A few months ago, it was my distinct pleasure to interview the amazing Sam Astaroth, formerly of the band Astaroth Incarnate, about the DMX cover he’d just dropped at the time, in tribute to one of his fallen heroes.
Today, I’m presenting yet another masterful cover by the vocal acrobat, that of Ghostemane’s “Fed Up”, and I don’t say this often, but this version may be superior to the original.
Sam Astaroth is the kind of genre-fluid vocalist that Mike Patton die-hards have been yearning for in newer musical generations. Having made his bones with some incredible and cinematic extreme metal with his former band, his newly forged solo career finds him using the aggression of that medium, but setting it against a much broader palette of flavors and textures. And so far, all we have are covers. Can you imagine what this man will do when we hear what he’s writing?
The beat and the arrangement of the song are untouched; a wise choice. In these writer’s eyes, Ghostemane’s primary gift is composition, arrangement and ideas. As a vocalist, he’s always used a variety of character voices that suit his soundscapes well. But let’s be serious for a second; his vocal prowess has nothing on Sam Astaroth’s.
First of all, Sam recorded this cover in one take. Yes. You read that right. One take. That’s not only impressive for a vocalist with only one trick, but for a vocalist with the equivalent of Hermione Granger’s magic bag of tricks? Honestly, as a vocalist, I have to say it simply isn’t fair.
The best and biggest surprise in this cover is that Sam not only makes the words more intelligible and understandable (even as a Ghostemane fan, I wish he’d use less mumble-rap influence, and there’s none of that here), but he adds way more spice and variety. Changing his voice no less than three times, and probably more, Sam focuses on the written word of this track, and the results are stellar. It almost makes one wonder what a Ghostemane-produced Sam Astaroth track would sound like.
Sam is up to a lot, and he’s always working. If you are wise enough to want to keep up with what this man is cooking, his Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube pages are the best place to go.
In the meantime, stop whatever you’re doing, shut up, sit down, and check this cover out.
