Kyle Sevenoaks is a happy man, because he’s finally mailed one of his favourite songs. The British/Norwegian composer and front man with ‘Kerrang’ faves I Betrayer, explains the release enthusiastically: “I’d wanted to do a cover of “Breathe” for the longest time, having learnt the main riff on guitar and playing it over and over for years. I attempted it a couple of times before but was never really happy with the result. That was until I got my 9-string guitar and played that tasty riff so low down. It made things rumble inside me I didn't know were there. I added my favourite types of industrial and orchestral elements to the arrangement and was absolutely in love with what I'd done with it. Finally, I’ve created the sound I’ve always wanted to make, and I cannot get enough of it!”
It’s one hell of a sound, to be fair, and he’s got reason to be stoked. As someone who thinks that guitars with more strings are often more metal posturing than actually sonically beneficial, and more often than not, I’ve seen post-metal bands with outrageously expensive gear just wanking smugly onstage with seven-string guitars and five and six-string basses. But then you’ll see a band like Godflesh use guitars with additional strings and they’ll melt your face, and you realise there’s a case for these things when used appropriately.
Nine strings is effectively a guitar and a half, and Sevenoaks blasts out a landslide wall off chug on this mega-metal cover. He does the original justice, and that’s a fact. It serves as a reminder of just how revolutionary The Prodigy were, and how their move from hyped-up Smartie-munching rave tunes to balls-out metal-hued abrasion absolutely shattered the mainstream.
In some respects, Sevenoaks’ cover of ‘Breathe’ bridges the gap between Pitch Shifter and The Prodigy: guitarist Jim Davies would go on to play for them after The Prodigy, and if post-millennium Pitch Shifter and The Prodigy share some commonality, then this cover shifts closer to the snarling industrial roots of one of Nottingham’s finest bands. It also captures the mania and full-on intensity of the original, and amplifies it.
Genre is all a matter of perspective, and crossovers are always where the innovation lies. Here, Sevenoaks delivers a lesson in evolution of genres and crossovers, and throws down a cover with riffage as meaty as you’ll hear anywhere. 9 strings put to good use, then.
