Look out, Metallica! When the cover is better than the original

 

 

Just in case you don’t know who they are, Metallica are one of the biggest bands of all time; they are also one of the bands that defined Heavy Metal. Founded in 1982, they are still going strong, and their secret is simple: while most other metal bands were engaged in an arms race to be the loudest, darkest and most abrasive, Metallica stayed melodic and accessible.  They have also inspired a lot of covers.  Here are two of the best.

 

The Hu:  “Sad but True”

Metal is normally defined by the emphasis on electric instrumentation.  But it is more than that, it is an attitude, and no one has more attitude than The Hu.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpxA_ZxGX_M

Alessia Cara and The Warning:  “Enter Sandman”

Metallica invited a number of artists from various genres of music to contribute to the Blacklist Album: an album of covers of Metallica’s biggest songs.  This is perhaps the best one on the album, though it is so different from the original that it’s not clear it should even be called a cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tKQgesCcTc

 

 

Great Voices (10): Diana splits the world open

 

 

My previous posts on Diana Ankudinova featured some of her performances when she was 14 and 15.  If you haven’t seen them, it’s worth checking them out.  You’ll see the emergence of a unique talent:

 

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/12/great-voices-9-shaman-diana-ankudinova.html

 

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-mysterious-case-of-diana-ankudinova.html

 

 

This post contains only one clip.  It features Diana, now 18, performing “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, originally made famous by Elvis Presley, for an audience of professional singers.  This is one of those covers that is so different that it’s not really a cover.  The performance itself is less than three minutes long, but I have a lot to say about it.  Of course, if you prefer, feel free to skip to the link.

 

Arrangement: Diana transposed this into a minor key, and stripped out most of the lyrics, turning an innocent love song into something much darker.  A simple but ominous piano intro sets the tone.  The song goes through four distinct stages, each turning up the emotional intensity.  She keeps repeating one line, giving it an obsessive quality.

 

Vocal:  Diana starts in the high baritone register, with the hollow resonance that is her signature sound.  Then she jumps an octave, up into her head voice.  She pushes a lot of extra air without increasing the volume, giving this passage a rushing sound, like wind in the trees.  Then she swoops up into her soprano register, and turns up the intensity.  Even this high, her tone retains the thickness of her lower range, which is extremely unusual.  Finally, she drops back into a full belt in the tenor register, and pours on the power.  Her ending high note made me wonder if the world was splitting open.

 

Staging: They start with Diana alone in a spotlight on a dark stage, and then build an abstract light show around her, finally framing her in something that looks like a closeup of the sun.  The use of the fan adds a touch of madness to her intense expression.  It is a simple, minimalist approach to staging in a world of chronic overproduction, and it is all designed to make the most of her natural stagecraft.

 

Ok, all of this is just by way of trying to convey a sense of how this performance came about.  There is, of course, nothing like seeing it:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w06R8iI0dg0