Trivium’s Matt Heafy Covers Toto’s “Africa”

To me, Toto’s “Africa” will always be that song college a cappella nerds sang as a staple of their sets. Ditto for “Listen to the Music” by The Doobie Brothers. All those layers of vocal harmonies are perfect for the a cappella treatment, ya know?

To everyone else in the world right now “Africa” is a current smash hit; its resurgence is baffling, but hey, it is a good tune. Trivium’s Matt Heafy, who’s been posting a whole lot of live acoustic covers of late, is the latest to take a stab at the track. He whips out the electric guitar for this one (a seven-string, no less) while using a mix of clean and distorted tones, and he displays his surprising vocal range during the chorus — those highs! — even injecting some screams for emphasis.

Watch below, and recall a simpler time when this song was just a bizarre footnote in music history.