At the same time, the band shows real respect for their source material by keeping the reimagining of the song pretty straight - again, to great effect. It doesn’t feel like Disturbed is really trying to be anything other than itself in this track - and that approach pays off. When bands play cover songs, it can be easy for them to lose their own identity in the process of trying to sound like the original artist, trying to sound better than the original artist, or trying to sound like something other than themselves. The song sounds like Disturbed - but still like itselfĭraiman’s vocals are so distinctive, the atmosphere of storm clouds on the horizon so palpable, and the energy behind the performance so strong, that the song really sounds like the band that’s playing it. See what works for you on a gut level when it comes to communicating the emotion and message of the song. As you play with a cover song and make it your own, try making certain parts more driven and gritty and other parts more innocent and airy, for example. Lesson learned: Avoid letting your own cover songs stay stagnant when it comes to intensity especially when working with loops and digital production, it’s a trap that’s all too easy to fall into. It’s a well-worn cliché that good art takes you on a journey - but this song lives up to the hype. With each verse, new sonic elements develop, helping the song expand and gain momentum in tandem with Draiman’s intensifying vocals. That works in some contexts, especially for more electronic productions, but adding a real arc works wonders in this context. So many current popular songs have zero ebb or flow - they start at a certain level of volume and intensity and stay that way from first note until last. Don’t hesitate to shift the key, register, and phrasing so the words sound as good coming out of your mouth as they did from the original artist. Lesson learned: Even if you’re playing a song someone else wrote, customize it so it plays to your own vocal strengths. The performance plays to his strengths in each range, letting him use his toolkit of vocal effects for maximum impact and never pushing him out of his comfort zone. One reason why this song works so well is that it makes use of the different colors his voice can create - a resonant, quiet, clear, almost heartbreakingly innocent baritone piercing clean high notes and the searing growls and roars for which he’s well known. That’s quite a range, but Draiman pulls it off in style. This rendition of “The Sound of Silence” is vocally challenging, as it covers roughly two-and-a-half octaves from bottom to top. Avoid clutter in your arrangement and cut anything that gets in the way of the song’s power and delivery. Lesson learned: In your own cover songs, focus on letting the lyrics and melody tell the story, whatever your interpretation of that story might be, and build everything else around that. Every other element of the performance does a great job of simply supporting such efforts. The centerpiece here is very clearly the story, as told by Draiman’s vocals. The band was smart in avoiding the use of a standard metal-sounding drum kit, crunchy overdriven electric guitar, a horn section, a choir, a pipe organ, or anything else that might have upped the grandeur but made the whole effort feel too heavy-handed. While the strings swell dramatically behind David Draiman’s increasingly raw vocals as the track progresses, it never crosses the line into cliché. It would be easy for a metal band’s re-imagining of a beloved folk classic to fall into parody. Read on for a just a few reasons why the reimagined version is so powerful - and how you can use lessons learned from Disturbed’s creativity to make your own cover song performances more effective. The tune scored a Grammy Award nomination, has nearly 250 million views on YouTube (if you combine the official video and the Conan appearance), and praise from Paul Simon himself. I’m not alone in pumping my fist along with Disturbed’s cover. There’s a reborn sense of innocence, relevance, and rage that made this song, now over fifty years old, seem very much like a song of right now. The original track, recorded in 1964, remains haunting, poetic, and wistfully beautiful - but the new version has something different. When I first heard Disturbed’s cover song of Simon and Garfunkel’s classic “The Sound of Silence” live on Conan O’Brien, I was blown away. Disturbed’s cover version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” is exemplary in many ways – from its intention to pay homage to its power to stand on its own.
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