Hear Lamb of God’s Raging Bad Brains Cover, ‘I Against I’

Lamb of God add some chunky metal heft to Bad Brains’ 1986 hardcore classic “I Against I.” The track will appear on the band’s upcoming covers album, Legion XX, which they’re putting out under their original name, Burn the Priest. The record, due out next Friday, also contains caffeinated interpretations of tunes by the Melvins, Ministry, the Cro-Mags and Big Black.

On the Bad Brains song, which was originally sort of a jazzy, thrash explosion (following an ultra-heavy intro), Burn the Priest crank up the steroidal rage and lead screamer Randy Blythe adds grit to the chorus. “When it came time to choose our cover of ‘I Against I’, I was trying not to sound like [Bad Brains frontman] H.R., as he’s so unique, but yet also throwing in enough of his style to show respect to his unique voice, through my interpretation,” Blythe said in a statement. “To cover the Bad Brains can’t be a straight-forward cover, we had to nail it, and we did.”

He also commented on the opportunity he had last year to sing live with Bad Brains last year. “It’s been a super-big honor to recently sing with one of my favorite bands of all time,” he said. “Playing with the Bad Brains was an unearthly experience – trying to replace the fastest-singing human ever on songs like ‘Banned in D.C.’ and ‘Pay to Cum.'”

Lamb of God are currently on tour with Slayer on the latter band’s final world tour. The trek so far has two scheduled North American legs, the last of which ends in late August in San Jose, California.