There's Only One Song That You Cover Like This

Anybody who’s been reading this site for a little while will know just how much I love a good cover version. As with many things, our preferences often get more exaggerated and niche the longer we stay with a particular interest. We get radicalised. So it is too with my taste in cover versions. Except, it’s funny: Whereas radicalisation usually happens gradually, step-by-step, often unnoticeably, here it’s happened in one fell swoop, and I can pinpoint the exact moment when it did.

There’s a YouTuber called ‘Speedbag Bard’, and well, his channel name is perfect. That’s what he is and what he does: Cover versions of songs, played on a boxing speed bag. They are often inspired, sometimes ridiculous—and the single greatest distillation of his form has now happened thanks to a version of a song by a band that mixed ‘inspired’ and ‘ridiculous’ better than most: System of a Down. We’ve heard incredible covers of their material before, but this? This changes the game: