Members of Suicide Silence, Abiotic and Job For A Cowboy did a deathcore cover of Africa by Toto and it’s proving divisive

The thumbnail for John Matos, Eddie Hermida and Mike Caputo's deathcore cover of Africa by Toto — (Image credit: John Matos via YouTube)

Suicide Silence singer Eddie Hermida, Abiotic guitarist John Matos and Job For A Cowboy’s live drummer Mike Caputo have released a deathcore cover of the Toto megahit Africa.

The cover was released on streaming services on September 26, and currently has 8,400 views on YouTube.

“THE WAIT IS OVER,” Matos wrote on Instagram when the song was released.

“My cover of Toto’s Africa featuring Eddie Hermida and Mike Caputo is now live on all platforms!”

The guitarist later added: “Thank you all so much for the support and also, a huge thank you to [Zen Beast Media] for crushing the mix, the master, and the video. I BLESS THE RAINS.”

Response to the cover on YouTube has been mixed. “Bro them drums are INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of this is dope. Nicely flipped,” says the top comment.

“Damn John save some cool riffs for the rest of us,” another user enthused.

One detractor writes, “Deathcore guitarist notices that a song has a fucking melody challenge (impossible edition).”

Another puts, “>Take song. >Remove all soul. >Add annoying ass chugs. >‘HOLY HECK LOOK AT MUH COVER.’ Genuine trash.” Matos responded on Instagram, commenting, “This guy gets it lol.”

Suicide Silence – whom Hermida joined in 2013, replacing the late Mitch Lucker – are promoting their March 2023 album Remember… You Must Die. The band are currently touring the US and Canada and will play in mainland Europe in February.

Metal Hammer reviewed Remember… You Must Die and awarded it three stars out of five.

“Make no mistake: if you want to wolf down bread-and-butter deathcore, Suicide Silence’s seventh album will be the sweetest feast you’ve had in some time,” said writer Matt Mills.

He later concluded: “The masterminds behind The Cleansing should be at least a year ahead of everybody else, yet they’ve been swept away by Whitechapel and even newcomers Lorna Shore in the ‘taking deathcore to rad new places’ stakes. If they can’t drive in new directions without flinging themselves off a cliff, this lot may end up in the back seat of the scene they popularised.”

Job For A Cowboy announced their long-awaited fifth album, Moon Healer, yesterday (October 25). It will mark their first new album in 10 years and will be released on February 23 via Metal Blade.

Abiotic released their latest album, Ikigai, in 2021 via The Artisan Era.

Artists

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.