It’s been a while since I last wrote about Erling Bronsberg, so to recap: He’s a skilled banjo player based in Örebro, Sweden, and performs with an acoustic group called Six String Yada, who play old-time American mountain music — with some metal and punk in the mix as well. Every now and then, he records a banjo cover of a metal tune on video. Yesterday he e-mailed me about a new one. This time he has picked a Disfear song named “Fear and Trembling” from their 2008 split with Doomriders, All Paths Lead To Nothing, There Is Only Death.
So, how does Swedish d-beat punk sound on the banjo? Damned good, that’s how. Erling has slowed the song into a doomy backwoods ballad that really works. Dude can sing, too.
I didn’t know this until reading his note on the video, but the lyrics are just one long quote from Søren Kierkegaard:
“If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?”
Check out the cover below, and after that I’m including the original song, too. To see another one of his covers — Ghost’s “Ritual” — check out this post.
http://www.sixstringyada.com/six-string-yada/
https://www.facebook.com/sixstringyada.oldtime
9 Responses to “BANJO METAL: ERLING BRONSBERG COVERS DISFEAR”
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I paused KAT for this…
..and it was worth it, very cool!
awesome! i tried my hand at banjo briefly a couple years ago and never got better than average at it, but some people can really make that instrument sing
I wish I knew how to play the banjo, maybe more than any other musical instrument. But I’ve never tried to learn. Maybe someday….
if you have any guitar background it’s a fairly easy transition. doesn’t mean you’ll be a banjo master but you should be able to nail the basics.
We should start an online course with clawhammer banjo, and only play metalcovers!
Where do I sign up!
Damn, that was really good. Makes me want to listen to some Man’s Gin.
Banjo is slowly turning into a very metal instrument.
Also, the Kierkegaard quote is amazing. I always knew I liked him, but I’ve never seen that quote before.
I enjoy the hell out of this cover, have beento listening to it multiple times and it gives me more reason to jam some Disfear.