From the pit to the dancefloor, a well-done remix can bring a whole new heaviness to one your favorite songs.
For decades, rock, metal and nu-metal bands have flipped the script by issuing alternate, often danceable versions of some of their biggest hits. They’ve turned to DJs, electronic music vets and outside vocalists to jiggle the DNA and crank out a club-banger. And fans approve of the groove.
We asked Revolver readers to weigh in on the greatest heavy remixes, and they ranked the reduxes accordingly.
Björk – Isobel (The Carcass Remix)
It may not have seemed like an immediate fit for Liverpudlian melo-gore greats Carcass to have reworked a song from Icelandic experimentalist Björk, but 1995’s “Isobel” remix raises a “wonderful hell” through its nearly six-minute run time.
Björk’s fantastical tale of the titular forest-bound isolationist remains in place, indeed the artist’s signature floating vocal remains the key ingredient to “Isobel.” The grand symphony arrangement, however, has been replaced by Carcass’ symphony of sickness, if you will — Jeff Walker walks about with a bopping bass line, while metallic juds and harmonized feedback lock the tune into a whimsical pop-death groove.
While this technically isn’t a remix of a heavy artist’s song, our readers made it clear that Björk-by-way-of-Carcass is too good to not include.
Fear Factory – “Remanufacture” (Rhys Fulber remix)
As one of the Nineties’ pre-eminent practitioners of electronics-twisted industrial-metal, it’s no surprise to find Fear Factory on this list. The problem our readers had this week was saluting just one of the many remixes that have come flying out of the Factory over the years.
Technically, the votes came in for all of 1997’s Remanufacture (Cloning Technology) project, but we’d be hard-pressed not to highlight the semi-titular and exquisitely aggressive opening remix from Canadian industrialist Rhys Fulber (Frontline Assembly, Delirium, Cyberaktif). He flips the thrashy feel of “Demanufacture” towards more of a happy hardcore pace — filling the speakers with a motorized mania of four-on-the-floor drum programming and the sound of Dino Cazares’ grotesquely inhuman chugs.
Korn – “Good God” (Rammstein remix)
You hast to hear Korn’s Rammstein remix.
We once labeled Life is Peachy’s “Good God” as not just a standout among standout Korn cuts, but one of the heaviest nu-metal songs of all time. Rammstein were tasked with bringing a heavy, club-edged feel to a certified pit classic, and Revolver readers confess they can get into the groove.
The German dance-metal act leave much of the bones in place — Korn’s 7-strings are still dangerously unfurling into the mix, Jonathan Davis continues to snarl dire warnings (“Won’t you get the fuck out of my face”). But they also elevate this “God” with infectiously body-moving Eurobeat drums.
Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize – “Heresy”
We’re breaking procedure, here, since the recent Nine Inch Noize collaboration between Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize plays out more as a grand re-envisioning of classic industrial tracks, performed together and in real-time — as evidenced by NINoize’s two mind-blowing live appearances at Coachella this month.
And yet, while this isn’t a remix project in the traditional sense of things, their reworked “Heresy,” in particular, marks a heavy, yet heaven-sent spit-shine of the Downward Spiral classic.
A Kraftwerk-ian motorik intro sets the pace, while How To Destroy Angels vocalist Mariqueen Mandig brings newfound whispered gravitas alongside Trent Reznor’s more familiar growl. A deep-throbbing redux that’s got us begging for more Noize.
Linkin Park – “1stp Klosr” (Humble Brothers remix ft. Jonathan Davis)
Found on the band’s Reanimation remix LP, this version is several steps removed from the O.G.’s framework, the Bros. setting a moody pace with a minute-long ambient build up of synth noise and chopped-and-reverberated vocals.
Chester Bennington’s sing-along chorus vocal is transposed over a thick and to-the-point guitar judding; Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis brings a patented eerie mewling to a new verse that his him outlining a flesh-rending moment that sets the blood “a-pouring and pouring” out of him.
But then, five minutes in, the actual chorus hook comes in with Bennington, Davis and Mike Shinoda bringing the heat on the mic. While familiar, this memorable remix is not just saying everything “One Step Closer” said before.