Jeris Johnson is pretty well-known at this point for leaning a lot harder into rap then he does rock. Clearly it's been working because all 10 of his top songs on Spotify have over 3 million plays. Though Johnson is now dipping his toes into the world of metal with a new single called "When The Darkness Comes", and it's pretty good! The song feels like a mid-career Avenged Sevenfold track, and would've fit right in on either the self-titled or Nightmare.
"I've become obsessed with this idea of modernizing that super classic metal sound," Johnson shares. "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."
Funnily enough, Johnson preceded the single by tweeting that he "can't wait for the entire metal community to tell me it's not a metal song." Which it objectively is – sure, the trappy rap bits are definitely going to turn up some noses, but a lot of this track is undeniably metal. So hey, good on Johnson for trying something but actually being informed enough about the genre to make it worth everyone's time.
