Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/04/scandinavian-metal-cover-of-to.html
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I’ll just leave this here.
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I found this video about a year or so ago and have since watched most of Leo Moracchioli’s covers. Often it’s pretty easy to imagine what a metal cover of a pop song is going to sound like ahead of time, but some of his videos are amazing. There’s a few acoustic covers of metal songs among the metal covers of pop songs as well.
I like listening to these to see if retrofitting the song to sound metal a big change or, if it turns out that the song was pretty metal in the first place.
Now we need to convince Puddles Pity Party to do Africa.
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That was great. I like that the performers seem to take METAL seriously, and sprinkle on a lot of fun. The cartoon movements and expressions really were the icing on a METAL cake. I was reminded of some of the mugging in Die Antwoord videos.
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See? That’s a cover, not an imitation. Good on 'em.
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Definitely, seriously but not too seriously. Metal as a cultural thing is awe-inspiring and majestic and a bit silly, and I like performers who can acknowledge that while still being dead serious about their musicianship.
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LOVE Hannah’s vocals. Didn’t care so much for Leo’s but, to be fair, I’m not a fan of most types of metal, and the song (while I’ve never made an official list) remains solidly somewhere in my Top 10 Most Hated. His voice sounds pretty decent otherwise and they did have fun with the video.
The Ryan Reynolds-esque smile that Leo gives at at 0:58 makes me lose it. The sheer glee it conveys at friends stopping by with exquisite timing to enhance his “solitary company” is a joy I’m not sure I will ever share.
(Also, no this video but: puppets!)
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Now do Muskrat love
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It still sucks. Just sucks harder.
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I like this one better, much better.
Love this guy. His cover of “Zombie” is great
Most of his covers are top notch with pretty damn good production quality. His cover of Sultans of Swing really surprised me.
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That was unexpectedly delightful
Can anyone help me put my finger on the impression I’m getting here?
Something about the vocals here seems notably less metallic(in the genre sense) than even metal often described as ‘melodic’(say Opeth during one of the non-growling segments); but I can’t quite figure out what the difference is. The difference isn’t down to having a specifically harsh edge(neither this nor melodic-segment Opeth has one, while something like Mastadon definitely does; so I could understand hearing a difference there); but I remain struck by a difference nonetheless.
It’s trivially different from the inchoate guttural growl-screaming stuff; but that’s not a tricky difference. This one I’m having a harder time identifying. There is definitely something warmer and pop-ier than either the instrumental component or ‘metal’ would suggest; but I can’t tell why I get this impression.
It’s just…warm and sort of swelling where what I think of a ‘metal’ vocals in the same context would end up being kind of cold and bleak and distant; if not especially intense. But I cannot identify where this is hiding. Flush out the subtext anyone?
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Indeed, on a more Prog-Punk tip, I really like Hawkwind. I think that they are majestic and epic. I also think that they are absolutely hilarious without undermining the weight of their music.
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I definitely get that too. Apparently the aggressive, dangerous feel of most metal songs can be separated from the actual style. I’d like to listen to more like that.
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As I said in the other thread, this is just pure joy.
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I just re-listened to it without watching the video, and, you are quite right, there is a warmth to the vocals. Maybe it is the sound of “hope”. Maybe these guys aren’t edgy edgelords edgier than the edge of a cut-throat nihilism razor? Maybe, heretically, they have lives outside of the steel arena of METAL? Oddly, listening to the Disco Inferno cover, there were passages where I found myself wishing it was rawer and more aggressive; to distance it more from the original.
Well, basically the vocals are still pretty much like on the sheet. It’s mostly the envelopes of the vocals. While softer, slow vocal passages with stretched syllabes classically use a lot of attack (swelling loundness) and some modulation during long vowels, the vocals here are quite spot on. Starting at full loudness and holding the tone straight to the end with no frills, tremoloes or other tear-dripping nonsense makes a lot of the metal feeling. The second and third unisono voices, some compression and much more the contrast between the slow, clear vocals and the distorted, fast, 1/16 notes based speed metal instrumental track do the rest.
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