Singer and songwriter Elise Trouw has teamed up with BLINK-182 drummer Travis Barker, Australian musician Carey Watkins and Paul Raci, co-star of the new Amazon Studios movie “Sound Of Metal”, to reimagine METALLICA‘s classic song “Enter Sandman” in celebration of the film’s release. The official music video for their version of the song can be seen below.
Darius Marder‘s “Sound Of Metal” stars British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed as a heavy-metal drummer whose life goes into freefall when he faces the first signs of hearing loss.
“Sound Of Metal” premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, with IndieWire‘s Eric Kohn praising Ahmed‘s performance as Ruben and writing that Marder‘s narrative directorial debut featured “the best use of sound design in recent memory.” The film also stars Olivia Cooke, Mathieu Amalric and Lauren Ridloff.
“Sound Of Metal” is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
As the opening cut on METALLICA‘s self-titled album, “Enter Sandman” became bigger than the band could have imagined. It was a game changer for METALLICA, which ended up selling more than sixteen million copies of the album in the U.S. alone. Meanwhile, the song itself turned into a staple at athletic events, including professional baseball games and wrestling matches.
In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich reflected on “Enter Sandman” and its influence behind the so-called “Black Album.” “There was a riff on Kirk‘s [Hammett] riff tape,” he explained. “The whole song is just that riff. ‘Enter Sandman’ was the blueprint. The rest of the record appeared over two months.”
After the “Black Album” was first released, a number of people commented that the “Enter Sandman” introduction and dominant musical riff were similar to that of a song that came out two years earlier, “Tapping Into The Emotional Void” by the Los Angeles quartet EXCEL.
MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine, who was a member of METALLICA for less than two years, from 1981 to 1983, famously told Metal Maniacs magazine in a 2004 interview that “Enter Sandman” “was ripped off from a band called EXCEL.”
METALLICA co-manager Cliff Burnstein told the Los Angeles Times that he had never heard of the EXCEL song. But he chalked up the songs’ similarities to coincidence.
“If EXCEL could write that one (as good as that), I’m sure they can write more,” Burnstein said. “Then they’ll be successful.”
“Enter Sandman” still stands as the biggest hit of METALLICA‘s career, having peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart back in August 1991.
