A few weeks ago there was a post asking for suggestions for female fronted heavy music and I was really grateful to OP for starting the conversation and everyone in the comments for coming up with really great suggestions.
I’m wondering if we could have a similar discussion to share more mellow covers of heavier songs. Usually when I’m working I prefer listening to less intense songs and a chill cover of a heavy song I like is somehow very interesting to me.
The song that got me wanting more of this niche was a cover of Toxicity which I’ve had on repeat this week. I can also think of this cover of Seven Nation Army which is kind of similar as an example but I don’t really know a lot more like this.
Does anyone have any similar recommendations they enjoy?
Edit: All great suggestions so far, still working my way through them! I remembered another song which is this cover of Firestarter by The Prodigy
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Hurt by Nine Inch Nails covered by Johnny Cash.
Ah of course, that’s a good one! I sometimes forget the Johnny Cash version is a cover…
Rodrigo y Gabriela? They cover Battery and a few others, iirc. And their original stuff is pretty badass too.
May not match exactly as the originals aren’t heavy, but Seu Jorge did acoustic covers of David Bowie songs in Portuguese for the movie The Life Aquatic. The movie soundtrack has only a handful, but he released a full album of the covers called The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions.
Not really covers, but if you’re looking for a chill approach to metal/rock, you might like Pelican or Russian Circles. Both are kind of ambient rock/metal, but no lyrics, and the instrumentals are on the relaxed end of the spectrum… like you know how a normal metal song often has a more mellow intro, then all at once the tempo takes off, the volume skyrockets, and a howler monkey starts calling for a mate? …they’re like entire songs that have that intro energy.
Fantastic background music.
This was a bit of a happy accident, not really what I was looking for but still ended up being very cool! I hopped around a bit between both artists’ top songs and I think this could be great music to work to also when the howler monkeys would otherwise be a distraction!
There’s a singer who goes by the name of
who specializes in doing “lounge-ified” versions of heavier songs. He’s probably best known for the cover of
he did for the Dawn of the Dead remake from 2004, but he has several albums filled with similar covers.
The names come up as dead images for me.
The first link is to Wikipedia, the second is a YouTube video.
No idea why, but earlier the links looked like box outlines with a question mark in the middle.
For some reason the links don’t load for me but based on an earlier comment I guessed this must be Richard Cheese’s cover of Down With The Sickness? It’s a good one if so!
Ramin Djwadi’s arrangements of various rock standards for the Westworld TV
Including
Black Sabbath’sthe Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iZ9JRVmJ5oPlaylist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBKadB95sF457xDQY3CItUfiEnTeNBONC
Rolling Stones. Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black.
You are correct. Thanks.
That Paint It Black cover was very cinematic, maybe not so mellow but I really liked it anyway. I haven’t seen Westworld at all but I can imagine a scene with a song like this in would be amazing! Is it worth watching?
The first 2 seasons are. I didn’t care for the third.
Steve’n’Seagull
Hellsongs have quite a few good and mellow covers, like “The Trooper”.
I really like their energy! I also listened to a couple of tracks off their album from last year and it’s impressive that they released what seems like a really solid album after such a long hiatus!
Paul Anka Smells like teen spirit
There’s a few more from that album, Rock Swings, like Black Hole Sun
That whole album seems great to be honest, the backing vocals echoing JUMP on the song Jump were a nice touch!
The Vitamin String Quartet does a lot of instrumental covers of heavy music.
You can also try searching streaming services for phrases like “<band> and chill” or “lofi <band>”
“Fuck the World” by Richard Cheese - cover of the Insane Clown Posse song in a “lounge” style. I think Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine does a lot of covers of “heavy songs” in that style but I dunno much about them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cheese
Richard Cheese’s version of Slipknot’s People = Shit must be the funniest song I’ve ever heard.
Pretty much anything by Richard Cheese, really.
That was a very funny cover, thanks! Turns out Richard Cheese has a whole back catalogue I haven’t heard of and some very funny album names too. Currently listening to Chop Suey from Tuxicity which is just delightful!
That particular video wasn’t loading so I had to watch it on YouTube but I’m happy there are still working Invidious instances, I didn’t realise that was the case! Other videos loaded for me on there just fine. The cover was great too, I saw she also has a cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit which was also good!
You can switch backends if one isn’t working for you.
As for Tori Amos, this cover is off her Strange Little Girls album, a cover-only album she released in 2001. I’ve read it’s a bit inconsistent though.
Dynamite Hack Boyz in the Hood
That was fun! I almost didn’t realise that I knew the original version because it’s so different!
It’s not strictly a cover since it’s oficially promoted by the band and even has Till Lindemann on vocals but Sven Helbig recorded a wonderful piano version of Mein Herz Brennt by Rammstein.
I hadn’t heard the original before so I listened to it afterwards, both are great for different moods!
Check out Mac Glocky on YouTube. He does a ton of these kind of videos, usually stuff like “If Incubus Wrote Duality (by Slipknot)” https://youtu.be/clOIfjVWJqA which are fantastic renditions. He also does harder versions of softer songs like “If Korn wrote a thousand miles” https://youtu.be/sIzaPb3T-Zo which are equally as awesome, even though you didn’t ask.
There are a ton of acoustic renditioners on YouTube who are great at this. I’m heavy into Tool, so a lot of these cater to making softer covers of those songs but they also do other artists too:
AaronTerrapin1
Ernesto Schnack
Peter Spiker
Steve Welsh
These genre-bending covers are great! I found another Mac Glocky video which was if SOAD covered Mr Brightside. That plus the Korn one makes me think I need a reverse version of this post too!
