Ghostbound covers “4st 7lbs”

[GregRoss]

link to article: https://bit.ly/38QxYyW

Link to video: https://youtu.be/2QFKTstHIsE

Pretty cool cover, it's weird without JDB's voice at first. But any band that loves the Manics is cool with me!

from the article:

Which is why I was thrilled to hear that Ghostbound, the avant-garde/post-black/post-punk band who released the excellent All is Phantom in 2018, were releasing a cover of this track and that we could premiere it. Apparently, it (the track, the album, and the band) plays an all important role in the mythology of the band, as expounded on by Alec A. Head, front-man for the band:

Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible ranks as one of my favorite albums ever, and I would even go so far as to call it one of the greatest records of the 1990s. “4st 7lbs”, its centerpiece, has always carried a lot of emotional heft with me. The music and lyrics are perfectly intertwined to create an unrelentingly bleak and harrowing atmosphere as it pertains to what goes on in the mind of someone who is suffering from the deleterious effects of an eating disorder, almost as if it was written and performed from within a padded cell. It has a tense, nervous energy in the vein of the very best of Killing Joke, PIL, and Siouxsie and the Banshees combined with an almost “proggy” rhythmic sense. I would venture to say that “4st”is as overwhelmingly dark and aggressive as any extreme metal song; its multifarious twists and turns, clever guitar parts, and completely whacky vocal phrasings made it an ample challenge to cover; it is also fun as hell to play. It is now a staple of our live set, and we are honored to pay homage to it.

[Porco]

I liked it. They put their own stamp on it without moving too far away from the original. I liked the outro section the best.

[savemejebus]

That was pretty cool. Singer reminded me of Bruce Dickinson with his inflections and i think when that hit me it might have coloured me more as I started thinking the rest of the production sounded a little Iron Maidenesque too.

Don't know if it beats the boos though

[Europa Gluten Free]

The theatricality of the vocal delivery means it loses the anger and/or vulnerability of the original. Production is very good but the arrangement is off. The double kicks in the outro is absolutely ridiculous.