Integrity Releases New Cover of Motorhead’s “Cradle to the Grave”

Integrity have been releasing more and more heavy metal songs. On Halloween, they put out new cover of Motörhead’s 1987 track, “Cradle to the Grave.”

It’s the third year in a row that they’ve released covers on Halloween. In 2018, they covered Ozzy Osbourne’s 1983 track “Bark at the Moon,” and in 2019 they put out cover of the 1992 Septic Death / Rocket from the Crypt split, with the help of Bleach Everything covering the Rocket from the Crypt side.

Motörhead originally released the song as the B-side to “Eat the Rich” but eventually added it as a bonus track on their ninth LP, Rock ‘n’ Roll. By the time the album came out, Motörhead had settled into their heavy metal/hard rock fusion style, and “Cradle to the Grave” leans a little to the hard rock side. It builds off a high-energy guitar riff made out of crunchy power chords, with shouted verses, a melodic chorus and guitar solos at both the middle and end of the track.

Integrity’s cover is pretty faithful to the original, with the main difference being that they extended both guitar solos to about twice their original lengths. Frontman Dwid Hellion did his best to channel the iconic style of Motörhead’s vocalist, Lemmy, but his vocals sit lower in the mix, placing more emphasis on the guitars.

Earlier this month, Hellion and Jacky of Integrity also appeared on a Two Minutes to Late Night cover of The Misfits’ “Halloween II,” along with Gwarsenio Hall, Abby Rhine of Life’s Question, Danny Lomeili of Incendiary, and Liam Wilson of The Dillinger Escape Plan. 

Integrity’s last original track was a heavy metal Adult Swim single called “All Death is Mine,” released early in 2019. Their last album was 2017’s Howling, for the Nightmare Shall Consume.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat