This has been a fresh escape from the boredom of a hot Italian day fighting against a mosquito invasion in my bedroom. Here’s something AMAZING you need to check out. Have you ever imagined how would your favourite songs from your favorite progressive bands would sound if they were played by an orchestra? I honestly once did.

Here is an epic example for you. A guy called Aziz Alwadhi uploaded his impressive orchestral-style covers to Youtube. The most recent / first one I found is “Follow The Sings” by Born Of Osiris. It was uploaded around a month ago and it’s sounding incredible. Easy to see why it has well over 10,000 views already.

My favorite one is “It’s Not Safe To Swim Today” by Veil Of Maya. It really gives you the chance to enjoy some details that most people can hardly hear in the original song, and most importantly it makes you realize what kind of fucking genius Mark Okubo is. It’s complexity must have been difficult for Aziz to translate. Incredible effort on all fronts.

Last but not least, Aziz did 3 orchestral covers of Periphery. Listen to “Racecar”, “Muramasa” and especially “Ragnarok” which really sounds huge in the later half. Gotta love it. Searching for similar stuff I also found a really well done orchestral arrangement of Periphery’s “Jetpacks Was Yes!”. Listen here.

Check em all out and peek at Aziz’s Soundcloud and YouTube channel as well!

– MATTIA

Links: Youtube // Soundcloud