St. Vincent, Sam Fender, and Jason Isbell Release Metallica Covers
Update, 12:29 p.m.: Jason Isbell has also released his cover of “Sad But True.” I’ve included it at the bottom of this post with the other covers.
Were you hoping to hear three different versions of Metallica’s “Sad But True” today? Because that’s what we have for you!
First, there was the alternate take of the track the band released earlier today.
Now we have two covers of the song from the upcoming Black Album anniversary tribute record, The Metallica Blacklist — one from well-known metalhead St. Vincent, and one from British singer/songwriter Sam Fender.
(And that’s not even getting into The Hu’s version of the song, released this past winter.)
The nice surprise is that both versions are pretty great, and definitely way different from Metallica’s original.
St. Vincent’s version is sleek and electronic and oddly sexy, given the lyrics — the internal narrator inside James Hetfield’s head no longer sounds like it’s trying to scare or overpower him so much as it’s trying to seduce him (come to think of it, it kinda reminds me of “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails).
The Sam Fender version, meanwhile, is a stripped-down piano-and-strings track that makes the song painfully sad — like now the internal narrator is now just as broken and defeated as the rest of the mind it inhabits.
The Metallica Blacklist comes out on October 1, and features a plethora of famous musicians covering various songs from The Black Album, with an emphasis on the more famous songs (there are twelve versions of “Nothing Else Matters” but only version of “Of Wolf and Man,” for example). Previously-released singles from that album include “Nothing Else Matters” by Miley Cyrus, Elton John , Yo-Yo Ma, Chad Smith, and Robert Trujillo and “Enter Sandman” by Juanes.
Pre-order The Metallica Blacklist here. All profits from every track on The Metallica Blacklist will benefit Metallica’s charitable foundation, All Within My Hands, along with a charity of each artist’s choice.
Metallica will headline several American festivals this year, and several European festivals next year. Here are all the dates they have lined up thus far:
9/24/21 – Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life at Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center [tickets]
9/26/21 – Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life at Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center [tickets]
10/8/21 – Sacramento, CA – Aftershock at Discovery Park [tickets]
10/10/21 – Sacramento, CA – Aftershock at Discovery Park [tickets]
11/12/21 – Daytona Beach, FL – Welcome to Rockville at the Daytona International Speedway [tickets]
11/14/21 – Daytona Beach, FL – Welcome to Rockville at the Daytona International Speedway [tickets]
6/15/22 – Copenhell – Copenhagen, Denmark [tickets]
6/17/22 – Firenze Rocks – Florence, Italy [tickets]
6/19/22 – Prague Rocks – Prague, Czech Republic [tickets]
6/22/22 – Rock Werchter – Werchter, Belgium [tickets]
7/1/22 – Mad Cool – Madrid, Spain [tickets]
7/6/22 – NOS Alive – Lisbon, Portugal [tickets]
