The supergroup Audioslave is not a popular band to cover compared to the bands their members began in, Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine. Some of that owes to the relative lack of material from Audioslave’s brief career, but some of it likely stems from how uncool Audioslave felt in comparison to those other bands back when they debuted.
Atreyu are an American metalcore band who have put out 9 albums over the last 20 years. This fall they will release The Pronoia Sessions, an album of eight re-recorded tracks, and they’ve added two covers to go along with it. One of those is a cover of Audioslave’s far and away biggest hit, and most covered song, “Like a Stone.” But there’s a twist.
The opening guitar riff is taken, instead, by a piano, which isn’t very metalcore. Lead singer and former drummer Brandon Saller has his Chris Cornell impression down; he hits the big notes and only occasionally sounds like he’s imitating Cornell. The instrumentation is sparse, just acoustic guitars and the piano, with backing vocals joining Saller in the second verse and chorus.
The twist is that this is an entirely acoustic cover, by a metalcore band! Instead of trying imitate Tom Morello’s iconic guitar solo, the band plays it on acoustic, making subtle changes for it to work without the effects. There is some additional guitar noodling added to the final verse. The coda is basically a capella but via an echo effect, which is the other new touch.
Yes, it’s a faithful cover, but Atreyu does some nice touches to make the song their own. Check it out: