Billy Strings has built his career turning bluegrass inside out, but over the weekend, the Grammy-winning guitarist reminded fans that his musical DNA extends well beyond banjos and flatpicking.
Strings joined Montreal technical death metal veterans Cryptopsy onstage during the Ionia Freak Fair in his hometown of Ionia, Michigan, delivering one of the weekend’s most unlikely crossovers as one of bluegrass’ biggest stars stepped straight into the controlled chaos of one of extreme metal’s most technically punishing bands.
Then again, anyone familiar with Strings’ history knows the pairing isn’t quite as bizarre as it might initially appear.
Strings is a longtime metalhead who played in metal bands before emerging as a force in the bluegrass world, and he hasn’t exactly kept his affection for heavy music a secret. His relationship with Cryptopsy runs particularly deep. Last year, Strings contributed a guitar solo to the band’s 30th anniversary medley featuring newly recorded material from their influential 1994 debut, Blasphemy Made Flesh.
The Ionia Freak Fair gave Strings the opportunity to take that relationship from the studio to the stage.
Strings curated the festival, including its metal stage, where Cryptopsy appeared alongside acts including Bane, For the Fallen Dreams, and Flesh & Blood Robot. When Cryptopsy took the stage, Strings strapped on an electric guitar and joined the Canadian death metal vets in their natural habitat.
It’s a long way from the acoustic stages where Strings has become one of his generation’s most celebrated guitarists, but the performance highlighted the common thread running between two musical worlds that rarely share a festival bill. Whether it’s a bluegrass breakdown played at breakneck speed or the labyrinthine riffs of technical death metal, both demand a ridiculous amount of precision from the musicians playing them.
For Strings, apparently, shredding is shredding.
His appearance with Cryptopsy also offered another reminder of just how far outside traditional bluegrass boundaries his musical interests stretch. Strings has spent years bringing psychedelic rock, jam-band improvisation and heavy guitar into his own music while simultaneously demonstrating a deep respect for the traditional bluegrass that raised him.
Now he can add ripping technical death metal alongside Cryptopsy in his Michigan hometown to the résumé.
Check out footage from the gloriously unhinged collaboration below.
