Machine Gun Kelly must have some kind of masochistic desire to be hated by metalheads. Last year, the pop-punk renaissance man called out Slipknot for "being 50 years old wearing a fucking weird mask on a fucking stage," which kicked off a whole months-long feud with Corey Taylor and resulted in him getting booed by Maggots at Louder Than Life fest. Since then, his approval rating within the greater metal community hasn't been too hot, but the man simply gives no fucks about what heshers think of him. Today, during an in-studio performance on Howard Stern's Stern Show, the 31-year-old and his band broke into a cover of System of a Down's "Aerials" that was certainly ... something.
Kelly, who started his career as a polarizing rapper before pivoting to pop-punk in 2020 and becoming a Billboard-topping sensation, has a distinct voice that might work fine in a pop-punk or hip-hop context, but the man simply does not have the same range as Serj Tankian. Hearing him try to hit the high notes on "Aerials," which is a tremendously difficult song for anyone to cover, is tough, and he doesn't win any "cool" points for doing it with a lit joint in his hand.
Either way, watching him try is an entertaining spectacle, and you can see the whole performance above via YouTube.
