Sam Westphalen - Lateralus

     It's Saturday once again (I know it's actually Sunday, but only just!), meaning that another Under the Covers of Darkness week is drawing to a close. But I've got one last cover for you, and it happens to be a pretty sweet one. It's not as different from the original as, say, yesterday's Sioux version of "Closer", but it's also not quite a straight-forward as perhaps some of my other choices this week have been.

     Australian Sam Westphalen's name is one you're probably already familiar with. In addition to being an accomplished guitarist and songwriter in his own right, he's only garner some internet fame by recording a whole bunch of fingerstyle/percussive acoustic guitar covers, a number of which are metal songs. Megadeath, Rammstein, Slayer, Pantera -- Sam's got a pretty impressive list of covers under his belt.

     But tonight we're capping off the week with one of my favourites, Sam's version of Tool's "Lateralus", from the 2001 masterpiece of the same name. In this live video, Sam encapsulates the entire song, guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, using just his acoustic guitar and his two hands. This one should appeal to both Tool fans and fans of this kind of inspired guitar goodness.

Song of the Day: Tool - Lateralus

     For whatever reason it occurred to me the other day that I've never featured a Tool song from the epic Lateralus. Time to fix that one right now!

Song of the Day: A Perfect Circle - The Hollow

     The only thing Maynard James Keenan has put out recently besides wine is a bizarre video to accompany his 'meh' cover of Queen's epic "Bohemian Rhapsody", so perhaps it's time we take a moment to remember some of the many cooler things MJK has been involved with.