The wait is over, and our ears are ready. These Grey Men, cover band of System Of A Down’s drummer, John Dolmayan, debuted their first track, “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” originally released by Radiohead in 1995 on their album The Bends.
The newly released track features the powerful vocalist, M. Shadows, from Avenged Sevenfold, who recently went through vocal recovery. The band had to cancel their tour in 2018 due to a viral infection Shadows contracted, which had a risk of permanent damage.
Alongside Shadows, Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello is featured on the as the lead guitarist. Recently, Morello called for Ticketmaster to stop using facial recognition software at concerts, in concern for the names to appear in the government database, risking deportation for immigrant fans.
As the song begins, we see a man sleeping in bed, with a room filled with red. Morello strums a dark, mysterious riff as Shadows subtly enters the song, taking the center stage.
The man gets out of bed to open the door, he steps outside and walks down the street. His droopy eyes tell an entire story as Shadows repeatedly sings “fade out, fade out, fade out again”.
As the man reaches his destination, he paints a portrait with just black and white, Shadows sings in his ear as the music slowly picks up pace. The song gets darker and the intensity is defined by an orchestrated background melody.
As the song nears the end, Morello shreds the guitar, sending the listeners ears to another dimension. Shadows hauntingly sings at full blast, as the song slowly starts to fade away. The camera is pointed to the finished portrait.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Dolmayan explained the reasoning behind the selection of his song, stating the song was very touching and moving. He mentioned he was such a fan of the song, he wanted to do a version of it in homage.
“I love the morose, in-your-room-and-it’s-raining-outside, it’s cold and your girlfriend dumped you feeling,” said Dolmayan. “But when I listened to it, I’d be like, ‘I kinda wish the drums came in earlier.”
Shadows also commented on the song and his own involvement.
“When John sent ‘Street Spirit’ I instantly was blow away by the sounds. Since then I have been on a huge Radiohead kick.” Shadows said. “Adding Tom Morello to our version was the icing on the cake.”
These Grey Men are set to release their self-titled debut album on Feb. 28. The band will be featuring Serj Tankian, of System Of A Down, on two songs, who is set to play at the annual Nova Rock Music Festival on Jun. 10-13 with his band.
These Grey Men Self-Titles Album Tracklist:
1. “Hung Up” (Madonna cover)
2. “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” (Radiohead cover) (feat. M. Shadows & Tom Morello)
3. “Beautiful Thieves” (AFI cover)
4. “Road to Nowhere” (Talking Heads cover) (feat. Serj Tankian)
5. “Rock Bottom” (Eminem cover)
6. “Runaway” (Del Shannon cover)
7. “Starman” (David Bowie cover) (feat. Serj Tankian)
8. “What You Know” (Two Door Cinema Club cover)
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