How Eminem Inspired the Storytelling Badflower’s New Album ‘This Is How the World Ends’

Badflower's sophomore album This Is How the World Ends is out everywhere today (Sept. 24), and frontman Josh Katz has revealed during a conversation with Loudwire Nights host Toni Gonzalez that rapper Eminem inspired the storytelling on this new record.

Whereas their debut OK, I'M SICK was incredibly introspective, the new album is told, according to Katz, mostly from the side of the "bad guy" in the story. For example, "Johnny Wants to Fight" is about a guy who was cheated on by his girlfriend, and the vocalist sings it from the perspective of the homewrecker.

"I think about it once the song is already going, and then I realize what I'm doing, and I'm like, 'Oh, that's pretty cool.' I think that happened a lot with this whole album," Katz explained. "Most of the perspectives, or a lot of the perspectives, are from the villain's perspective and not from the protagonist."

The frontman reflected on some realizations he had ever since the pandemic started, particularly one where people believe themselves to be "morally superior… Just being offended by everything and calling out all this behavior from all these other groups of people. And it's like, 'Dude, we're all different people.' I'm a villain to somebody in somebody's life and they're the villain to my life."

As a result, Katz decided to play the role of the antagonist throughout the majority of the album.

Interestingly, Eminem's influence can be heard specifically in the song "Stalker," which has similarities to the rapper's 2000 track "Stan" that focuses on the extreme actions and behaviors of a super fan. And, of course, that's where the term "stan" came from, and it was added to the dictionary as an official word in April of 2019.

"I grew up on Eminem. My very first album or CD that I ever purchased was Eminem's first album [Infinite]," Katz recalled. "I think that pops up every now and again in various things that I do where I'm like, 'Oh, that's totally an Eminem thing for sure.' And that one, I think I really just leaned into it because it was fun. And it just felt like the appropriate way to sort of tell that story."

Stream This Is How the World Ends below, and to hear the full interview, tune into Loudwire Nights tonight at 7PM ET.

Loudwire Nights with Toni Gonzalez airs nightly starting at 7PM ET. You can tune in anytime, from anywhere right here or by downloading the Loudwire app.