Korean drummer A-YEON has been a YouTube star for half a decade, impressing with her seemingly effortless mastery of metal, classic rock and K-Pop anthems. Dotted among her takes on Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and ere, BLACKPINK classics, Ms A-YEON has displayed a particular fondness for Avenged Sevenfold, covering Afterlife and Nightmare among other tracks by the Huntington Beach metallers.
But none of her videos have exploded across the internet with the same impact as the cover of Avenged’s Critical Acclaim she posted in late January which is now hurtling towards the 20 million views mark. And might even have surpassed it by the time you’ve read this. You owe it to yourself to see why…
Interestingly, the second most watched version of Critical Acclaim on YouTube is not the quintet’s original, but another drum cover, this time by a South African-born drummer called Cobus, which is currently on 18.5 million views.
We’re not entirely sure why Critical Acclaim drum covers are so damn popular, but if they’re keeping memories of much-missed A7X drummer Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan alive, it’s a trend we can get behind.
