I feel like Eternal Champion would play it extremely well, but what would be the point? They would more or less just sound like the original.
I agree with your critique to the extent that many covers miss what made the original special (see Disturbed's cover of Sound of Silence), but if you want a cover version to sound close to the original, then why not just listen to the original? What Visigoth adds to Necropolis is some power and more modern production sensibilities that I sometimes find myself missing in the original, depending on my mood.

I guess my point was that with Necropolis otherwise being such a standard heavy metal/hard rock song the original vibe is necessary to make it at all interesting. I also commented in the context of the cover somehow being better than the original, which it absolutely isn't. Even as a Visigoth song it sounds downscaled and way less interesting than what they usually write. If I were to get really nerdy about it I'd say that Visigoth covered it in their usual "more is more" fashion whereas Crystal Logic is the essential "less is more" epic heavy metal. I think EC woulda been a bit more sensitive to those aspects even if they wouldn't have to copy it exactly

I do agree that it's way cooler when bands do covers in their own style (especially when it breaks genre!), but apart from the added vocal harmonies the Visigoth cover sounds run-of-the-mill enough to be inferior to the original every day of the week, imo.

This will seem a little out of left field but as a fan of the original, Floor Jansen's cover of M83's "Oblivion" destroys the original. The final sixty seconds legit moved me to tears.

As a young boy, I grew up on The Beatles. And usually the vast majority of bands covering a Fab Four song blow. Deep Purple’s Help cover on Shades of Deep Purple is much better than the original (which is way too upbeat).

I sadly have to disagree here. I love Virus, but here they fail and really shouldn't have even tried. The cover severely lacks the otherworldly atmosphere of the original and the guitar solo seems like a bad joke in comparison to the original's blistering yet precise solo. If they really wanted to cover Scott Walker, for example Track Three from Climate of Hunter would have lended itself much better.

I really like Motorhead's Whiplash better than Metallica's

I like Alterbeast’s version of Dissection’s “Where Dead Angels Lie” more than the original. The higher tempo sounds better to me.

Not metal, but Joe Cocker's cover of 'With a Little Help from My Friends' might be the greatest cover ever recorded.

Pathfinder's cover of Mike Oldfield's "Moonlight Shadow" is stupid good. Something about the tune is already super power metal anyway, so hearing it bolstered by sweeps and double bass is godly.

Same goes for their cover of "Forever Young". Unworldly good.

I absolutely prefer Motorhead's cover of "God Save the Queen" over the original.

I enjoy Omit's cover of "Feel the Misery" more than the original by My Dying Bride.

I will put some covers I like, some are metal, some of them not:
Jimi Hendrix:All along the watchtower
Quiet Riot:Cum on feel the noise
Johnny Cash:Hurt
Judas Priest:The green manalishi
Grand Funk:Gimme Shelter
Metallica:Die, die my darling
Living Colour:Memories cant wait
Creedence:I heard it Through the grapevine

Motörhead's cover of Breaking the Law. I love Lemmy's vocals on it.

I completely disagree about "Hung my Head".

Johnny Cash destroyed that song, IMO.

Yeah, for me is better than the original.

Cash's cover of Hurt has become so popular, that alot of people don't know that it's a NIN song (I know I didn't for the longest time).

Carnival In Coal's French Cancan has some cool covers of famous (non metal) songs.
Genesis' hit song 'Mama' (or is it Phil Collins' solo career?) is especially a cool one, as well as the timeless 'Maniac' song from the Eighties motion picture 'Flash Dance'.
On the metal side of things there is the Fall From Grace Morbid Angel cover. The lamest cover though is Pantera's Fucking Hostile, which is simply weak, but then again, I am not familiar with the original song, and has never cared for Pantera in any shape or form, so...

Does Motörheads version of ''Hellraiser'' count as a cover? I mean, Lemmy wrote it...

Either way, it's far superior to Ozzys.

Charles Bradley's version is great, but I like this one much more.

Carpathian Forest's cover of "A Forest" by The Cure is beautiful in my opinion.

Serbian band Claymorean do an incredible version of Virgin Steele's Burning of Rome (Cry For Pompeii). I actually like it better than the original because I never really liked DeFeis's vocals on their version. His squeals can get annoying.

I really like Urfaust's two Ildjarn covers, especially Skogens hatefulle skapning gets a totally different spin in their hands.

The first 3 that always come to mind first for me:

Primal Fear - Die Young (Black Sabbath. Hard to top Dio, but wow, this cover packs some serious punch)
Cradle Of Filth - Hallowed Be Thy Name (always loved it more than the Maiden one, and since they did the remix/remaster, it's even better)
Metallica - Astronomy (Would love to hear Metallica write an entire album of songs like this - with James in more of a storytelling lyric mode)

It's a good cover, but I don't prefer it to the original. What I do prefer is COF's version of Sodom's Sodomy and Lust.

Sepultura - Orgasmatron(original by Motorhead)
Sepultura - Symptom of the Universe(original by Black Sabbath)
Sepultura - The Hunt(original by New Model Army)
Metallica - Whiskey in the Jar(original by Thin Lizzy)
Emperor - A Fine Day to Die(original by Bathory)
Metallica - Die, Die My Darling(original by Misfits)
Metallica - Turn the Page(original by Bob Seger)
Anthrax - Antisocial(original by Trust)

Can't remember much else right now.

As for Painkiller, which was mentioned by many, I don't think any cover of this song was ever better than the original, but if I had to mention one that I think got really close to surpassing the original, that would be Angra's rendition. I don't like Death's version that much, tbh. Not only the vocals were subpar, as much as I love Chuck, but the instrumentals also lacked something imo.

Napalm death : Nazi punks...
Benediction Forged in fire
Massacre Corpsegrinder

Agreed. The Death cover is shockingly weak.

for me the Altar version of "Fast as a shark" is much more heavy and brutal than the original from Accept. Another one would be "Outbreak of Evil" from Eternal Solstice

THIS!!! Esp. Hurt. It's just... ONE OF THE GREATEST THINGS EVER.

"Antisocial", orig. by Trust, cover by Anthrax. ANTHRAX's is WAY BETTER. The Trust version is good, but no more than that.

Priests version of The Green Manalishi is great and fun, but it doesnt touch the original imo. Its way more rocking but loses some of the darkness that Green instilled into it.

Cradle Of Filths version of Hallowed Be Thy Name is pretty incredible, but still doesnt touch the original. Bruce vs Dani Filth on vocals is the tide turner.

Well, I always liked how Paradise Lost manage to superbly cover pop/mainstream songs (The Bronski Beat, The Smiths, Everything But A Girl...)

Their version of "How Soon Is Now" surpasses the original, IMO.

You're kidding! I thought it wasn't bad but rather unnecessary and I just can't get into their oomphed up take on Dead Can Dance's Xavier either.

There isn't a single Sabbath cover better than the original that I've heard but Charles Bradley's soulful take on Changes is the only version I need of that song. Didn't like the original much, though.

I love how Testament metallized Aerosmith's 'Nobody's Fault'. It's a fun and upbeat piece on the mostly very murky album, 'The New Order'.

I'd say most covers are unnecessary, but I do indeed prefer theirs to the Smiths' original.

Agreed 100%.

I agree as well, but I have a soft spot for the 'Children of the grave' version by Ozzy with Randy Rhoads (Tribute) and for the 'Electric funeral' by Paul Chain (already covered live by the 83-84 Death SS line-up).