Falling In Reverse is back with its first new single of 2026, and the band did not ease into the year. “JOSEPH,” out now via Epitaph Records, is a sprawling, genre-hopping heavy-rock statement built around Ronnie Radke’s middle name and two of the most recognizable voices in modern metal: Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian.
It is the first time Taylor and Tankian have appeared together on a recorded song. Both also show up in the accompanying video, directed by longtime Falling In Reverse collaborator Jensen Noen.
The track opens like a funeral hymn and does not stay there. A piano-and-choir intro gives way to a half-rapped meditation on war, death, and the afterlife before the song detonates into metallic arpeggios, electronic textures, operatic peaks, and a noise-djent breakdown. Radke moves from falsetto to spoken word to full-throated screams. Taylor arrives with a furious verse that slams political violence — “We’re bombing schools just to build a prison” — and Tankian later glides in over jazz-tinged chords to linger on genocide, hope, and a cycle that never seems to break.
Lyrically, “JOSEPH” is not a subtle piece of work. It frames the war machine as something that asks people whether they are ready to die, then answers for them. The chorus and later verses circle decomposition, crowded lots, bullets with names on them, and a loop of blessing martyrs while killing neighbors. It is Falling In Reverse doing what the band has done for years: stacking theatrical hooks on top of blunt social rage and trusting the performances to carry the weight.
The video matches that scale. Noen’s clip throws Radke into plane-crash wreckage, motorcycle gunfights, demon-and-skeleton set pieces, and a rising mountain of bones, then cuts to the three singers sharing the frame. Taylor appears in mask during a simulated battle sequence; Tankian arrives in the song’s more melodic pocket. It is maximalist, violent, and very much in the visual language Falling In Reverse has used on recent singles.
The credits underline how tightly the camp is still running. Radke and Tyler Smyth produced the track, with additional production from Charles Massabo. Smyth also mixed and mastered it. Writing credits go to Radke, Jason Richardson, Daniel Laskiewicz, and Luke Holland.
“JOSEPH” follows a run of high-profile collaborations that has become the band’s calling card. Last year’s “God Is a Weapon,” featuring Marilyn Manson, exploded across streaming platforms and TikTok. In 2024, “All My Life” with Jelly Roll spent five weeks atop rock radio and debuted at No. 1 across Billboard’s hard-rock charts, including an 11-week run as the country’s No. 1 Hot Hard Rock Song. The 2024 album Popular Monster has now piled up billions of streams and sits near platinum. Falling In Reverse has not announced whether “JOSEPH” will land on a new full-length, but the pattern is clear: Radke keeps recruiting heavy-music royalty and building singles that feel like events.
Whether this one becomes another radio and algorithm monster is still an open question. What is not in doubt is the size of the swing. Three of the most distinctive frontmen of the last 25 years are on the same record. The song careens from ballad to breakdown. The video looks like a disaster movie that wandered onto a metal set. For a band that has spent the last half-decade proving it can turn controversy and guest features into streaming numbers, “JOSEPH” is another loud reminder that Falling In Reverse still wants the biggest possible room.
