Metallica’s NOTHING ELSE MATTERS In Major Scale

For the last week, I've seen countless links on Twitter and Facebook leading me to a video in which someone transformed R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" into a major key ballad called "Recovering My Religion." It's funny and well done, but it's not the only song that has enjoyed such treatment.

"Major Scaled" actually has three other songs on their Vimeo page: The Doors' "Riders on the Rainbow," Django Reinhardt's (the 'd' is silent) "Major Swing," and Metallica's "Nothing Else Majeurs."

The Django Reinhardt selection is probably the most clever conceptually, but suffers most from the transformation as the new version retains none of what made the original so interesting. "Riders on the Storm" is pretty good, but suffers from being based on a kind of ponderous and annoying original song.

The Metallica number, however, is the best of the four, way better than the R.E.M. song. The switch from minor to major key is hilariously pronounced and yet sort of makes clear why so many old school Metallica fans turned away from the band with The Black Album.

I do have to give "Recovering My Religion" credit for this: Even in a major key, the song somehow still wallows in existential dread. That's just the power of the mandolin.