‘Slay at Home: The Finale’ took place over the weekend, featuring cover collaborations from members of bands including The Black Dahlia Murder, Cattle Decapitation, Killswitch Engage, King Diamond, Soulfly and Suicidal Tendencies among many others. The virtual festival was the last Slay at Home event to be put on by Metal Injection, one year after their inaugural festival in May 2020. 

Like the first festival, Slay At Home saw many of the biggest names in metal, rock and punk gathering remotely for original sets and collaborative covers in the name of charity. The finale raised money for MusiCares, The Iggy Fund, The Cancer Research Institute and the National Alliance On Mental Illness.

Some of the covers performed at the event have been uploaded to Metal Injection’s YouTube channel separately. One such cover was a rendition of Black Flag’s “Nervous Breakdown” by Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage on vocals, Max Cavalera of Sepultura/Soulfly/Cavalera Conspiracy/Killer Be Killed on guitar, Alan Robert of Life of Agony on bass and Metal Injection author/event organizer Frank Godla on drums. It’s a more aggressive version of the 1979 classic, with Leach screaming and the rest of the group shredding.

There’s also a version of Slayer’s “Chemical Warfare” with Logan Mader of Once Human and Brandon Ellis of The Black Dahlia Murder on guitar, Frank Godla on drums, Diego Soria of Broken Hope on bass and Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation on vocals. Ryan goes for a somewhat comedic take on the 1983 Show No Mercy cut, making weird eyes as he switches between vocal styles.

At The Gates’ “Terminal Spirit Disease” is another, featuring Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder on vocals, Dave Davidson of Revocation/Gargoyl on guitar, Frank Godla on drums and Nick Cageao (formerly of Mutoid Man) on bass. It’s a pretty faithful version of the 1994 original, although recorded significantly more cleanly.

Chimaira’s “Cleansation” also got some recognition through a cover by Ra Diaz of Suicidal Tendencies on bass, Richard De Mello of Deluge/Dagoba on guitar, Michael Kadnar of The Number Twelve Looks Like You/Downfall of Gaia on drums and Rachel Aspe of Cage Fight on vocals. All musicians involved put in impressive performances, which is necessary given the technical prowess of the 2003 classic.

Judas Priest’s “Electric Eye” was paid homage to by Brandon Ellis of The Black Dahlia Murder on guitar and vocals, Steve DiGiorgio of Testament/Death To All on bass and Matt Thompson of King Diamond on drums. It’s another faithfully covered song and Ellis takes the opportunity to show off his skills while rolling Glenn Tipton’s, K.K. Downing’s and Rob Halford’s parts on the 1982 classic into one performance.

There was also a brief slap guitar version of Audioslave’s “Like A Stone” performed by guitarist Felix Martin, joined by Daniel Tompkins of Tesseract on vocals and Frank Godla on drums. Tompkins kept close to the late Chris Cornell’s original 2003 vocal part, but Martin’s guitar playing greatly changed the feel of the song.

The festival can be watched in full below. Some of the other acts represented at the festival include Deftones, Fear Factory, Quicksand, Incubus, Megadeth, Type O Negative, Suffocation, Carcass, Cryptopsy, Madonna, Periphery, Dragonforce, Municipal Waste, Vio-lence, Intronaut, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Gorguts, Cadaver, Satyricon, Misery Index, Scour, Atheist and Vital Remains, among others. There were also some original sets by artists such as Lacuna Coil, Amigo the Devil, Rotting Christ, Javier Reyes of Animals As Leaders, Wolfheart, Cannabis Corpse and Local H.

Photo credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva