Sunday Sesh: X in the Style of Y
Last Friday, I published an interview with Morten Müller wherein we discussed his intriguing Metallica covers. Wielding an 8-string guitar and a Jens Kidman sneer, Müller reinterpreted several Metallica favorites in the style of the rhythm-bending Swedes. Today we’re going to revisit this idea, drawing upon both that interview and an older Think Tank about salvaging bad albums. Today’s question” Which artist X would you like to hear in the style of Y?
That former Think Tank, in case you needed your memory refreshed, tasked you with deciding which turd in an artist’s discography needed to be polished by a different band. The example I put forth was Metallica’s St. Anger (an album I honestly enjoy, but let’s be real; it’s not good). I posited that a handful of artists, from High on Fire to Neurosis could easily reinterpret those tracks, but what we’re looking for today is a bit different.
No, what I’d really like to know is what artist’s collective body of work would like to hear transmogrified into a different genre. Would you be keen to listen to Mgla‘s black metal nihilism spread bare across gloomy funeral doom riffs? Would you enjoy hearing The Berzerker turn Gorguts into a foreboding wall of industrial sound? Or maybe you’d just like to hear Black Sabbath toked out as some smooth-ass jazz.
As it turns out, that last suggestion exists. Some 7 years ago, I was at a death metal show in Dallas. Between sets, oddly familiar jazz tracks schmoozed concert-goers. For a few minutes, I had difficulty placing why these tracks sounded so memorable, but then the distinctive cadence and warbling melody of “War Pigs” belted out from the speakers, and I caught it immediately. Turns out the sound guy regularly played The Casualties of Jazz‘s Black Sabbath cover album Kind of Black between sets at the venue, and it was always a hit. Re-imaging those classic doom metal cuts as a jazz trio on keys, drums, and bass lends them a jaunty, playful quality you don’t get in the original. These covers gave us a fun, zesty breather between blasts, and it made the whole concert-going experience all the better.
But that’s obviously not metal, so I want to know what you think. What artist’s music would you like to hear in the style of another band? Sound off in the comments below.
(Image VIA)
