Sometimes I hear a song, and I don’t even realize it’s a cover. Then when I do, I often check out the original too. I kinda trust the artists I listen to, so if they thought a song worthy of covering, then I might like the original too.

There are a few songs like that, that led me to discover older artists I hadn’t known about. One of the first such cover I remember is Helloween’s Fast as a shark. It’s originally a song by the likewise German, and even more ancient metal band Accept. They’ve been around since ’68! Nonetheless, I only found out about them when I heard Helloween’s cover. After that, I had some of their albums in my library for a good while.

Even bigger a success (at least from my point of view) is HammerFall’s cover of Ravenlord. It’s originally a Stormwitch song. Much like Accept, Stormwitch is an older band from the German metal scene that I didn’t know about. When I realized Ravenlord’s a cover, they were actually enjoying some renewed attention, possibly thanks to that very cover. At this point I’m listening to Stormwitch about as much as HammerFall – admittedly not as much as I used to, but they’re still present!