10 Metal Cover Songs That Sound Nothing Like The Original

There's a good chance that Nine Inch Nails will probably never make a song as emotionally gripping as Hurt ever again. Serving as a sort of epilogue to the Downward Spiral, the raw performance from Trent Reznor almost feels like he's singing from the other side of consciousness, trying to make sense of this path of self destruction he's left in his wake. It would be amazing to hear this come from a metal musician on principle, let alone the Man in Black.

Towards the end of his life, Johnny Cash's American series of albums saw him making strides towards recent artists, which included a cover of Hurt in his trademark Western style. As opposed to just rewriting the song to suit his needs, Cash leaves everything on the table in this version, almost like he's looking back on his life and coming to terms with the mistakes he's made along the way.

Even Reznor had to bow down to this version of the song after he heard it, going so far as to say that the song belongs to Johnny more now than it does to him. Whereas the worlds of country and industrial rock seem like chalk and cheese on the surface, they do know a thing or two about regret, and this is practically a summation of the darkness that's in every human heart.