These Beasts have joined with Dallas Thomas of Pelican to cover Alice in Chain’s “Sickman.” The cover appears on an upcoming Alice in Chains tribute album, Dirt [Redux], which is planned for release on September 18.

“We have never really played a cover song as a band in the first place, much less recorded one to go on an album,” the band said in a statement. “So listening to what might be one of Alice in Chains’ most unconventional songs musically, ‘Sickman,’ at first we were a bit apprehensive, and we spent a couple of months just talking about how we should approach it before we started learning it. We are proud of what we came up with to keep it sounding like These Beasts while still being able to deliver a version that hardcore Alice in Chains fans might enjoy.”

The track begins with a mesh of These Beasts and Alice in Chains’ sound, with rapid drums and thrashing guitars. These Beasts scream and slink as the track alternates between heavy metal and grunge. These Beasts’ version creates a deeper feeling, their shouts more guttural while keeping with the weaving sound found in the chorus of the original. Thomas’ vocals deliver an edgy twist to the track.

“As a guitar player, I have always respected and admired what Jerry Cantrell has been doing,” the band said in a statement. “He is a great guitarist, much more than I am and that is the reason why I asked my friend Dallas Thomas, another guitar player who’s playing I admire, to come in and play some leads on the recording. He blasted out within a couple hours what would have taken me days or weeks to figure out.”

Dirt [Redux] will be part of Magnetic Eye Records’ series to recreate classic albums with covers by modern bands. The album also features Khemmis, who are covering “Down in a Hole,” Thou, covering “Them Bones,” Low Flying Hawks, covering “Dam That River” and many more.

Earlier this year, Thomas released a new live album with Pelican called Live at the Grog Shop. The band had also given a limited release of an 8-track EP in support of Color of Change this past June. The EP featured tracks which had previously been recorded for past albums, but weren’t featured.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat