JERIS JOHNSON-ODE TO METAL
You have to credit Jeris Johnson for setting his sights high; for several years now in word and deed he’s wanted to bring rock (in some cases kicking and screaming) into the future. On October 23rd, 2023 he declared on X/Twitter:
i will be the most influential artist in rock/metal at some point. idc care how long it takes. it could be 2 years, 5 years, 20 years, or after i’m dead, but it is inevitable.
Enter not just Sandman but three 2023 singles now packaged together in "Ode to Metal," "When the Darkness Comes," and "Take Me Away." To that end, before I had even done any background research for this review, my first impression of "When the Darkness Comes" was that it sounded a lot like Metallica meets Nickelback, and sure enough in the former instance, for Johnson:
I've become obsessed with this idea of modernizing that super classic metal sound…That European metal festival shit with a dash of 808s to piss off the old heads. I want metal to be great. So I listened to the entire Black album (by Metallica) and thought, 'What if I put my own spin on pretty much the best, most iconic shit there is?' That's what 'When The Darkness Comes' is.
The Chad Kroeger of Nickelback comparisons are probably well familiar to Johnson fans—in fact, he even secured a feature from Kroeger on his "damn! (remix)." Collaborations with bands like Papa Roach only reinforce Johnson’s rock bona fides, but to his "808s to piss off the old heads" point, while the vast majority of the run-time of these three songs stays squarely in the rock and metal world, as with his earlier work there is definitely a rap influence, this time mostly haunting the edges, however. With a style dubbed by Finn McKenty as "butt trap," Johnson’s melding of influences feels like the more rock-oriented cousin of the genre-amalgamating emo rap and trap metal scenes, each known for pulling from a wider array of genres to inform the various artists’ sounds. As cases-in-point, among Johnson’s best songs are included "Friday" featuring Trippie Redd and the re-imagining of Slayer’s "Raining Blood" featuring ZillaKami of City Morgue.
"Ode to Metal" starts off with heavy "Hate Me Now" by Nas featuring P. Diddy vibes, with Johnson sounding a little like CORPSE. Interestingly enough, both CORPSE and Johnson have collaborated with Bring Me the Horizon. There’s a brief metalcore head-fake, seguing into a more straightforward rock-based beat before Johnson delivers the radio-ready rock chorus. From there, we’re primed some more for the song to then hit its next gear—having it already foreshadowed with the title, the "head-fake," and the lyrical references to bands like A Day to Remember and Avenged Sevenfold as well—ultimately roaring into Johnson’s rendition of an Avenged Sevenfold-esque part before we eventually get to the second time through the chorus. The song then closes out with a reviewing-the-contents-type outro before we get the previously-discussed "When the Darkness Comes."
The first two-thirds or so of the final track, "Take Me Away," despite its metallic energy has more of a dreamy, dazed feel to it, but with a dark undercurrent, like a perfectly pleasant day with an ominously-dark sky looming on the horizon or a trip about to go bad (lyrically the song is quite dark throughout with lines like "Now we got another dead one, uh / Palpitating on the bed one, uh / Suffocating in the head one, uh / Blood draining from the red wine surgery"). The trip does indeed go bad around that two-third mark, leading up to Johnson screaming "Die!" and this strange, unsettling kind of mini-breakdown, which is at least the best way I can think to describe it. On the other side of the last time through the chorus—another catchy one!—how does the song close? Breakdown. Chef’s kiss.
Johnson is clearly at the forefront of artists pushing alternative music in general forward, true to his stated intention. The distinctions of genre are in many cases becoming increasingly irrelevant, and Johnson is not just a case-in-point but part of the reason. In fact, he has described rock as an energy as much as anything else, and like one-time collaborators Bring Me the Horizon, his desire to push himself creatively and the ability to execute that desire in seamlessly-integrating various sounds and influences while still maintaining a distinct sound is yielding often-surprising and consistently-excellent results.