"Bleed," the third track off Meshuggah's 2008 opus obZen, is one of the Swedish math-metal group's most revered cuts, an insane polyrhythmic marathon that's as mind-blowing as it is head-crushing. Drummer Tomas Haake spent five months working up the physical endurance required to play its rigorous kick parts. While the fans below may not have put quite the same time and effort into their renditions of the song, the results of their unusual undertakings are stunning in their own right.
Sitar
Indian sitar phenom Rishabh Seen — who has also covered Animals as Leaders and the Dillinger Escape Plan on his instrument of choice — was just 18 when he whipped up this righteous rendition of "Bleed." A novelty? Yes. Gimmick? No way. "I have kept it all real and taken it as far as I could take it," Rishabh said of the cover, which was recorded live, with no digital speed-ups. "This cover is NOT at all to show off or like prove something, but just a sincere effort of putting something real which might be fun to watch and hear." We think he succeeded.
Piano
Chinese piano virtuoso Lang Lang may have played "One" with Metallica at the Grammys, but metal piano covers specialist Sam Abbott played a blurry octopus-armed cover of "Bleed" in his shag-rugged living room and fucking crushed it. Who's cooler? Don't even ask, man.
Teeth
There are people who would describe Meshuggah's "Bleed" as "teeth-clenching," and then there is Domen Repnik. This Danish maniac took that concept very literally with this disturbingly tight-shot performance of the skull-rattling djent classic. If you suffer from odontophobia, don't even think about watching.
8-Bit
The devil finds work for idle hands, so they say — an idiom that has been confirmed far too many times when we've found ourselves bored out of our minds. One day in 2009, Youtube user sefeed65 found himself in a similar state so he "threw this together" — this being an 8-bit take on "Bleed," which has garnered a none-too-shabby 100,000-plus views since. The devil's work, indeed.
Clapping
The first time we watched Tito Felix's absurd clapping cover of "Bleed," all we could think was "put on a damn shirt, fool." But then we read his description of the video in which he explains, "Had to do 2 takes cause I was exhausted, also, I am shirtless because its about 98 degrees up in this bitch." A valid explanation, Tito. We apologize for jumping to conclusions.
