Single Slam – I Don’t Wanna Be Me by Trivium (Roadrunner Records)

Trivium‘s cover of Type O Negative’s I Don’t Wanna Be Me has been released digitally across the globe as of the 26th of April via Roadrunner Records.

This cover of I Don’t Wanna Be Me was originally released as a limited edition split 7 inch vinyl a year ago on Record Store Day. The split featured this cover and Type O Negative’s original version celebrating 15 years since its release on the Life is Killing Me album.

Trivium guitarist, Corey Beaulieu, told the 90.3 WMSC radio show “The Metal Teddy Bear Experience” –  “We did the Type O Negative cover just for fun, to have a bonus track or just have something useful for whatever, and we just had that kind of hanging out, and then Roadrunner (Trivium and Type O Negative’s label) decided to… It was 15 years since that song came out. So they were just, like, ‘Hey, we should do this split thing for the 15-year anniversary of the song.’ And we had the song, so they sent it to the Type O guys, and they gave the blessing; they liked the cover.”

I thought this was going to suck badly. Imitating Peter Steele’s vocals would be a challenge for any vocalist but Matt Heafy does a decent job. Obviously getting nowhere near the deep, booming bellow of the original but in his own clear and concise way, he makes a decent fist of it. Musically it is sped up a bit though it does keep that soft and warm tone on the guitars as per the original. It doesn’t quite capture the gothic gloom of the original. The extra kick to the drums and overall rhythm lose that sombre feel but that’s not a bad thing. It just means Trivium have a added a bit of themselves to the song. Attempting to do a straight up, like for like cover would have been a tough job.

It’s a decent cover of Type O Negative’s I Don’t Wanna Be Me. I’m not too sure why it has been released now though. It is very out of the blue. Originally you could only hear it if you picked up the limited edition vinyl. Anyone who paid for that may feel it has been diluted now as the songs are available everywhere. Trivium are on a bit of a break so Matt can focus on fatherhood for a year so there is no new album planned just yet. Their last release, The Sin and the Sentence came out in 2017 so it’s not to push that. Maybe just a bit of annual marketing? Make sure people realise Trivium are still around?

Anyway, it’s a good cover of a great song so why not grab yourself a copy from all the usual streaming platforms now. Keep up with Trivium news at their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.