The Faint emerged from the Saddle Creek Omaha scene, which most notably produced Conor Oberst (a former member of The Faint). “Agenda Suicide” was their first widely released single, even though it’s on their third album. “Agenda Suicide” and their later singles helped briefly popularize electroclash, a fusion of punk/new wave/post-punk and dance music that was briefly everywhere in the early to mid aughts.
Harboured are an atmospheric sludge metal band from Denver. Atmospheric sludge metal is a spacier, more ambient form of sludge metal that sometimes veers into what is known as post-metal.
So yes, we have a song from a niche, albeit briefly quite popular, genre being covered by a band in another seemingly unrelated niche genre. However, given the finale of “Agenda Suicide,” in which lead vocalist Todd Fink adopts basically a metal growl, it’s maybe not as weird as it sounds.
You might be surprised to learn that Harboured don’t actually drop the dance beat from the original, rather they keep it and combine it with their heavier sound, amping up the distorted guitars in the instrumental hook. For the vocals, singer Michael Stancel speaks the verse but goes full-on metal growl/scream for the chorus, completely dropping the affected post-punk voice of the original. They also drop the dance beat for the chorus.
For the finale, Harboured go full metal, combining riffing and the blast drumming that emerges earlier in the cover for a big metal climax that feels like it was how the song was destined to end.
Have a listen:
