Drewsif Stalin has been getting shit done for awhile now. You may have
caught him on Youtube or going through various circles of the metal
underground. He has an upcoming solo project which simply goes by
Drewsif Stalin's Musical Endeavors.
He has a track record of taking shitty pop songs and turning them into good music. He's previously done this with Katy Perry's "E.T." and that One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful". In a recent turn of events, he pulled out all the stops on his best cover to date. In association with singer Nikki Simmons, he covered Miley Cyrus and her "Wrecking Ball". It's more or less a jaw dropping rendition. Definitely worth checking out.
So go ahead and get wrecked below. We've also included his previous pop metal covers for your listening pleasure. Oh, and did I mention all the above are available for FREE DOWNLOAD? Grab them here.
I'll be out of town until Wednesday but I didn't want to leave
The Circle Pit hanging. So here's something I set up last week to kill
all the memory left on your iPod.
THIS IS THE FREE MUSIC MARATHON!
We've
helped promote a lot of free music over time. This is the cream of the
crop. And it ranges from big bands to the deep underground. Click a
link, any link. You may just find a new favorite. No matter what, you'll
find free music and tunes available for the price of your choosing. All
of these artists deserve support, so don't be afraid to throw some
dollars if something really makes you happy.
This is the second lap of four. 25 links a day.
We'll officially be back in full operation on Wednesday.
Video and additional reports coming soon! Read up on Report 1 HERE and Report 2 HERE.
We woke up aware that this was going to be one of our busiest days. Considering the amount of bands we wanted to see and the intense interview schedule we had we woke up early and started our work under a sunny and hot day. It all was made even harder by the time-changing that unfortunately confused everyone that day. It was announced and notified on the UKTMF facebook page, but since we had no internet access, we were hardly able to understand what was going on with the timing. But luckily we managed to see all the bands we wanted and do all our interviews despite some delays and difficulties.
The audience was brutally waken up by the virulent performance of the Glasgow-based mathcore band Colours To Shame. I honestly wasn't familiar with this band, which defines itself as “the sound of Ronald McDonald hardcore dancing through a jazz band”. But this set struck me with impressive energy and madness. Definitely a band to check out.
After their set, we moved to the main stage to assist to Above The Earth's exhibition. This was one of the bands I was looking forward to most that morning. It's the new project from the former Destiny Potato vocalist Aleksandra Radosavljevic and Karikeya's Arsafes side-project (who also played with his band, Kartikeya shortly after on the same stage). This cross country musical project was premiered at UKTMF with their first official appearance and it was largely appreciated by the audience. They brought a sound which is actually similar to Destiny Potato's approach on music: atmospheric progressive metal with pop-oriented vocals but refined and groovy riffage. Aleksandra's vocals were amazing as well, so you should definitely watch out for this band in the near future. They've got something really good going on.
Shortly after I sadly understood that Neosis (which I would really have loved to meet) and Joconfy were not going to perform today and that Destiny Potato's set had been moved to 4.15 pm. We quickly changed the time of two of our interviews so that we could watch and film at least a good part of it but in any case we were not able to watch Red Seas Fire, Disperse and most sadly Uneven Structure. But this is good for you because we interviewed Brandon from Veil Of Maya, Kashiv from Skyharbor, Sean from Shattered Skies and David & Aleksandra from Destiny Potato.
At 2 PM it was the time for Shattered Skies live set on the second stage. I honestly must say that I enjoyed their live performance even more than their studio material. They played their recent singles “Saviours” and “15 Minutes” along with some of their older tunes and also an amazing cover of Pendulum's “Propane Nightmare” which I personally loved. These Irish guys are currently looking for a label to release their debut full length album “The World We Used To Know” so keep listening to their stuff and support them.
Around 3.30 pm we attended Dresif Stalin's performance on the main stage which can only be described as one of the heaviest sets of the whole weekend. A big crowd attended this show and got literally trampled by the heaviness unleashed by Drewsif Stalin and his band. It was a memorable set. And he was a really nice guy, always happy to have fun with the people he randomly met around the field during the weekend.
Shortly after it was the long awaited (and delayed) time for Destiny Potato! I was personally really stoked to see them, but unfortunately we had some interviews scheduled and were only able to witness the first three songs of their set. The first one was a new track, followed by “Love Song” and “Dark Side Of You”. I wish I could hear more of their new material, but their live performance was truly solid even though they looked a bit stressed for the load of problems they had with the travel and technical troubles. Anyway, we filmed that part of their set and did an interview with them so stay tuned to check them out.
From the garden of the press area we could hear Uneven Structure playing anyway and it sounded unbelievable. The people I talked with told me that it was one of the sickest performances of the weekend. At the end of their set we heard a thunder (probably provoked by Uneven Structure's booming set itself) and a few minutes later we had the only 5-10 minutes of rain of the whole weekend (which is huge and improbable luck considering we are in the UK... I thought that a 4 day open-air festival in the UK would yield at least 3 days of rain, but the weather was beautiful and hot as hell for the whole weekend).
