Polyphia’s music is some of the most technically astounding in the game right now, so it’s hardly any wonder guitarists far and wide are throwing their hat in the ring with cover videos.
But now Tim Henson, Scott LePage, Clay Gober and Clay Aeschliman have been watching fan covers of tracks from their mind-bending new album, Remember That You Will Die, intent on choosing a winner to receive Tim Henson’s newly launched nylon-string Ibanez signature model, the TOD10N.
In a new video posted to the band’s YouTube page, the quartet sit in the control room of their studio, passing judgement on a selection of fan-submitted videos. Thankfully, negative reviews are kept to a minimum, as most of the performances are absolutely out of this world, and the ones that aren’t are just downright hilarious.
First up, the guys check out a performance of Neurotica, in which electric guitar player Ammar Ghazi serves up the track’s uber-melodic octave melodies via two separate playthroughs synced up side by side, before launching into Henson's majestic clean lead lines.
Next up, a fingerstyle maestro by the name of Paolo Gans plays an astonishingly well-executed acoustic guitar cover of RTYWD’s second track, the ever-elusive Playing God.
As if the track wasn’t difficult enough to play, Gans incorporates Aeschliman’s drum patterns throughout, while tackling Henson’s harmonic-laden lead runs. “Man, I’m going to have to cover his cover!” Henson exclaims.
The band check out a selection of bass covers, too, including a stellar take on ABC (feat. Sophia Black), in which Charlie Renouf serves up a hybrid bass picking masterclass.
Some of the sillier videos include a full acapella rendition of Playing God by Danny Yau, and a take on the same track by Maxime Bornebusch, who recreates it on video game My Singing Monsters.
The competition to win Henson’s TOD10N is fierce, to say the least, but in the end, there was only going to be one winner. And this time, it was Paolo Gans, with his enviable fingerstyle acoustic performance of Playing God.
“[It’s an] absolutely fantastic and immaculate cover,” LePage says. [Gans] really killed it. I don't even think there was a wrong note in the whole thing, and he did the drum solo!”
“I cannot wait to see what he does with this TOD10N,” adds Henson. “That being said, all of your covers were fucking incredible.”
