Slipknot join KoRn to cover Beastie Boys

Posted by on January 25, 2015

Gentlemen, start your “aged white men rapping” jokes.

Friday, January 23 was the London, England date of the European leg of Slipknot’s “Prepare For Hell” Tour at the Wembley Arena. Before the show, KoRn – who is the primary opening act on the tour – teased the possibility that they might be collaborating with their headliners for a cover on their Instagram page. During their set that night, the band welcomed vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root to perform a live cover of the Beastie Boys classic “Sabotage.” Slipknot’s Sid Wilson (turntables) and Shawn “Clown” Crahan (custom percussion, backing vocals) as well as Crahan’s signature aluminum baseball bat in hand (he seems to carry that thing around like a security blanket… or to appear intimidating, one or the other, or maybe both).

The collaborative rendition is about what you’d expect, which means how you feel about it would already depend on how you feel about either band, Beastie Boys, and maybe nu-metal in general. While may sound a tad sloppy, the original single from Ill Communication was never exactly intended to sound pristine to begin with. It certainly looks like the men had a lot of fun performing it, particularly the two people dancing the most on stage: Sid Wilson and KoRn vocalist Jonathan Davis, who seemed to leave the majority of the vocal duties to Corey Taylor. Those moves certainly put the “nu” in nu-metal.

With the exception of Taylor and maybe Root, the members of Slipknot were not in full costume in this video, and it feels rather odd to see them wearing their masks with casual street clothes. It seems unexpected that Wilson did not lend his DJ talents to the cover, but they probably just didn’t have enough time to add that aspect to the performance, especially if it was short notice or a spur-of-the-moment decision that day. KoRn also shared a clip of the end of the performance on their Instagram as well, promising that they’d post a full, professionally shot version at a later time. From the looks of it, the crowd also enjoyed the collaborative effort. Check the full, fan-shot video for yourself after the bump.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/_UBIlToGkbg[/youtube]

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Categorised in: Touring, Video