Whisper it, but… death metal can be a little bit silly sometimes. Gargling into microphones, writing about zombies and cannibals, smashing out blast beats until your limbs fall off – unless it’s done right, it can easily become ridiculous.
However, death metal’s never, ever funnier than when it turns its grisly gaze towards the most unexpected songs. And the 10 covers below prove it. From La Macarena to Livin’ La Vida Loca (yes, really), no matter whether they’re well done or dogshit, these are the most hilarious death metal reinterpretations.
Children Of Bodom – Oops!… I Did It Again (Britney Spears cover; Are You Dead Yet? bonus track, 2005)
Led by the exuberant Alexi “Wildchild” Laiho, Children Of Bodom understood the silly side of extreme metal. Seldom is that more evident than that time they took Britney’s girly pop classic and jammed it through a meat grinder. Laiho howling lines like “It might seem like a crush” atop screeching pinch harmonics is inherently (and, we believe, intentionally) hilarious, then his contrast against Jonna Kosonen’s silken vocals during the chorus sounds legitimately incredible. Silly, obnoxious yet deftly executed? It can only be Bodom.
Six Feet Under – Night Crawler (Judas Priest cover; Graveyard Classics IV: The Number Of The Priest, 2016)
From the endearingly batshit to the just plain shit. By 2016, Six Feet Under had become infamous for their Graveyard Classics cover album series, each one tackling hits by the likes of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and The Monkees(?!) in increasingly limp ways. The schadenfreude peaked during chapter IV, opener Night Crawler’s crusade for Judas Priest-level badassery thwarted by frontman Chris Barnes’ warbled ranting. The ex-Cannibal Corpse man’s voice was all but gone at this point – yet his pipes continue to disintegrate today.
Opeth – You Suffer (Napalm Death cover; 2017)
This one’s just Mikael Åkerfeldt and the boys having a laugh. Despite Opeth’s speciality of sweeping progressive metal, their leader has long held an affinity for grindcore scallywags Napalm Death. So, in 2017, the band used a break during their set at Germany’s Rock Hard festival to blast out You Suffer – twice. Hearing a record-breakingly short, 1.3-second song from these experimentalists was amusing, to say the least, but what made it was Mikael’s banter afterwards: “Which version was the best one, do you think?”
Brujeria – Marijuana (La Macarena) (Los Del Río cover; Marijuana, 1998)
Your guess is as good as ours, frankly. In 1998, Hispanic iconoclasts Brujeria decided not only to cover the soundtrack of every school disco you ever attended, the Macarena; they also made it about drugs. What turns it from eye-rolling cringe into something actually amusing, though, is the band going all-in, sampling the bubbly beat beneath their grunts and riffs. Call the parody pointless or childish all you want, but no one can deny the effort that was put into all this ridiculousness.
Fleshgod Apocalypse – Blue (Da Be Dee) (Eiffel 65 cover; 2021)
Extreme/symphonic maestros Fleshgod Apocalypse dress as undead classical composers at every gig, yet this cover of Blue (Da Ba Dee) is still the most nonsensical thing they’ve ever done. Hearing that melody recreated by a scathing guitar line on top of flurrying blast beats is pretty cool, however, and we can’t help but applaud the imagination. It also makes more sense than that time they referenced Baby One More Time midsong. What is it with death metal bands and Britney, you think?
Deicide – Black Night (Deep Purple cover; The Stench of Redemption bonus track, 2006)
Deep Purple’s Black Night boasts one of the most iconic riffs to ever burst from a guitar. It’s an energising boogie no matter the context you hear it in, but Deicide’s version… isn’t. Instead, Glen Benton and co. ratchet up the speed to near-lethal levels, and by the time you recognise the start-stop guitars, you can’t help but chuckle and go, “What the hell has happened here?” Still, “subtlety” has never exactly been this band’s game, so we shouldn’t have been surprised.
Vader – I.F.Y. (I Feel You) (Depeche Mode cover; Future Of The Past, 1996)
In its original form, I Feel You is the seductive and vulnerable opener to Depeche Mode’s fantastic Songs Of Faith And Devotion. Unfortunately, “seduction” and “vulnerability” aren’t exactly in death metal’s dictionary. We think that, with their stab at the anthem, Vader wanted to turn the romantic into the threatening, subverting such lines as “It’s just the dawning of our love.” But it just doesn’t work. Singer/guitarist Peter Wiwczarek’s whispered vocals sound like an unseasoned goth teen in his very first band.
Amon Amarth – Aerials (System Of A Down cover; Surtur Rising bonus track, 2011)
System Of A Down’s Aerials is a dynamic classic of the nu metal takeover. Meanwhile, Amon Amarth are a burly viking horde who only know one mode, and it’s full-on death metal savagery. The pairing was never going to work. The Swedes’ go at the megahit sadly reaches comedic proportions when a previously sensitive chorus, powered by Serj Tankian’s graceful singing, this time pairs pensive guitars with a barrel-chested, shouting choir. The tonal dissonance is striking, to say the least.
Anaal Nathrakh – Man At C&A (The Specials cover; The Whole Of The Law bonus track, 2016)
This one’s more funny in concept than execution. How can you not utter “What the fuck?” when you notice that extreme metal mavens Anaal Nathrakh have covered The Specials? However, once you press play, the duo give you no choice but to take this readaptation seriously, pummelling with abrasive melodies and vocals that stand tall and imposingly on their own two feet. If you had no knowledge of the original song, you’d simply assume this is another untouchable scorcher from one of Birmingham’s best.
Mors Principium Est – Livin’ La Vida Loca (Ricky Martin cover; Embers Of A Dying World bonus track, 2017)
Fair play to Mors Principium for having both the confidence and vision to see a beloved pop banger and go, “We can do it.” In the end, the Finnish veterans served up a suitably, ridiculously bombastic slice of melodeath. Then, once you get past the silliness, you realise it was actually remarkably handled. The Latin-esque melody sounds every bit as exciting here while also getting a metallic boot up the arse, and the momentum ever falters. A true display of mad genius, this.
