Various Artist ‎– A Tribute To The Beast (2002)

While the idea of new generations of metalheads giving a sneering nod to the legendary Iron Maiden is a welcome gesture, a tribute record to the band will undoubtedly fall short unless some clever and engaging arrangements of the songs are considered. Tribute to the Beast proves this point rather immediately with lackluster performances by bands vomiting out terribly uninspired versions of several Iron Maiden classics. Most bands on this collection musically stick to the songs on a perfect note-by-note remembrance of middle-school days listening to Powerslave and practicing along to "How to Play Guitar" videos, which creates an insipid bed of music for vocalists with no range choking a garbled half-scream. The problem with this is that it sounds as though sterilized versions of Maiden's master tapes were used for the backing tracks and Bruce Dickenson's powerful vocals were replaced with muddled, unmelodic guttural noise destroying the greatness of what Maiden was all аbout: a truly innovative, powerful, and melodic band.