August Burns Red Comes in Like a Metalcore Wrecking Ball

On March 2 at 6:20 p.m. PT/9:20 p.m. ET, Yahoo Live will live stream August Burns Red's concert from the House of Blues Orlando. Tune in HERE to watch!

Don’t expect Pennsylvania metalcore band August Burns Red to play their amped-up cover of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” at their March 2 House of Blues show in Orlando, Florida (the concert will be streamed by Live Nation and Yahoo Live). So far they’ve only played it in the practice room and the studio, where they recorded it for the album Punk Goes Pop Vol. 6. But it turned out so well that vocalist Jake Luhrs says the band is considering adding it to their set list.

“We don’t usually do covers, but we might slip it in later in the tour,” he tells Yahoo Music. “It was fun to do, and it’s so silly to hear me screaming, ‘I came in like a wrecking ball’ because it’s completely opposite to what the original song sounds like.”

Aside from the screaming – which is hardly as hardcore as Luhrs usually gets – the song is an explosively tuneful and celebratory version of Cyrus’s 2013 single that August Burns Red chose from a list of pop tracks including Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were in Trouble,” Ariana Grande’s “Set it Off,” Lorde’s “Royals,” Pharrell Williams’s “Happy,” and DJ Snake & Lil John’s “Turn Down for What.” August Burns Red decided to cover Cyrus’s song, not to make fun of it, but because they genuinely like it.

“Also, our bassist has a crush on her,” Luhrs reveals. “But I mean, it’s really catchy and I can see what it’s so popular. It’s a good song.”

While August Burns Red haven’t heard anything back from Cyrus (they were hoping for at least a tweet), the reaction from their fans has been mixed. “Some of our fans take us a little too serious,” Luhrs says. “We are totally serious about our music, but when it comes to something like this, it’s just for fun. But some people said, ‘Why are you covering that?!? It’s not metal!’ It’s like, whatever. Some people like it and some don’t Everyone has the right to their opinion.”

Fan flack about “Wrecking Ball” never concerned August Burns Red, who were way too busy working on their new album Rescue & Restore to worry about whether people liked their Cyrus cover. The new record is a natural extension of the forward-thinking metalcore of the band’s 2011 album Leveler, contrasting strong guitar hooks and catchy riffs with roaring vocals and chugging breakdowns.

“We stuck to our roots but continued to progress,” Luhrs says. “We really wanted to build our sound outside of what people see -- and ‘metalcore’ -- and I’m confident in saying this is the best record that we’ve ever done because it shows to me that we’re still maturing. I don’t like hearing a band put out the same record twice.”

In addition to exhibiting better songwriting, August Burns Red demonstrate a new range of influences, from the classical guitar and strings in “Treatment” to the jazzy midsection of “Count it All As Lost.”

“We love doing different things with the instrumentation, from the heaviest guitar parts to sections that feature Chinese guitar, trumpet, piano, and surf music parts,” Luhrs says. “On Leveler we had the song ‘Internal Cannon,’ which had a salsa section that threw kids for a little bit of a loop. We really liked that and we wanted to experiment more with that kind of surprise instrumentation.”

Now that they’re on their sixth record, August Burns Red want to break down barriers and experiment with possibilities more than ever. That goes for their live show as well as their albums. Instead of spewing rehearsed between-song patter to crowds at every show, Luhrs strives to talk to audiences about what’s happening during the particular concert they’re attending. Similarly, in lieu of having drummer Matt Greiner take the spotlight for his own solo, August Burns Red have put together a communal drum solo that changes every night.

“Matt starts playing, then [rhythm guitarist] Brent [Rambler] and I come up with floor toms and do stuff like rim shots and counter-beats, and we all jam it out together,” Luhrs says. “We’ve never done that before, but it’s become a pretty big highlight of the set. And when people react positively to things like that it makes us want to think of more ways to make the show special.”

Like tossing in a Miley Cyrus cover? Well, not quite yet.