Two Minutes to Late Night shared a cover of Björk’s hit “Hyperballad,” from her 1995 album Post. It was performed by Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage on guitar, Sergio Vega of Deftones on bass, Tanner Wayne of In Flames on drums, frequent Chelsea Wolfe collaborator Ben Chisholm in an unconfirmed role and Steve Brodsky of Cave In/Mutoid Man on vocals. 

For the cover, the collaborators trade in Björk’s mellow electronic flourishes and dance-inspired drums for melodic metal riffing and technical metal drums. It’s epic to the point of cheesiness, respectably parodying the cinematic scale of the original. Dutkiewicz’s lead guitar playing substitutes for Björk’s strings programming and Brodsky sings a restrained version of Björk’s unique vocals.

As usual for the show, it was released with an accompanying video of the musicians performing the cover. In the video, Two Minutes to Late Night host Gwarsenio Hall plays guitar while jumping around an apartment room, Dutkiewicz shreds his riffs while shedding calories on a treadmill and Brodsky wears “Deal With It” meme sunglasses while his face is layered and distorted across the screen. Clips from several movies and video games also play a big role in the video.

“Hyperballad” is Two Minutes to Late Night’s 39th cover since they began the covers series at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, featuring countless famous musicians associated with metal music. Some recent covers include a ‘90s club songs medley, The Rolling Stones’ “Rocks Off,” Pantera’s “Mouth for War,” Elton John’s “Step Into Christmas,” Anthrax’s “Caught in a Mosh” and many others.

Brodsky has been Two Minutes to Late Night’s most frequent collaborator on their covers series. His band Cave In also participated in the metal talk show’s ‘Splitsville’ live stream in April. They reported that they were working remotely on a new album last year, following up 2019’s Final Transmission. His other currently popular band, Mutoid Man, also revealed having some material ready to record as well. Brodsky also plays bass for Old Man Gloom, who surprise-released two new Seminar albums in 2020.

Deftones is one of the sub-headliners for the upcoming Welcome to Rockville Festival in November, 2021. They released their latest album Ohms in late 2020 to significant critical acclaim, and shared a video for “Ceremony” off of it last month. Another one of Vega’s bands, Quicksand, reunited in 2017 for their Interiors comeback album and shared their first new song since then, “Inversion,” in April.

Killswitch Engage is one of the bands set to play Virginia’s Blue Ridge Rock Festival this September. Dutkiewicz and vocalist Jesse Leach are also set to release an album called Songs of Loss and Separation under their side project Times of Grace in July 2021.

In Flames are one of the headliners set for Sweden Rock Fest 2022, and also recently announced rescheduled dates for the ‘Metal Tour of the Year’ in support of Megadeth and Lamb of God. They recently reissued Clayman (2000) for its 20th anniversary and are still enjoying the success of their latest album I, The Mask (2019).

Ben Chisholm has been an essential part of Chelsea Wolfe’s sound as a multi-instrumentalist, producer and occasional writer since she broke out in 2010. He was recently featured under his own name on his collaboration with Wolfe and Jesse Draxler last year, titled “Valerian.” Wolfe has been voicing Wonder Woman in DC Comics’ Dark Nights: Death Metal and wrote a song for the event’s accompanying soundtrack.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat