Hey, I love the original Queen song! I believe everyone who has ever listened to some rock radio channel or something like that, knows it. It's a legendary piece, without a doubt, from the band's great multi-Platinum album 'A Kind of Magic' from 1986, which is a part of a movie "Highlander" (come on, every metalhead who loves some sword-wielding must have seen it?!).

What I found out when I discovered this cover version by Finnish project Magnadur, was that artificial intelligence was used to create cover art for many, many singles and two albums they've released since 2024. Could they have utilized the computer brain for the creation of this cover song, too? Tomi Perrakoski, who's behind this project, is credited for vocals and "Max from the USA" for guitars and drums. Max fucking who?! Could it perhaps be a nickname for Tomi's MacBook? Hmmm...

I have heard great cover songs, but when a song with magnificently talented singer goes "melodic death metal", of course with growled vocals, the results have been mostly very, very lame (even on Arch Enemy or Dark Tranquillity level!). There is about one good growled cover for a non-growled original song out of 50. Take out the melodic vocal lines out of a Queen songs, and... fucking hell, I'm out of words! I just do not understand it, and probably never will.

The original song is grand yet melancholic. The synthesizers, which are the sole companion of the vocals for a big part of the song, do remind of the original's. The guitar, too, but it basically feels soulless. The drums sound like machine. The vocals, oh my poor ears, are truly bad! But made by a human, at least. You can tell it, as it is bonafide "Rally English" (check out Finnish rally drivers' video interviews and you'll know what it is). AI cannot be THAT perfect as yet. The growling sounds like it's coming from a person with stage 4 lung cancer. I mean it would fit some goregrind or something like that, but here it is just a total miss. The original song's melodiousness was for a big part created with Freddie Mercury and his amazing and able singing.

So, maybe this was partly created via AI, maybe not. It is hard to tell, but there certainly is a possibility for that. However, it is the growled vocals that totally ruin everything the original song stands for. Like, totally. This will come to my nightmares, I am 100% sure about it...

Reviewed by Lane
09/04/2025 20:40