Islander: "We Love A Good Cover. We Just Never Want Somebody's Death To Become Our Marketing Plan"

Over the weekend, alternative metal outfit Islander made a social media post questioning the intent behind bands who rush to release covers of other artists soon after their deaths. While recent weeks have seen Islander themselves deliver a Deftones cover of their own, there's an obvious elephant in the room here in the world of metal as of late. Alternative metal outfit Bad Wolves recently found themselves in the headlines after their guitarist AJ Rebollo exited the band, at the time citing his disagreement with alleged label pressure for the band to release their previously recorded cover of Dolly Parton's 'Jolene'. Per the band, their label and Parton's manager, that cover had been laid down a number of weeks ago, and was set to feature a cameo from Parton herself. However her health issues that led to her passing last month prevented her from following through on it. In turn, the band dropped the cover at the end of this past August, earmarking the proceeds towards Dolly's Imagination Library foundation. However, that Bad Wolves found themselves here again, after encountering an eerily similar situation with their 3x multi-platinum hit cover of The Cranberries' 'Zombie' made some question the motives of Bad Wolves. The group had originally enlisted The Cranberries vocalist Dolores O'Riordan to guest on their cover of that song back in late 2017/early 2018, with O'Riordan passing away before she could lay down her parts. The band would go on to release their rendition shortly after her death, donating some $250,000 in profits to her family. Islander's new post read as follows: 'We love a good cover. We just never want somebody's death to become our marketing plan. There's a difference between honoring an influence and racing to capitalize on a moment. And hey, maybe every one of them is sincere. But when the covers start appearing before people have even had time to grieve, it's hard not to wonder. Can you feel the difference?' They also said the following via a series of images for that post: 'We think cover songs can be cool sometimes… But releasing one immediately after an artist dies? Sometimes it feels less like a tribute, and more like trying to beat everyone else to the trend… Are we wrong?'