Trivium's Matt Heafy has covered Richard Marx, with Richard Marx

Trivium frontman Matt Heafy has kept himself busy over lockdown by doing loads of stuff on YouTube and Twitch, including some killer covers of songs by Metallica, AC/DC, and even an acoustic rendition of Van Halen's Ain't Talkin' Bout Love.

But that's all a whole lot of nothing next to his most recent endeavour. Hot on the heels of Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe smashing through Prince's I Would Die 4 U for Two Minutes To Late Night, Matt's done a metalled-up rendition of Richard Marx's 1989 mega-hit Right Here Waiting, with the big man himself on vocals.

Read this: The 20 greatest Trivium songs – ranked

"Richard is one of the greatest songwriters of our time and an incredible incredible human being," says Matt. "So it's unreal that we were able to create this metal version of his mega-hit together. Stream the heck outta it!"

The origin story of this unexpected joining of forces comes from spotting Richard's son was a Trivium fan.

"I saw his son was wearing a Trivium shirt, so I hit him up on social media," Matt told U.S. podcast Bringin' It Backwards. "[He's a] super-amazing guy. We stayed in touch. One day, I [wrote to him], 'Hey, let's do a song together.' And then he texted me, 'Let's do it.' So I did a metal version of Right Here Waiting, and he did the vocals on it."

Listen to it below, and then to the original, and marvel at how so much is different and yet… it still works.

Read this: Matt Heafy: "Rock should be made by the people in the band, not by ghostwriters or teams of songwriters"