Which Metal Cover of Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter” is the Best; Tool, Exhumed, Crowbar or Dark Castle?

All I’ve wanted to listen to all week is Led Zeppelin. The entire discography. On repeat. I even rented The Song Remains the Same last night on iTunes and wigged out at John Paul Jones’ fantasy sequence — WHAT IN THE FUCK. What a weird/great/insane film!

History is not short on metal covers of Led Zeppelin — show me any metal band and I’ll show you at LEAST one member who was/is obsessed with Led Zep at some point, and B-sides, compilations and even proper albums are littered with songs from throughout the Zeppelin catalogue — but when it comes to the Houses of the Holy classic “No Quarter” there’s pretty slim pickins. Which is surprising, because it’s one of the darkest sounding, emotionally intense songs in Zep’s entire canon. No song could be more perfect for the meddle treatment. If Blake Judd can make Pink Floyd’s Meddle sound satanic, someone can fucking do it for “No Quarter.”

Thanks to a little Twitter action, some input from @kyleantivenin and @tospitasparrow, and some good old fashion searching I was able to dig up these four. Exhumed’s version is the most different from the original — and very true to Exhumed’s sound — and Tool’s nails the ambiance and moodiness of the original, but I think it’s Crowbar’s interpretation that does the most for me; it’s just so… HEAVY. Dark Castle’s is ridiculous visceral too. Seems as if the dogs of doom win this round.

Check them all out below and see what you think.