“Street Spirit (Fade Out)” is the final track on Radiohead‘s second album, The Bends. It was released as the fourth single from that album and was their first Top 5 UK hit. Because of that, it’s one of their ten most covered songs.
Harakiri For the Sky are an Austrian black metal/post metal band who have released eight albums over the least decade plus. They’re not the first metal band to take on “Street Spirit” – the prominent arpeggio guitar part almost suggests a metal interpretation – but maybe they’re the first Austrian black metal band to do it.
Aside from a really slow fade in with the guitar playing the iconic part, the opening of Harakiri For the Sky’s cover starts pretty similarly to the original. But just as lead singer JJ starts singing the song completely normally, there is a brief, staccato punch of bass and drums to let you know there will be metal. And 30 seconds in the bass and drums return to punctuate the end of the verse. For the chorus, it’s a slow pummel.
Heavily distorted guitar comes in for the second verse with prettier elements hidden in the mix, as with melodic black metal, though JJ just keeps singing the song straight until the second chorus. In the second chorus he double tracks his vocals adding screams deep in the mix. And then the blast drumming comes in. Because of course it does.
It’s a relatively straightforward cover for a band that plays black metal, even with the underlying metal sounds, but that also makes it much more accessible than your average metal cover of a pop hit.
