Rodrigo y Gabriela Release Epic Acoustic Cover of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”

The connections between metal and Pink Floyd run deep. We’ve featured dozens of Floyd covers by metal bands over the years, and 2018 saw the release of The Wall [Redux], a popular and comprehensive compilation of metal bands tackling that entire, epic cornerstone album. And those are just the artists that chose to wear their influences on their sleeves in the most public way possible! I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a metal band today without at least one member (usually more) who cite Pink Floyd as a major influence on their music.

This version of 1971 classic “Echoes” is one of the most mind-bending Floyd metal covers I’ve heard to date. Rodrigo y Gabriela are, of course, an acoustic band — which has always brought out the “not metal” haters in droves — but if you’ve followed the duo over the years you know that they are, absolutely and undoubtedly, quite metal indeed. On their rendition of the Meddle album-closer, the Mexican pair shortens Floyd’s mammoth 24-minute adventure into a relatively compact 19, but it’s no less dramatic, with all the ups, downs and in-betweens of the original, an especially impressive feat given the limitations of acoustic instruments. The guitar interplay — as always with Rodrigo y Gabriela — is magnificent in its beauty, like an exquisitely choreographed tango.

Rodrigo y Gabriela’s new album Mettavolution comes out April 26th; pre-order here.