Everyone has to start somewhere, and before Trivium‘s Matt Heafy delivered some of the most killer gutturals in metal, he actually was a pop-punk kid. Heafy shared his past while highlighting a new collaboration he did with Ten Second Songs mastermind Anthony Vincent, with the pair teaming up to cover Blink-182‘s “dammit” in 20 different styles.
Teasing the collaboration via social media, Heafy wrote, “Did you know that the first band I ever tried out for – at the age of 11/12 – was a pop punk band? My tryout song was ‘dammit.'”
He adds, “When I didn’t make it in the band (cuz I stunk at guitar) – I gave up on music. A year later – I was introduced to Metallica’s black album – then I practiced endlessly and went down the path I’m on today.”
That said, Heafy says he’s always loved Blink-182 and in particular the song “dammit” and was “honored” when he was offered the chance to join Vincent for his latest “20 styles” video, showing off his range in covering the song.
Vincent has become one of the more popular YouTube personalities showing his vocal range on covers of popular tracks, and for this “20 styles” video he pulls in Heafy for the fun. The beginning actually allows both musicians to trade off vocals while Heafy plays guitar on a straight up cover in Blink’s original melodic style. But things take a super heavy turn immediately with both bringing the aggression covering the song as if were done by Slipknot.
Heafy gets to then pull back taking on the track as if done with the vocal approach of Rammstein’s Till Lindemann and also shows off his metal mimicry performing portions dedicated to Amon Amarth, Powerwolf, Meshuggah, Emperor and Type O Negative’s styles.
As this falls under Vincent’s original idea, the singer handles a majority of the different styles, taking on David Bowie, The Killers, Garth Brooks, Devo, Sleep Token, Bush, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Fall Out Boy, Michael Jackson and Lorna Shore, but Heafy comes back into the mix late as Vincent sings in Bad Religion and Danny Elfman styles.
Watch the vocal theatrics play out in the entertaining cover of Blink-182’s “dammit” below.