Beatallica’s Abbey Load is for Beatlemaniacs with a zen for hijinks, heavy metal junkies or Metallicaheads – or someone into all three. This 15-song Fab Four tribute is complete with riffs, growling vocals, blistering drums and guitars…just as if Metallica covered the Beatles.
A loud “Come Together” with a long opening starts off the CD. Jaymx Lennfield has got his James Hetfield vocal growl down pat and Ringo Larz’s drums are solid. “I Saw Her Standing There” at a blistering speed is truly unique, with Grg Hammettson’s break out lead guitar work and some silly “yrr, yrr, yrr’s” background vocals.
Based on “Enter Sandman,” the version of “Michelle” sees Lennfield at his best, while “Please Please Me” has great backing vocals and may be the best arranged of these early tunes. There’s some complicated acoustic guitar noodling from bassist Kliff McBurtney on a upside instrumental version of “Blackbird.” There’s also his low bass playing under Jaymx at the beginning of “You Never Give Me Your Money” – the band breaks in but doesn’t really latch on to the melody – which has a high-end Lemmy-like sound.
The band begins a nice jam on “Sun King,” maybe their most realized Metallica-meets-Beatles piece here. They take the lightness of the Beatles and make it a nice plodding assault. “The End” sees everybody at their full fastest chunk, and Larz gets to show off a bit as “Her Majesty” has the band singing “yeah, who yeah who” over and over and everybody takes solos.
Abbey Load is fun ad features some decent playing with an interesting approach to tunes we’ve heard hundreds of times. For a band that has Metallica down cold and obviously paying tribute to John, Paul, George and Ringo, Beatallica brings the best of both worlds together for better or worse.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
