Iconic heavy metal band Disturbed‘s rendition of Simon & Garfunkel‘s “The Sound of Silence” has surpassed one billion views on YouTube.

The milestone marks the metal band’s first entry into the Billion Views Club.

Originally, “The Sound of Silence” was a song by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, written by Paul Simon. An original acoustic version was released on October 19, 1964, while an overdubbed electric version was released on September 12, 1965.

About 50 years after its original release, a cover version of “The Sound of Silence” was released by Disturbed on December 7, 2015. The cover featured on Disturbed’s album Immortalized.

The cover hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hard Rock Digital Songs and Mainstream Rock charts. It is their highest-charting song on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 42.

In April 2016, Paul Simon endorsed the cover. Simon sent David Draiman an email praising Disturbed’s performance of the rendition on American talk show Conan.

Simon wrote, “Really powerful performance on Conan the other day. First time I’d seen you do it live. Nice. Thanks.” Draiman responded, “Mr. Simon, I am honored beyond words. We only hoped to pay homage and honor to the brilliance of one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Your compliment means the world to me/us and we are eternally grateful.”

Meanwhile, the most recent Disturbed album is 2022’s Divisive, which features the singles “Hey You,” “Bad Man,” “Unstoppable” and the Ann Wilson collaboration “Don’t Tell Me.”

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