The Dark Side of David Bowie. "A Tribute To David Bowie". Khazad-Dum Records, 2000. [Last Sigh Magazine]

1. Space Oddity - Crimson Joy
2. The Motel - Syria
3. Outside - Dreadful Shadows
4. Blue Jean - Gallery of Fear
5. Time Will Crawl - Burning Gates
6. Scary Monsters - Sepulcrum Mentis
7. Big Brother - Cream VIII
8. Be My Wife - Exedra
9. Five Years - Endless
10. Girls - Kill The Audience
11. Holly Holy - Marquee Moon
12. Look Back In Anger - Swans of Avon
13. Station to Station - The Merry Thoughts
14. Ziggy Stardust - Nuit d'Octobre
15. Moonage Daydream - Timothy Moldrey

David Bowie is one of those artists who seem to inspire more adulation and imitation than most. On "The Dark Side of David Bowie," equal parts of hero worship and interpretation make up the covers of songs both obvious and obscure.
    Crimson Joy's "Space Oddity" is a spare and superb rendition, with appropriately alien instrumentation and beautifully eerie vocals. "Blue Jean" isn't usually considered a dark song, but Gallery of Fear gives their version a harder, slightly more sinister sound that makes it fit right in.
    "Scary Monsters" by Sepulcrum Mentis features baleful strings and ominous vocals thoroughly befitting the song's themes of pain and paranoia. "Five Years" by Endless and Swans of Avon's "Look Back in Anger" both perfectly capture Bowie's original intent without sounding at all like slavish copies. Timothy Moldrey does "Moonage Daydream" as a kind of dark ballad-and it works. The stark piano accompaniment gives the lyrics more power, even as Moldrey's vocal delivery seems somewhat languid.
    No Bowie tribute would be complete without "Ziggy Stardust." Nuit d'Octobre's cover is probably the most interesting interpretation on this CD, as it is sung in French to soft, flowing swells of synth and guitar.
    "The Dark Side of David Bowie" is an intriguing take on Bowie's work, as well as a fascinating comment on his continuing influence.