointed by a few fairly generic tracks that could’ve been pretty much anyone.
Verdict:
Collaboration necessarily requires compromise, but there’s no denying that, as such joint projects go, this is very good – and almost worth buying on novelty value alone. A fitting tribute to the label’s 25th anniversary indeed.

(4/5)

Release Date: 10 October 2005

The All-Star Sessions