“The Sound of Silence” by Disturbed

On Immortalized, their 2015 album, Disturbed took on "The Sound of Silence", Paul Simon's hushed song from the Simon & Garfunkel songbook, and did something you might not expect from a band this loud: they kept it quiet, at least at first. Kevin Churko produced, mixed and arranged it with the band, Suzie Katayama added extra arrangements, and the whole thing is built as one long, slow crescendo.

Dan Donegan covers nearly everything but the drums, laying down keyboards, bass, guitar and eerie ebow drones, while Mike Wengren's percussion waits in the shadows until it's needed. The spotlight belongs to David Draiman, who starts low and grave, like a man delivering a eulogy, and swells into a full-throated roar by the end. It's a cover with all the drama of a movie trailer, and it plays it completely straight.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.