Pallbearer – “Run Like Hell” (Pink Floyd Cover)
On Pink Floyd’s iconic 1979 rock opera The Wall, “Run Like Hell” is one of many freakout moments. It’s the point where the rock-star protagonist of the album (and, for that matter, the movie) hallucinates himself as a fascist leader, with the members of his audience as his militaristic followers. That’s a heavy concept for a song that continues to get classic-rock airplay, but the song itself is a driving and spacey groove as friendly as it is fatalistic.
Arkansas doom heroes Pallbearer have always had nearly as much Floyd as Sabbath in their DNA, so they’re a weirdly perfect choice to cover “Run Like Hell.” The band takes the song on on The Wall [Redux], a forthcoming Magnetic Eye compilation that pays tribute to the Pink Floyd on the original. On the album, people like the Melvins and Mark Lanegan will take on the songs from the original album.
Pallbearer’s version of “Run Like Hell” has none of the sinuous spaciness of Floyd’s original. Instead, they’ve reinvented it as a burly rocker driven by a towering guitar riff. But they do put just as much echo on their vocals as Roger Waters once did. Check it out below.
The Wall [Redux] is out 11/9, and you can pre-order it here. Pallbearer released their album Heartless last year.