Muse - Uprising (cover)

This is a very very interesting and exciting cover from Cygnus Rock Band

honestly, which cover from them isn't?...

because by default the original song is a very interesting and exciting one.

I'll be honest, before this cover I wasn't really interested in Muse and their music. I knew they existed, but that was enough. And then - I remember clearly that day. It was a gloomy, grey day some time in the beginning of November 2021 and I was full of sedatives and other chemicals. No, I won't get now into details why, some of you know it, for the rest of you out there may it be enough that it was a quite tough part of my life and Cygnus Rock Band played and still plays a MAJOR part in it for me that I could make it through.

So, it was a gloomy November day back then, this typical late autumn kind at this part of Europe. I remember, Cygnus released this cover and I fell in love with it for the first sight. It was everything I needed and yearned for. Rawness, subtle industrial clatters, powerful vocals, a lot of distorted guitars and lyrics about revolution against a tyrannic system.

Then I got out of the clutter, listened to the original song, and I need to admit, I really liked it. I like this kind of music, where rock is mixed with heavy, machine-made sounds. At a time I listened to a lot of music like that and since I'm aware of how hard it is to create something original in this sub-genre, since the possibilities are sometimes limited, I truly appreciate Muse's work, even though I generally listen to more aggressive music.

I tell this all because I'm convinced that we really need to see, appreciate and love all that work Cygnus Rock Band has invested into this cover to keep the atmosphere and the sound of the original song on one hand, while on the other to add something to it, to shape it for their own image and style and in the meantime to give something to those who love them and their art.

First Cygnus took this song and deplugged it. They pulled out all the machines from their sockets, turned them off and put them to rest.

Then Deneb stepped forward and grabbed it all into his hands.

This song is Deneb's song and if you listen to the original with open ears and heart and then this cover, still with open ears, heart and mind, you will see and understand why. And not just because he is singing it.

(And all the other members are happily and eagerly giving him their assist!)

Deneb first of all changed the strings of his bass into something he most probably ordered directly from Chernobyl. I swear the material was still dripping and burned holes into the studio's floor as they were recording the song. Then he took all the dirt from a mud where a flock of hungry and raging wild boars had wallowed and he rubbed it all into that radioactive material. Then he turned the distortion button on maximum + 2.

And then he gave his instrument a blast. 

Get yourself ready to be blown off. This amount of nuclear radiation you get from the bass will hit you so hard that you won't find your breath.

I can make you sure though, you'll be very happy and you won't mind it.

Reny's keyboards are much more subtle and they sound much clearer than the original

again if you keep your eyes open, you will hear little musical ornaments made by the keyboards - I'm not sure if these were Reny's ideas or they came from another band member, but they definitely give a wonderful extra flavor to this by default genius cover!

and this way the distorted, heavy, raw bass gets full support. The guitar hides behind the keyboards, while Ruxx gives his drums a machine-gun-alike sound.

Deneb's voice is a wonderful extra treasure for this cover. 

While Matt Bellamy has all my respect and I know very well that his very high pitched, often falsetto voice is one of Muse's most characteristic features, hereby I have to confess to you, dear Reader, that in case of male singers I love it when their voice hits me so hard that I need to pull myself off the wall while the testosterone is bubbling out of my ears and running down on my neck.

Yes, this latter one is also one of the many reasons why I love Cygnus Rock Band this much and why I love this cover right from the very beginning.

Deneb doesn't just give a much more masculine energy to the vocals but at the same time he adds a lot of emotion to the cold, dystopian lyrics.

For this he has a great talent; he can fill even the tiniest pieces with emotions. Sometimes one might tend to overlook small musical details, notes; or sometimes these details or notes themselves hide away from the listener. But Deneb takes them, dusts them off, each and every single one of them and fills them with feelings, passion and warmth. This is one of his superpowers.

From the second verse starts what I love so much in every Cygnus Rock Band song and cover and of which I wrote longer, when the song slowly starts to build itself up, more and more instruments enter, sometimes even the humane voice(s) act as instruments. Here Blu's guitar is much more raw and vicious than the original song's sound

Deneb probably lent him some from that wild-boar-ized nuclear dirt

and what I really enjoy in this part is Reny's little ornaments, giving an elegant and delicate sound instead of the original's industrial atmosphere. Ruxx joins Deneb for the second chorus, and the most exciting part comes afterwards, that is definitely the solo.

I need to admit here, for this I needed to listen to the original song a few times, because Cygnus's cover is so raw and radioactive that I didn't notice it for quite a time.

It's the musical conversation of the bass and the guitar. I found it amazing and wonderful even in the original song, but as Blu and Deneb are doing it, with all the dirt, all the contamination, all the radiation, all the rawness, it's something unique. Everything is in the sound of these two instruments, everything the original song stands for, the post-nuclear, post-apocalyptic feeling, the survivors' gut feelings, the wrath against totalitarian regimes, it's all there in the strings of these guitars and in the fingers of these two wonderful musicians.

For the last part of the song Ruxx adds his trademark style giving a load of aggression to the dystopian atmosphere.

I remember, back then when this cover was released, I said that it's like a living heartbeat, and I'm alive, by this cover. By Cygnus Rock Band. Right now it's especially relevant, because yesterday, on 13th August was the day when Cygnus released their Rammstein-cover in 2021. As they say, the rest is history :) but here, in this very place in this very moment I want to take the opportunity to thank them, again (for at least the 1000th, and definitely not the last time!) for everything they have done, for making music, for fighting, for never giving up, for constantly going ahead despite the difficulties. For existing, for breathing.

It means THIS much to me.