Beatallica: Abbey Load

As its name implies, Beatallica likes the Beatles and Metallica. For Beatallica, the recipe for weaving together these two seminal outfits together is as simple as PB&J: smash ‘em together and one will enhance the other. Unfortunately, as the gimmicky sleeve art and title of Abbey Load indicates, this pairing is more comical than insightful.

Certainly the historical threads that unite Metallica and the Fab Four are easy to trace — classic rock and heavy metal have always been cozy bedfellows. But what Beatallica do on this LP is nothing more than basic metal re-interpretations of Abbey Road, using Metallica’s music — especially the album Load, as the name Abbey Load less than subtly suggests. Save for a rather pretty instrumental take on “Blackbird”, these songs all rely on that haphazard mash-up technique. This is definitely a one-trick affair, and for anyone who finds appeal in the concept, Abbey Load will prove to be a fun little diversion, but probably not much more than that. For everyone else, it’ll amount to a joke set worthy of a cruise ship band.