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“DON’T STOP AT THE TOP” Scorpions

“This one we did for a Scorpions tribute album. It’s actually one of the first Scorpions songs I ever heard. It’s a real good track, and once again it’s one of the less obvious cover choices, as opposed to “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” Matthias Jabs and Rudolf Schenker meant a lot to me growing up, but not as much as Steve Vai, for example. It’s funny, because now when I’m listening to the Scorpions, I think the guitar solos are a lot better than when I first heard them. There’s actually a lot of really cool stuff in there.”

“SILENT SCREAM” Slayer

“This was for a Slayer tribute album. When we got the list of songs we could do, most of the obvious ones were already taken, except this one, which I’ve always thought was a cool song, anyway. The main ‘Silent Scream’ riff is amazing. When it came to the solo, I did something completely different. I didn’t even try to learn the original solo note for note. A Slayer solo is their thing; I’m not even going to try and imitate that.”

“HELLION” W.A.S.P.

“The first two W.A.S.P. albums [W.A.S.P. and The Last Command] helped put the group on my list of favorite metal bands. This song was the first cover we ever did. We recorded it during our sessions for our first album, Something Wild [1997].”

“JUST DROPPED IN (TO SEE WHAT CONDITION MY CONDITION WAS IN)” Kenny Rogers

“This song was another cover from the Big Lebowski soundtrack. But unlike the Creedence song, I’d never heard this tune before I watched the movie. I think it’s a lot more fun and challenging to cover non-metal songs. It’s more surprising for Children of Bodom fans, too. Covering Slayer, Maiden or Judas Priest is just so obvious for a metal band to do. That’s why we wanted to do something different and record a Kenny Rogers song.”

“ACES HIGH” Iron Maiden

“I first got into Maiden when I was about 10 years old. My friend had some Maiden tapes, and I’d go over to his place and listen to them. Like most of the metal covers on this album, this track was originally recorded for a tribute album. ‘Aces High’ is a great song to begin with, and we just went over the top with it. It’s pretty hilarious. It’s just so fast, and we added a bunch of crazy licks. I also redid the solo completely. Otherwise, we stuck pretty close to the original.”

“REBEL YELL” Billy Idol

“I didn't know what the hell was gonna come out of this, but it turned out surprisingly well. I was definitely into Steve Stevens’ playing on the original. He’s an awesome guitarist. When you’re listening to Billy Idol songs, there’s so much shit going on that you don’t really pay attention to what the guitars are doing. This song is so strong, but it also has a lot of crazy guitar work.”

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