Corey Taylor and Serj Tankian have been the two most recognisable voices in American heavy music for most of thirty years, and they have never once been on the same song. That changed today.
FALLING IN REVERSE have released "Joseph", their first new music in over a year, with guest vocals from the SLIPKNOT frontman and the SYSTEM OF A DOWN frontman — the first time the pair have shared a track. Both also appear in the accompanying video, directed by Jensen Noen.
The title is not a reference to anyone else. "Joseph" is singer Ronnie Radke's own middle name, which puts the song somewhere between a collaboration and a self-portrait with two guests doing the commentary.
It follows a run of high-profile features. Last year's "God Is A Weapon" was built around a guest vocal and has since passed 350 million streams; before that, 2024's "All My Life" — recorded with country artist Jelly Roll — spent five weeks atop the rock radio chart and eleven weeks as the number one Hot Hard Rock Song on Billboard. The band's 2024 album "Popular Monster" has accumulated four billion streams.
For Tankian, "Joseph" is the latest in a stretch of guest work rather than a return to his own band — he released "Adjourn It" with Tom Morello in June, and SYSTEM OF A DOWN have not made a studio album since 2005. Taylor, meanwhile, spent this year on SLIPKNOT business, including the surprise single "Arsenal" — which Jim Root has since said will not be on the band's next album — alongside a steady run of features including "War Pigs" with Geezer Butler.
Whether the two of them ever do it again is another matter. On the evidence of "Joseph", the interesting thing is how little they sound alike: Taylor's delivery is blunt-force and forward, Tankian's is elastic and theatrical, and the song makes the contrast the point rather than smoothing it over.