Dave Gahan has been particularly busy during the pandemic blockade, recording new albums, entering the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame through Depeche Mode, and even taking time to cover Metallica.

This song is an environmentally condensed version of "Nothing Else Matters". It is one of more than a dozen songs included in the Metallica Blacklist collection. A consortium formed by Robert Trujillo, Yo-Yo Ma, and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"It's weird, and it appears in a weird way," said Gahan, who released his cover album Imposter last month, and his side project Soulsavers. "When we were blocked, I actually walked into my small recording studio in the city with a friend to record [Metallica cover]-which is also a bit strange, staying in that room with a mask instead of being able to watch To someone’s face. But I like to do this."

The singer further admitted that he "want to enter a very cinematic place" during the cover, and deliberately tried to create a version of the song that deviated from the original.

"I listened to some other versions; I won't name any, but I think they might have gone the wrong way, like trying to surpass Metallica," Gahan admitted. "There are some interesting performances, but I think you can't be louder and harder than Metallica, so don't try."

Listen to Dave Gahan’s version of Metallica’s "Nothing Else Matters"

Gahan and Depeche Mode members Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher are also fully planning to perform at the 2020 Rock Concert Hall awards ceremony, and they had a world tour earlier this year. But when the ceremony became a virtual special on HBO, the trio accepted a set of Zoom calls, which was refreshingly disrespectful and intimate.

"To be honest, we thought it was a comedy," Gahan recalled. "It’s kind of perfect. We’ve been friends and we’ve known each other for a long time. We were teenagers when we started doing this, and when the three of us were in the same room, even on Zoom, "We just started making fun of each other. I realized it was like I had been a part of this family for many, many years, and I was very proud of it.

Listen to Dave Gahan's version of Bob Dylan's "It Is Not Dark yet"

"And, of course, it's weird that we were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-maybe they are a bit thorny around. This is definitely needed. It's time for bands like us, Depeche Mode, to join there."

Gahan and Soulsavers recorded Imposter at Rick Rubin's Shangri-La studio in Malibu in November 2019, featuring songs by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, PJ Harvey, Cat Power, Mark Lanegan, and Charlie Chaplin. The band showed these songs on stage in London last weekend, and Gahan hopes to have more dates in the new year. He predicted that Depeche Mode will "may gather together at some point, and I should imagine that next year, see what we like to do." At the same time, a limited edition of Depeche Mode 101 was recently released, which is a record of the band Documentary and live album of the 1988 Pasadena Rose Bowl concert.

"This is quite a collection of works," Gahan admitted. "It makes me realize that even if I don't know it, it is the people we have worked with for many years-Flood, Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones-these people lead you in a very creative direction. This is truly amazing about Depeche Mode. One of the things is that we never really fit into any particular genre, so I hope that if we do something, we will continue to explore different ways to record songs."