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ELVIRA MADIGAN ‘Angelis Daemonae’ Black Lodge (2005)
Elvira Madigan is a one-man (!) Swedish project, who decided to make covers of unsuspecting artists, such as Tori Amos, Chris de Burgh and the Scorpions with his album 'Angelis Daemonae'. This is not Marcus H Madigan’s first record, however, as the band have a previous release named 'Witches - Salem (1692 vs 2001)', with which I am not acquainted.
On the album in hand: I generally have a very strong dislike for covers...Normally, all one gets is a pointless attempt at reproducing, ‘note-for-note’, a song that was fine left as it was, making one want to go straight back to the shelves and retrieve the original. Nor can an artist, in my opinion, be given credit for cloning an original song, for where is the added value other than to the size of the performer’s wallet?
However, there are times when an artist can surprise by presenting an existing composition in a new and original way. Blackie Lawless and Marilyn Manson, to name a couple of examples, have performed some excellent covers by working with styles different from their own and giving the songs they have chosen to cover their unique interpretation and feel.
The result is that the cover is sometimes just as enjoyable as the original and Elvira Madigan have managed to achieve this difficult task on a couple of the tracks of this album.
‘Alien Nation’ is one such song that Elvira Madigan have managed to give a completely new perspective to and have succeeded in adding the mystery and evil to the song’s concept that the original lacks, in my opinion. This is down to the Cradle of Filth-type approach that Elvira espouses, with prolific use of keyboards and Danny filth-like vocals.
Elvira Madigan chooses to use a number of sounds, which are well arranged and create an extra dimension to the covered songs.
Mr Madigan is obviously a fan of Chris de Burgh and the sinister nature of some of this artist’s songs make them an obvious choice for cover by Elvira Madigan. However, the album does seem to lack focus towards the end, by which time we are getting into the 4th Chris de Burgh cover.
And this brings me to the question, what did EM really want to achieve with 'Angelis Daemonae'? If this was a personal fancy, I think this is a very decent achievement, but if this was an attempt at a career move, I think it is greatly off-track. Why? Well, who will listen to this album and where will it be played? I can see it appealing to the creatures of the night commonly referred to as Goths and perhaps being played in some nightclubs where PVC clothing is a requirement, but I cannot see your average (?) Metalhead rushing to swipe it off the shelves. Maybe only the album cover would attract your average (?) Metalhead, but, being female and not much of a lover of cover albums, I don’t think this album would ever have made it into my CD collection, had it not been for the promo…
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Review by Emily Dgebuadze
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