Royal Thunder’s Mlny Parsons joined Mutoid Man in covering Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball,” delivering a familiar hit with a very different feel. A guitarist in ghoulish face paint addresses the crowd, “Good evening ass-butts,” before the muted power chords join Parsons’ voice in a gnarled metal version of Cyrus’ risqué hit.
Their cover follows the same sheet music, so to speak, as the original. Everything is just—metalified. However, they do make one change towards the end. Parsons begins to scream and growl until turning red in the face while Mutoid Man scrambles to, but successfully, matches her intensity.
Mutoid Man is a metalcore group from 2012 that formed in Brooklyn. Stephen Brodsky picks guitar and sings, Ben Koller bangs the drums and Nick Cageao diddles the bass. So far, they’ve released one EP and two studio albums. Their sound, metal at its roots, converges with rock n’ roll, psychedelic rock and math rock like two leopard slugs in heat. Of Breeder, their debut album, Pitchfork noticed that the group embraced “both numbskull hard rock and cerebral progressive metal, at a time when the two approaches have become almost mutually exclusive in heavy music.” It’s the commingling of sounds that makes this group so interesting to hear.
Mlny Parsons hails from Royal Thunder, the hard rock group from Atlanta started by Josh Weaver. Parsons described her experience being a part of a cult as a kid in a recent interview. She mentions that Weaver had been in one when they met, but didn’t know it. The original bass player for Royal Thunder had been in it, too. She described the scene as very artistic and hip, not what one generally thinks of.
Watch the video below.
Photography Credit: Raymond Flotat
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