‘What a Wonderful World’ Death Metal Cover — Video

Noisecreep brought you news of video mashups between Lady Gaga and Meshuggah and Madonna and Carcass, but what about plain old death metal covers of standards? Los Angeles musician Andy Rehfeldt teamed up with a friend he met online, the Markness, to cover Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World' in death metal form.

The story is rather simple. Rehfeldt and the Markness are both guns for hire, musically speaking. As seems to be the case with metal and Youtube videos, the relationship between the two on this project involved long distances and the miracle of Internet technology.

"He is from Slovenia in Central Europe," Rehfeldt told Noisecreep, about the Markness. "First he just sang to the 'Wonderful World' video and recorded himself separately. We had no idea what I was going to come up with yet. So he sent me an MP3, and I fine tuned the timing of it a little bit. Then I wrote the riffs, which came pretty quick, since Mark's vocals were so good. That's it."

The result is a nicely-executed death metal cover of Armstrong's classic song, overlayed atop a video performance he did of the hit song in 1969 for BBC-TV. Armstrong's intense facial expressions are in odd sync with the matching intensity of the Markness' guttural vocals, and it doesn't come off as mocking or trite.

Metal fans -- and perhaps some jazz and easy listening fans? -- can now hope for more death metal covers of classic songs sprout up on video sites.

Watch a Death Metal Cover of 'What a Wonderful World'