John DeMena is an award-winning rock singer and guitarist from Los Angeles, and he had previously worked with the producers and musicians of Alice Cooper, Jane’s Addiction and Jimmy Kemmel. Inspired by legendary acts like Pink Floyd, Bowie, Alice in Chains, Radiohead, NIN, and AC/DC, People Are Strange, his cover of The Doors track, is his latest single and was released on 23/10/2022.

This is a much slower version of the song than the original, but I think this has added to the atmosphere of the track, which is a lot darker than The Doors version.

Guitars are more prominent on this version, especially during the chorus which the verses build up to nicely, and the solos are very clean and superbly executed with a very classic rock sound. The drumming is laid-back, keeping time and pace of the track perfectly. There is a subtle psychedelic feel to the track that was missing from the original and this gives the track a uniqueness to it that really makes it stand out.

The vocals are completely different on this track to the original, slow, and deliberately sang and with a slight distortion at times that only add to the psychedelic vibe. The vocals are very reminiscent of some 80’s bands but there is also a freshness to them that keeps the song up to date.

The feature about the song that stood out to me were the subtle bell chimes in the background behind the main chunk of the music, which gave the song a slight gothic undertone to it.

If I am honest, I am not a fan of the original version of People Are Strange, but I absolutely adore this cover and, even after listening to it five or six times, I still needed to listen to it once or twice more!

An absolute gem of a song!

This review is the property of The Metal Asylum