The track was released yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of O’Riordan's passing

Vic Mensa has shared his cover of The Cranberries‘ ‘Zombie’, marking the debut single of his new punk project 93PUNX.

Mensa’s new side project initially saw the Chicago rapper linking up with Bad Brains frontman H.R., with the likes of Blink-182‘s Travis Barker and Good Charlotte‘s Joel Madden also contributing to a collection of 93PUNX material which is set to be released soon.

93PUNX’s debut release arrived yesterday (January 15), with Mensa taking on the Cranberries’ classic 1994 song ‘Zombie’. The release coincided with the one-year anniversary of the death of Cranberries vocalist Dolores O’Riordan, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 46.

In a short statement, Mensa paid tribute to O’Riordan and explained why his band had chosen to cover the track: “We connected to ‘Zombie’ because we were born from violence. RIP Dolores.”

The Cranberries announced yesterday that their final album with O’Riordan, ‘In The End’, will be released on April 26. The group also previewed the LP with the release of its lead single, ‘All Over Now’.

Guitarist and co-founder of The Cranberries Noel Hogan recently told NME that O’Riordan was “energised” by the prospect of the new album in the months leading up to her death.

“Dolores was so energised by the prospect of making this record and [to be] getting back out on the road to play the songs live,” Hogan said.

“We knew this had to be one of the, if not the, best Cranberries album that we could possibly do. The worry was that we would destroy the legacy of the band by making an album that wasn’t up to standard. Once we had gone through all the demos that Dolores and I had worked on and decided that we had such a strong album, we knew it would be the right thing and the best way that we could honour Dolores.”