For This Is Your Life, an upcoming Ronnie James Dio tribute album, Metallica have crammed four covers of songs by his band Rainbow into a medley entitled "Ronnie Rising." Stream it above.
Covering "A Light in the Black," "Tarot Woman," "Stargazer" and "Kill The King," Metallica made the wise choice of selecting songs from a specific era of Dio's storied career. On "Ronnie Rising," Rainbow's proggy take on hard rock is rendered tighter and more straightforward by the workhorse veterans of Metallica. Kirk Hammett does an excellent job of recreating Richie Blackmore's guitar acrobatics, but James Hetfield might lean a little too heavily on auto-tune in his attempt to tackle Dio's intimidating range. Whatever the case, "Ronnie Rising" is nine minutes of all-out fun. Seeing Metallica play this in concert would really be something else.
This Is Your Life comes out on April 1st. Preorder it now on Amazon. Head over to Metallica's Zumic artist page to hear a demo of their new single, as well as more music, video and news.