Toronto based punk three piece METZ have just released several covers on Sub Pop records, who has also released the tracks on various digital music streaming platforms. These covers include Sparklehorse’s “Pig,” originally released in 1998 and  the Urinals’ “I’m a Bug,” and “M.E.” by Gary Numan, both of which were originally released in 1979,

The band’s cover of Numan’s synth pop classic “M.E.” completely reinvents the song, as they utilize heavily overblown and distorted guitar chords, creating a noisy albeit honest cover of the track. This style fits in perfectly with the band’s modus operandi, as they create a drastically overblown, often shoegaze like soundscape on this song.

In addition to the track, the band has also released a music video, which pays homage to Numan’s original, and blends various psychedelic elements. This visual switches frames showing the pyramid from Numan’s Pleasure Principle album cover shooting out lasers, while the three heads of the band members from METZ replace Numan’s head from the cover. This is the only cover that has never been previously released by the band.

Their version of the Urinal’s “I’m A Bug,” is even noisier, as they flip the classic staple of early hardcore punk sounds, and push it to its sonic edge.  Static noise occupies most of the track, as maxed out guitars and bass push the track into noise rock territory. This song was originally released without a label back on YouTube in 2014.

The band’s cover of “Pig,” by Sparklehorse takes the garage rock influenced indie track, which retained many punk elements and similarly spins it to their own unique take on it. While this track isn’t as noisy as “I’m A Bug,” the track still keeps several noise rock elements on this track, creating a harsher and more aggressive listening experience. This song was originally given a very limited 2012 Record Store Day split single originally released by Toronto’s Sonic Boom record shop.

While the band are currently writing their upcoming fourth studio album, they released a compilation of their rarities entitled Automat earlier this year.  This rarities album brought 12 previously unreleased songs from the band’s discography available to the public.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat