The latest to land on my desk is Axel Rudi Pell’s Diamonds Unlocked. It opens with “The Diamond Overture,” a classical-tinged piece that evokes Ozzy Osbourne’s “Mr. Crowley” at points, that’s followed by a cover of Riot’s “Warrior,” which surprisingly isn’t bad at all.

You have to give Pell credit for being eclectic. Included on the disc are covers from Riot, U2, Chris Rea, Kiss, Michael Bolton (no, that’s not a misprint), Free, Montrose, Phil Collins, The Mission and The Who. Honestly, though, he probably should have stuck with metal bands. His cover of U2’s “Beautiful Day” sounds like a garage band that was sitting around thinking, “You know what would be cool? If U2 played metal.”

Covers of Chris Rea’s “Stone,” Bolton’s “Fool’s Game” and Montrose’s “Rock the Nation” all sound incredibly dated and 80s-ish. The worst is “Fool’s Game,” which reminds me a bit of Rick Springfield, or, I guess, Michael Bolton trying to play hard rock. (Yeah, I know that’s how he started, but I’ve also heard that stuff, too.)

To be fair, there are some covers here that work. His take on Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” though more or less faithful to the original has some interesting takes with the steel drums and some cool chime flourishes. I also like the heavier guitar piece that comes after the iconic drum roll that everyone thinks about when they think of that song. He also does a faithful, straight up cover of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” (How could you possibly mess with that song too much?)

The most surprising track here, though is his acoustic cover of Kiss’ “Love Gun.” An acoustic cover of “Love Gun?” What the fuck? Certainly that was my initial reaction. How can you strip the song of those machine gun riffs? What do you have left? Surprisingly, the best tune on the record. There’s more feeling packed into the performance than any of the other songs here, and it sounds more like something Pell has wanted to do for a long time than something he tossed out for a quick cover record.

Just like there’s that occasional cover song that surpasses the original, there are a few gems to be found on the glut of cover records out there – that’s the case with “Love Gun” and possibly “In the Air Tonight” here. But I’d still rather hear an album full of original music from most of these bands.

Take a tune like ‘Rock the Nation,’ put it on any hair band record from the 1980s, and it wouldn’t be out of place at all. Overblown rock anthem riffing and cheesy lyrics about how great your live show is was old and boring in the 1970s. Then there’s ‘No Chance to Live,’ which follows every single step of the power ballad formula from the opening atmospheric synth notes to the slow, melodramatic leads to the big distorted power chords that punctuate the chorus. The sad thing is that songs like that take away from some of the really good moments

The title track offers up a great galloping traditional metal riff, that reminds me almost of a classic Dio tune once vocalist Johnny Gioeli begins to sing over it. ‘The Curse of the Damned’ which closes the album is one of those epic tunes that really defines this style. The neoclassical noodling of ‘Haunted Castle Serenade,’ which incorporates some Spanish sounds and medieval balladry is a nice change of pace and puts the spotlight on what’s really strong about this record

I think what really turns me off of this record more than anything else, though, are the vocals. Don’t get me wrong, Gioeli’s not a bad singer at all. In fact, there are a few pretty impressive moments for him, but listening to the album as a whole, I feel like I’ve heard these same vocal melodies over and over and over and over. There’s a way to make great melodic metal without repeating the same old things again and

Mystica is certainly a well-done record for what it is, but the songs are pretty stale. It’s a great nostalgic album for reminiscing about the good old days of melodic metal, but after a spin or two, you’ll be looking for something with a little