It feels like I’ve been writing about a lot of cover discs this week. (I covered the Doomriders/Sweet Cobra Devo split last week and Life of Agony’s version of “Don’t You Forget About Me” just yesterday. In the case of both of those reviews, I was generally pleased with what I heard. I’m still undecided how I feel about Reanimate 2.0.

I first heard of Halestorm because they did a solid, true-to-form, rendition of Dio’s “Straight Through The Heart” on the Dio tribute record “This Is Your Life.” The band is really tight, they have a good sound and vocalist Lzzy Hale has a tough, gritty rock voice. On Reanimate 2.0, they tackle six songs by six iconic acts: Judas Priest (“Dissident Aggressor”), Daft Punk (“Get Lucky”), AC/DC (“Shoot To Thrill”), Pat Benatar (“Hell Is For Children”), Fleetwood Mac (“Gold Dust Woman”) and Marilyn Manson (“1996”). As with their Dio cover, the songs are all played true-to-form without varying too much from the source material. The only song that sounds any different from the original is “Get Lucky” only because of the stylistic clash that occurs from playing a disco song in a hard rock style. The rest of the songs are adequate, unoffensive renditions. I would never recommend the Halestorm version over any of the originals because the energy and performance is met but never exceeded and the songs are not approached with any original interpretation in mind. But at the same time, they’re well-performed, well-produced versions of great songs.

I equate the whole exercise in going to see a cover band. There’s a good time to be had and they’re playing the songs you know. But you’d really rather be seeing the original.