Tackling another country’s national anthem is risky business, especially an anthem as loved as the ~official~ Australian anthem, John Farnham’s You’re The Voice. But by the power of Odin, a Norwegian heavy metal vocalist has grabbed the absolute beast by the horns and belted out a righteous effort.
Our new hero, Jørn Lande, who you may know as the singer from Ark, Millenium and Vagabond or perhaps his extensive solo work, recently released a brand new anthology of covers Heavy Rock Radio. Contained within, is an epic rendition of the stirring 1986 call-to-arms You’re The Voice.
As you’ll see below, Lande’s version is a far beefier affair riddled with distortion, artificial harmonics and fairly brutal crescendos. Vocally, homeboy is pretty on the pocket and has some serious chops. ALTHOUGH, can’t hit the big note, hey mate?
According to Blabbermouth, Lande has kept as true to the originals throughout the album. A lot more effort went into this than your usual cover album also. In order to be “Jorn-ized”, the track was first assessed in terms of tempo to make sure the album was balanced and not skewed too far towards “the pop side of rock”. So, Hotel California was balanced with The Final Frontier by Iron Maiden for example.
Lande wanted to recreate the feel of a jukebox, or heavy rock radio station if you will.
Believe it or not, Farnsey’s hit didn’t just go down well with Australians. The track smashed charts the world over obvs due to it being a strong and relatable gee-up of a song. It hit pole position in Sweden, Germany as well as Australia, scored a top fiver in Switzerland and debuted in the top 10 in the UK.
WATCH: Jørn Lande – You’re The Voice (John Farnham cover)
