Even now that live music has come roaring back, the all-star virtual covers featured on Two Minutes to Late Night – YouTube's finest heavy metal-themed talk show – remain essential viewing.
For the show's latest star-studded video, Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor was recruited to lead a cover of the Judas Priest classic, Screaming for Vengeance. Decked out in Priest frontman Rob Halford's trademark uniform of studded leather pieces and aviator sunglasses, Dailor adeptly and faithfully handles Halford's operatic vocals.
Armed with a custom yellow Ibanez RG550, Nili Brosh, meanwhile, leads a three-headed electric guitar attack behind Dailor that also includes Anthrax's Jonathan Donais – who plays his Legator JD-6 signature guitar – and, of course, Two Minutes to Late Night's Gwarsenio Hall.
Come for Dailor's amazingly accurate Halford impression, but stay for Brosh and Donais's top-notch Tipton/Downing homage – light-speed call-and-response passages, fantastic guitar harmonies and all.
The Screaming for Vengeance band is rounded out by veteran metal drummer Gene Hoglan and Municipal Waste/Cannabis Corpse/Iron Reagan low-end ranger Philip "Land Phil" Hall on bass guitar.
Though Screaming for Vengeance – the title track to Priest's hugely successful 1982 album – is a formative metal tune, Two Minutes to Late Night's covers are certainly not limited to songs from that genre.
Previous episodes, for instance, have seen Marty Friedman join forces with members of Mastodon and Baroness to give Fleetwood Mac’s You Make Loving Fun a shreddy makeover, and members of Deftones, Killswitch Engage and In Flames transform Björk’s Hyperballad into a mammoth chug-fest.
For more covers, and full episodes of Two Minutes to Late Night, stop by the show's YouTube channel.
