Viktoriya Yermolyeva, heavy metal pianist
February 17, 2010 1:46 PM   Subscribe

 
hell yes
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 1:52 PM on February 17, 2010


Can she play Enter Sandman on one hand and the melody for Don't Stop Believin' on the other? 'Cause that would be TIGHT.
posted by deadmessenger at 1:53 PM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]




FUCK. YES.
posted by sciurus at 1:57 PM on February 17, 2010


Learned of this young lady ages ago via remix.nin.com. She has done some very nice covers of Trent's work. She is immensely talented.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 2:05 PM on February 17, 2010


Well, this seems like a good place to drop this link:

Master of Puppets isolated guitar track
posted by chillmost at 2:06 PM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]


Nice! Her version of Master of Puppets is particularly killer.

With the exception of those previously linked, however, her favorite metal bands suck. I don't even get how she can play like this, yet likes all this wimpy modern-mainstream cra-- HOLY SHIT FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE
posted by vorfeed at 2:10 PM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]


This is pretty damn mind-blowingly impressive. Goddammit.
posted by bunnycup at 2:12 PM on February 17, 2010


Damn.

I keep expecting these to jump out to the little loop of Beavis and Butthead headbanging for a few seconds.
posted by ecurtz at 2:20 PM on February 17, 2010


This is extremely wonderful.
posted by herodotus at 2:21 PM on February 17, 2010


In middle school I wore out my Master of Puppets and ...And Justice for All cassette tapes. Twice. I feel pretty qualified to say that I know every note of those two albums by heart (I mean, I can't play them, but I could sure as hell hum the entirety of both albums).

If nothing else, this woman is prolific. It looks like she has 300+ videos. To Live is To Die. Blackened.

She can even do that Cliff Burton bass thing where he's all like
weerrrrrrrraaaahhhhhh
eeehhhhyyyyaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnhhhhhhhh
mmmmmmmeeeeeeeerrrrroooooooonnnnnnn


cool
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 2:21 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Rock the fuck on! She needs to hook up with Rodrigo y Gabriela.
posted by eyeballkid at 2:23 PM on February 17, 2010


This is so goddamn awesome I want to punch a kitty.
posted by Pastabagel at 2:25 PM on February 17, 2010


That's pretty good - and I love to see a good hard rocking piano. I'm still partial to Christopher O'Riley myself, but then again he plays artists more my style. Of course, maybe no one rocks harder on the piano than Brad Mehldau. many radiohead covers.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:29 PM on February 17, 2010


Wow. Toxicity is pretty wild.
posted by eyeballkid at 2:30 PM on February 17, 2010


If youtube does anything for anyone, it ought to get Viktorya a plane ticket and a meet-up with one of these bands on stage for a freaking awesome jam session. I mean, really. \m/
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:43 PM on February 17, 2010


Apparently she is quite the classical pianist as well...
posted by jim in austin at 2:44 PM on February 17, 2010


She does two different covers of Slayer's "Raining Blood", both are awesome. Pantera's "Cemetery Gates" is also a highlight. I have no why she hasn't done "Angel Of Death" by Slayer, though. That would be the obvious Slayer song to cover, I'd think, or it's the one most people have done. Plus it would rule.
posted by DecemberBoy at 2:49 PM on February 17, 2010


there's nothing more attractive than an incredibly talented and expressive person. I admit to being smitten.
posted by Ironmouth at 3:03 PM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]


Black nail varnish... nice touch
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:06 PM on February 17, 2010


This inspired me to find the Songsmith version of Ace of Spades.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 3:19 PM on February 17, 2010


Something In The Way and She's Lost Control - If One and ...And Justice For All hadn't done it, now I'm in love.
posted by pupdog at 3:25 PM on February 17, 2010


I'd love a keyboard like that. Unfortunately it costs nearly as much as my car. I will just have to stick with my old keyboard, which is certainly suitable to my total lack of piano aptitude.

I like her version of Personal Jesus.
posted by winna at 3:34 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


The piano version of Master of Puppets really reminds me of this song from the Doom soundtrack.
posted by The Tensor at 3:49 PM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]


The Tensor beat me to it. All of the music being played on piano here sort of made the mid-'90s MIDI part of my brain wonder when they were going to discover that there are more instruments than just Channel 0 / Grand Piano. GRRRR new sound card angst
posted by circular at 4:18 PM on February 17, 2010




Myself, when it comes to alternative interpretations of metal classics, I'm quite partial to Coal's take on Ace of Spades.

(Stylus Happenstance, that Songsmith version is … wonderful ;-)
posted by Pinback at 4:58 PM on February 17, 2010


Her rendition of Sweet Child O' Mine is just extraordinary. And also confirms what I've suspected, that Slash's contribution to G'n'R was incomparably more valuable than Axl's. Listen to the bit at around 3:25 when she hits the main guitar solo and tell me that's not a beautiful piece of music.
posted by ZsigE at 5:03 PM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]


Both versions of Call of Ktulu are excellent. Now that's a Metallica track that's well suited to piano.

I miss my S&M CD now.
posted by Decimask at 5:10 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


If I had to describe that "Master of Puppets" performance with one word that word would be virile. I wonder if that's the kind of effect Beethoven had on his audiences.

