SONGS THAT SHOULD BE METALCORE COVERS, VOL. I
It’s pretty self-explanatory, but in this series we are going to explore songs I think would make great metalcore (and metalcore-adjacent) covers and in what particular style(s). Let’s take a walk through these five tracks on this first installment of what will be a semi-regular series, until I run out of ideas.
311-"Hive"
A band like Fox Lake would have a field day with this song. It’s already pretty aggressive and grooves with the rap-rock foundation that lends itself to their particular brand of rap-informed "core" perfectly, as do the lyrics. "Hive" is already primed to simply be ratcheted up a few new notches and it would kill. An honorable mention from the 311 catalog I’d love to see an intrepid metalcore band tackle is the song "Galaxy" from Transistor.
Sugar Ray-"American Pig"
This song is actually already hard as fuck, especially the crunchy and disgusting guitar, but really all the other elements are already in place for a killer metalcore cover, too. To my mind, there are a few ways you could go with it: that Egyptian-type riff in the song is something I associate with bands like After the Burial, so you could go there, or, given the inherent crunchiness, more of a Disembodied kind of sound; I also think that given Bury Your Dead have cited Sevendust as an influence—and this song reminds me a lot of something you’d hear on Home—that would be another intriguing treatment.
Michael and Janet Jackson-"Scream"
With the lyrical and vocal angst (including the fact there is literally screaming), and with that hard beat, we’re already in the ballpark with this one. Its inherent aggression plus the groove lends itself perfectly to RnB-core, particularly by a band like Volumes.
Shannon-"Let the Music Play"
With its fat beat, a Veil of Maya djentcore treatment, particularly in the vein of a song like "Outrun" with its RnB-core/The Weeknd elements, would really be interesting.
Eurythmics-"Here Comes the Rain Again"
This one is more melodic hardcore with some metallic influence, but I’ve always felt this song lends itself perfectly to a cover by Sundowning-era This Is Hell, not least of which because of the song title, but also tonally if not necessarily lyrically.