King Ultramega, the Chris Cornell tribute headed up by Mark Menghi of Metal Allegiance fame, have released another tribute to the late Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer. This new rendition of Cornell‘s 2015 solo track “Dead Wishes” features Mastodon drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor guesting on vocals. Guitarist Angel Vivaldi (With A Vengeance) contributed to this track, as did Frank Mitaritonna on keyboards. Drumming was provided by the legendary Kenny Aronoff, while Menghi oversaw the arrangement of the various orchestral elements included on the track.
Menghi stated of his vision for it:
“I would constantly listen to the original version in moments of clarity, times of reflection, sitting in a sauna post-work out and/or cool down periods, etc. any time I needed to wind down or relax, I listened to it. As time went on, I became more and more connected to the song.
I just love the simplicity of the song, the depth of the instrumentation, the acoustic guitar tone, etc. when tracking and producing our version, I wanted to stay true to the original but add things I was hearing in my head, hence the violins, cellos, keyboards, percussion, Leslie effects, xylophone, sleigh bells, etc. I wanted to create an atmospheric soundscape that would pay homage to the original.”
As for deciding to have Dailor front the track, Mengi added:
“As I was thinking on who could potentially sing this song, I heard a version of Mastodon covering ‘Stairway to Heaven‘ where Brann is singing lead vox and I just thought to myself ‘Well, he would be interesting on ‘Dead Wishes‘.'”
Mitaritonna shared:
“Working on ‘Dead Wishes‘ showed me the depth of his writing and helped me develop a deeper appreciation from my younger years, only consuming music through MTV or whatever records I could get my hands on. His lyrics are haunting and poetic, but feel relatable and personal which creates an incredibly deep, human experience for me as a listener, before any contributions.”
Aronoff, who already worked with this tribute in the past, went on to say of this latest team-up:
“Mark‘s sound, feel and ideas are perfect on not only this track, but in all the KU tracks I’ve been a part of. When recording a song like this, it’s very important what you don’t play as much as what you decide to play.”
Dailor himself went on to say the following of his participation:
“First of all, I have to say what an incredible honor to even be asked to try and attempt a cover of one of Chris’s songs. The fact that Mark thought I could even come close to it is beyond flattering, and to be honest, my knee jerk reaction was to say ‘uh, no thank you, I’m not interested in embarrassing myself if I can help it’ haha!
The track itself was totally out of my wheelhouse so I thought it would be a great challenge and an opportunity to try to honor one of my favorite musicians and vocalists for a great cause.”
“It was actually really freeing, I felt like I could let loose a little bit knowing I wouldn’t have to also be playing drums.”
And finally, Vivaldi added:
“It’s very much about reading the room in terms of truly listening to what the song wants while being honest with what you have to offer it to expand its possibilities.”
Costin Chioreanu created the cover art and visualizer you see for the track below, Cornell rose to fame in the late 80s/early 90s fronting grunge legends Soundgarden. Later periods of his career saw him release several solo albums and also front the supergroup Audioslave , before Soundgarden‘s 2010 reunion.