If it were a classical composition, perhaps it would be a Fantasia? The style seemed like a blend of Prokofiev's vigor and Satie's minimalism.
posted by Joe Beese at 5:19 PM on February 17, 2010


Wow it's not just getting the notes right but the perfect softness vs. hardness of each note that fits completely with how the song is supposed to sound at that moment. I'm another who knows every single note in Metallica's first 5 albums and I am floored.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:44 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]




FUCK YEA
posted by Scoo at 6:24 PM on February 17, 2010


Also, FUCK YEA
posted by bicyclefish at 6:26 PM on February 17, 2010


Aaaahaha, I've been following this for weeks via the Reeelapse board and was going to post it but was gun shy about it for some reason. Her Carcass cover fucking rules.
posted by The Straightener at 6:32 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


In middle school I wore out my Master of Puppets and ...And Justice for All cassette tapes. Twice. I feel pretty qualified to say that I know every note of those two albums by heart (I mean, I can't play them, but I could sure as hell hum the entirety of both albums).

You are apparently me.
posted by empath at 7:12 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


She comes up with some interesting solutions to bending notes in Wish You Were Here.
posted by horsewithnoname at 7:20 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


It looks like I'm completely in the minority here, but I just don't see the point of this. Perhaps because I'm not only a classical pianist but also a guitarist, so if I want to play metal I just pick up a guitar. Her transcriptions seem unimaginative to the extreme, what I'd love to see are paraphrases and transcriptions more in the style of Liszt... I've always thought that there's a huge potential niche for someone who could do this well, such as Volodos' arrangements of Rachmaninov songs for instance, but for pop and metal songs instead. Perhaps I'll have to give this a go!
posted by BobsterLobster at 8:05 PM on February 17, 2010


Or maybe it's because you're dead inside?
posted by Justinian at 8:08 PM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]


No, I think there really are better ways to do this:

Compare:

Fade to Black

and

Fade to Black

I think she too slavishy sticks to the original notes.
posted by empath at 8:15 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


After watching more of these, I would like to amend my earlier comment, and say that no, she's pretty fucking good.

I'm prejudice against talented people grumble grumble.
posted by Lutoslawski at 8:25 PM on February 17, 2010


Ah, empath, but you are completely ignoring the "cute accented russian girl" factor. Which, unfortunately, is a much bigger factor to these things than most people would admit. Compare the view counts on your two links.
posted by Justinian at 8:50 PM on February 17, 2010


Can't watch the videos because I'm at work, but I can headbang to the mp3s!

Or not. But these are still pretty awesome.
posted by Target Practice at 9:27 PM on February 17, 2010


horsewithnoname: I might be wrong, but I think those are fairly standard blues piano moves you're referring to, by which I mean, playing two adjacent notes simultaneously to get that "blue" note (bent note). If I'm wrong, I'd be glad to be corrected.
posted by smcameron at 9:58 PM on February 17, 2010


I'd love a keyboard like that. Unfortunately it costs nearly as much as my car.

Winna: You can buy a decent USB keyboard for around $100. All the cost in an expensive keyboard like that is in the sound engine. Software synths sound almost as good or even better than hardware synths these days. Just buy a USB keyboard and hook it up to something like Massive and you'll be amazed by the sound you get from it.
posted by empath at 12:45 AM on February 18, 2010


I'd love a keyboard like that.

It looks like she's using a Roland RD700GX, which retails for ~$2,600. I know nothing about these things; can someone drop some knowledge on whether it's an instrument worthy of her talents?
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 4:12 AM on February 18, 2010


Yes, the Rolands are worth it. I have a similar one upstairs and it's my favourite thing. It's all down to key feel though, to be honest - Korg, Yamaha, Roland, Nord (the only thing that might tempt me to be unfaithful is a Nord Stage 88) all make great playing sampled pianos, and the various software instruments (VIs AkoustikPiano in particular) for computer use are astonishing, too - better, actually, but sometimes you don't want the hassle and just want to play.

No point is plugging them through a hundred buck USB keyboard, though for synth and organ work they're fine.
posted by cromagnon at 5:39 AM on February 18, 2010


Yeah, Roland 700 series is about as good a stage piano as you're gonna get.

It's all down to key feel though, to be honest

Yes. Sound quality is key, but the key feel is absolutely everything. I have a Korg, which is ok, but the key feel is not as good as a Roland (which I'm in the market for, at the moment).

I thought maybe it looked like the 700SX, which Roland doesn't make anymore, but it could definitely be the GX. Look for a used one (either the GX or the SX - both excellent) on craigslist and the like.

Also, I would trade a testicle for a Nord 88. Partially because it's fucking red. Mmmm. piano porn.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:43 AM on February 18, 2010


Is it that beautiful women play the piano, or am I discovering some kind of fetish here?
posted by cmoj at 9:51 AM on February 18, 2010


what I'd love to see are paraphrases and transcriptions more in the style of Liszt... I've always thought that there's a huge potential niche for someone who could do this well, such as Volodos' arrangements of Rachmaninov songs for instance, but for pop and metal songs instead. Perhaps I'll have to give this a go!

I am now jonesing for the Judas Priest Variations.
posted by ersatz at 12:48 PM on February 18, 2010


Toxicity is pretty awesome. Though I suspect Serj Tankian himself also must have played that on piano sometime.

Tool - Sober. Nice!
posted by Harry at 2:21 PM on February 18, 2010


Excellent - and there was me thinking Apocalyptica covering Metallica stuff using cellos was cool, pfeh!

I kind of wish that I hadn't given up on my piano lessons when I was younger...
posted by Chunder at 2:47 PM on February 18, 2010


This is amazingly excellent. She does more than just metal as well, with a fantastic cover of OneRepublic ft Timbaland Apologize.
posted by notnamed at 2:54 PM on February 18, 2010


I should use that nice little "preview" function. Apologize.
posted by notnamed at 2:55 PM on February 18, 2010


Okay, this cover of Hysteria is awesome.
posted by empath at 4:49 PM on February 18, 2010


Whoa... Slayer, Raining Blood. Never expected to hear that on piano.
posted by smcameron at 9:18 PM on February 19, 2010


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