The O’Keefe Music Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to music education for youths. Based in Lebanon, Ohio, the org provides children with free access to musical training and recording, with a number of students featured in music videos posted to the foundation’s social media pages. The songs chosen for performance have run the gamut of rock and roll, from classic rock like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to contemporary acts like A Perfect Circle. Though not the first time that the foundation’s students have covered this particular song, this version of Slipknot’s “The Heretic Anthem” is something to behold.
This third version of the Iowa standout track features nine-year-old K8 on vocals, and if she can scream like this at age nine, the future of harsh vocals is in good hands. Guitars are handled by Xander Markewich (age 12) and Maynard Vannatta (age 14), with the former ripping quite the solo for the occasion.
Bass duties are handled by Calli Dressen, while percussion is handled by drummer Nate Tharp (age 17) and eight-year-old Fuzz putting baseball bat to keg during the chorus. Tharp has loads of stamina, given the amount of machine gun double bass the song requires, and his warmup routine is a testament to that, as seen below:
The infamous countdown at the top of the song is done by three-year-old Eliza Franziska, by far one of the youngest students featured in an OMF video.
Considering that none of these kids were even thought of when this song first hit airwaves in 2001, this is a hell of an effort. The O’Keefe kids are alright, and if this is who will bear the torch for the future of heavy music, I, for one, have faith in it.
To learn more about the O’Keefe Music Foundation, check out their website.
Check out the full video of “The Heretic Anthem (v3/3)” below:
