Las Vegas rockers Falling In Reverse return today with “Watch the World Burn,” a furious amalgam of trap and metal that quickly found its way into the Top 5 of the Genius Top Songs chart.
“Watch the World Burn” was produced by Falling In Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke and Tyler Smyth, a studio wiz who also serves as frontman for the metalcore band Dangerkids. Radke and Smyth wrote the tune with Wage War guitarist and songwriter-for-hire Cody Quistad and two other members of Falling In Reverse: guitarist Christian Thompson and bassist Tyler Burgess.
Radke is out for blood on this song. Over spooky synth swirls, he opens the track by warning, “I’ve got voices in my head again—tread carefully.” That line is a callback to Falling In Reverse’s previous single, 2022’s “Voices In My Head,” but more so, it’s about mental health issues. Radke has spoken in interviews about the PTSD and social anxiety he’s suffered since serving two years in prison for his role in a 2006 altercation that led to the shooting death of an 18-year-old Nevada man. (Radke was not the gunman, but he was carrying brass knuckles, and that led to battery charges that were exacerbated by a parole violation.)
I got problems I got issues, yeah, apparently
Trauma that I’m burying
I think I need some therapy
I battle depression
I’m back with a message
At the end of the verse, Radke turns outward and goes HAM on his haters.
I’m past the point of no return
Fuck being passive aggressive
I’ll brandish a weapon
Teach all you motherfuckers a lesson
After a rapid-fire second verse about how he won’t be defeated, Radke slows things down in verse three and takes aim at enemies within the music industry.
’Cause I have been to places that you never wanna go, ya
I got dirt on people, but they act like I don’t know, ya
I could do some damage, but I’ll never rock the boat
All it takes is one post, watch ’em fall like dominoes
At the end of the fifth verse, right before the band flings itself into a galloping metal chorus, Radke unleashes his fastest rapping of the entire song.
I’m killing the syllables
With a loaded refillable
I’m a lyrical typical supervillain
I’m venomous
And I’m never gonna stop until
They put me on top of the list
Any restraint Radke showed in the verses is gone in the chorus. He’s ready to burn everything down.
The pain and sorrow left us hollow
No tomorrows, hard to swallow
Death is calling, so appalling
Tightrope walking
Now I’m falling down
That part of the song corresponds with a segment of the effects-laden music video where Radke incinerates a priest with his mind, then mows down a church full of worshippers with laser-beams he shoots from his eyes. Radke then torches an entire city, followed by the whole world. Earlier in the clip, a dude who looks just like Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach—who beefed with Falling In Reverse last year over FIR’s use of computerized backing tracks during lives shows—gets knocked on the head by falling laptops.
You can read all the lyrics to “Watch the World Burn” on Genius now.
