Exit light, enter Rina Sawayama‘s stunning new cover of a Metallica staple.
On Thursday (Aug. 26), Sawayama shared her brand new cover on Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” as part of the band’s continuing rollout of their upcoming anniversary covers album, The Metallica Blacklist. Sawayama becomes the second artist on the album to cover the band’s signature single, following the release of Weezer’s version of the song earlier in August.
Produced by Sawayama’s frequent collaborator Clarence Clarity, the new take on “Enter Sandman” maintains the rocked-out elements of the original single, while offering a taste of the 31-year-old singer’s signature fusion of pop and rock throughout. Smashing drum machines and distorted vocal flourishes permeate the track, while Rina’s stratospheric voice punches the intensity up even higher, making for a brand new take on a modern rock staple.
To hear her tell it, Sawayama is pretty happy with how her cover turned out. The singer tweeted out a link to the song, while offering up a few of her own thoughts on how she and Clarity interpreted the tune. “@clarenceclarity and I 100000% understood the assignment,” she wrote in one tweet, following it with another praising her take on the song’s bridge; “HUSH LITLE BEYBEH is my fave part what’s urs.”
Sawayama’s not the only one who shared a new cover off of the upcoming covers album: British rock group IDLES also shared their contribution to the project with a distorted, avant-punk cover of “The God That Failed.” The sped-up, fuzzed-out rendition features frontman Joe Talbot talk-singing throughout, while letting the bass and guitar lines shine as they shred through the Metallica classic.
The Metallica Blacklist will feature more than 50 different artists, all offering different covers of the 12 songs off the band’s 1991 self-titled album, popularly referred to by fans as The Black Album. Thus far, artists such as Miley Cyrus (with Elton John), J Balvin, Chris Stapleton, St. Vincent, Phoebe Bridgers and many others have shared their interpretations before the album’s release on Friday, Sept. 10.
Check out Sawayama’s official cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” below, and pre-order The Metallica Blacklist here.
