Sigur Ros Share Gloomy ‘Game of Thrones’ Cover
Sunday night’s Game of Thrones, “The Lion and the Rose,” featured a gloomy assist from Sigur Ros. The Icelandic trio performed their interpretation of “The Rains of Castamere,” utilizing frontman Jonsi’s vocal coo, a brooding church organ and mournful choir. Now they’ve shared the track that’s available to stream below.
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The apocalyptic song (available for purchase on Amazon) was written by Thrones author George R.R. Martin and originally appeared during the epic Red Wedding episode (which Rolling Stone ranked the best TV moment of 2013). Indie rock mainstays the National recorded their own version back in 2012.
Sigur Ros also made their long-awaited in-the-flesh cameo during “The Lion and the Rose,” appearing as musicians during the wedding of Joffrey and Margaery. This isn’t the first time Thrones has called on musicians for their acting chops: creators/music nerds David Benioff and Dan Weiss have previously cast members of Coldplay and Snow Patrol in guest spots.
“It was a great experience for us and fun to meet the cast of the show that we have all been following for a long time,” said Georg Holm of Sigur Ros in a statement. “The meanest person in television history, King Joffrey, is played by the sweetest guy Jack Gleeson. It was a brilliant ‘hurry up and wait’ time for us and we would do it again in a heartbeat. It felt like a natural thing to make our version of ‘Rains of Castamere.’ We probably managed to create the gloomiest version so far. It is maybe not the happiest wedding song, but we think that it fit the scene very well.”
In other series news, the creators and cast recently warned fans that Season Four will be filled with plenty of death and destruction. “Of course people die,” said Lena Headey (Queen Regent Cersei). “I can’t say any more than that because I would literally lose my job.” Martin even cleared up, sort of, Sunday night’s mystery of who killed one of the main characters to Rolling Stone. (Spoilers if you click.)
Still, Benioff and Weiss insist that the deaths will be warranted: “If a character death feels random. . . the audience often feels cheated. But the brilliance of George’s novels is that the deaths all seem inevitable after the fact. When you go back to reread the Red Wedding chapter, you can’t believe you missed all the clues. More importantly, the fear of getting our hearts broken is part of the deal, whether in real life or fiction.”