Once we finished all the interviews we recharged our camera's battery and I was finally able to relax and enjoy two of the best bands around. I considered this a present for my birthday, while my friend filmed both of their sets. I'm talking about tonight's headliners Skyharbor and Veil Of Maya. Skyharbor's very first appearance in the UK with their vocalist Daniel Tompkins was a huge success. This was also officially one of the audiences favourite performances, and I've seen a lot of people enthusiastic for it. Their performance was actually flawless. Especially Daniel's amazing vocals were just too perfect. But the rest of the band played a clean and memorable set, proving this is one great live band. But there's one more thing to tell about this performance: the band's official drummer (that great artist named Anup Sastry) was currently on tour in the USA with Intervals, supporting the Misery Signals release tour. Guess who took his place... hell yes! Once again the amazing Mike Malyan (Monuments & The Algorithm) joined the band and nailed it on stage. This was Mike's third set after the unforgettable one with Monuments and the performance with The Algorithm during the after party. And the most amazing thing is what Kashiv from Skyharbor told us during our interview with him... Mike only started to learn those songs on Wednesday! Mike actually learned a 45 minute set of complex Skyharbor greatness in 4 days! And he even brought his own brilliant interpretation to deliver an amazing and unforgettable live performance. Oh-my-god. I was fucking speechless.
Veil Of Maya's set was delayed for a considerable time because it seems like their bassist got stuck somewhere in Belgium and had a lot of problems reaching the venue. He finally made it and the show began a bit later than expected, but also a bit louder than expected! Veil Of Maya brought some ruthless madness on the UKTMF main stage with a crazy, fast, and killer performance. They played a balanced setlist with songs from their latest albums “Eclipse” and “[id]” but also the biggest successes off “The Common Man Collapse”. I never saw them live before and I was extremely happy to enjoy them on my birthday. Their performance and the “Happy Birthday” sung by the audience before Skyharbor's performance were the best presents possible. This weekend keeps getting better by the day.
In one of our last explorations, we met a guy named Nicolas Jeanney who did a lot of cool pop song covers along with some tunes of his own. He's also done writing for bands such as Twelve Foot Ninja. His contributions gave me the idea to write a post about the best djent covers of rap/pop/electronic songs out there. Let's have some fun and start with Tenkan's version of Rage Against The Machine's classic "Testify"!
Probably one of the most famous djent cover by now is Hacktivist's version of Jay-Z & Kayne West's "Niggas In Paris". UK rap-djent unit Hacktivist doesn't need an introduction, especially on this website. We're all waiting for their debut album! This cover is damn heavy. If you haven't heard it before, check it out below!
Next one is probably the funniest. One Direction's "What Makes You
Beautiful" covered by Drewsif Stalin! You should definetly check out his
version of Katy Parry's "ET" featuring Anup Sastry as well but this one
is guaranteed to make you bounce and scream like an annoying little fan-girl for
that boy with an Aborted t-shirt! Love this shit!
Hate on me, but I personally enjoy dubstep and Skrillex too. There are actually a lot of djent and metal covers of Skrillex songs on the internet but I think the heaviest one was done by Galactic Pegasus for the song "Cinema". The guys also added some new vocals for it. The cover is epic. Check it out below and put some horns up for the heaviest bass drop you'll hear in a while \m/
Here's another amazing one. Florida's promising Akeldama did a really cool cover of George Michael's "Careless Whisper" which is easilly one of the most covered songs... ever. The song is featured in "Djent Goes Pop Vol.1", a free compilation by The Djentleman Club. This particular track features some dirty grooves and breakdown. Give a listen to "Careless Whisper" here and check out the rest of the compilation on YouTube.
Links: Facebook // Twitter // Bandcamp
If you want some more fat-ass groove, here's another huge tune. James Pohl of Districts did a nasty cover of "Look At Me Now" by Chris Brown. Don't forget to keep an eye on his band as they've got some amazing UK deathcore on the way.
I still have some more goods for you (if you didn't have enough yet). Brazilian guitarist Michel Olivera did a cover for Lady Gaga's "Judas" and literally turned that shit into gold! Give him a listen below and don't forget to check out his band Code 3-7!
Best metal faces ever... Drewsif Stalin has been getting shit done for awhile now. You may have caught him on Youtube or going through various circles of the metal underground. He has an upcoming solo project which simply goes by Drewsif Stalin's Musical Endeavors. And Drewsif is back again with a new track, "Contempt", which you can download for FREE right here. Gets sharp as hell at 1:30... You can also grab much of his other work for free or at a very cheap price here. Highly recommended! Have a couple listens below and watch him jam along with Anup Sastry (Intervals, Skyharbor). Then go support the musical endeavors with a download!
