Erra is now streaming their cover of Muse's 2003 track "Stockholm Syndrome." The cover is far heavier than the original, though given Muse's recent foray into heavier music, maybe this is what the song would sound like if it was written now? Who knows. All we know is that this Erra cover is excellent.
"The first time I heard Muse's 'Stockholm Syndrome,' I thought, 'This song is begging to be covered by a metal band,'" said guitarist and clean vocalist Jesse Cash. "It has aggressive riffs, soaring vocals, keyboard arpeggios, and a big ending breakdown. It has all the necessary materials to be contextualized into an Erra song."
"The chromatic guitar octaves in the verses also left me a lot of room to play with some chromatic groove riffs in the style of Meshuggah. I realized as long as I maintained the root notes of those original octaves, I could kind of be as creative as I wanted during those verses. I also adjusted the original tuning from Drop D to Drop E and tuned the guitar down an entire octave to make the song low, heavy, and more akin to the range Erra generally tunes in."
The "Stockholm Syndrome" cover is a part of the deluxe reissue of Erra's self-titled album featuring seven additional tracks, including a feature from Spiritbox's Courtney LaPlante, due out March 18. Pre-orders are available here.
