BAD OMENS
GOOD Omens
How did Bad Omens transform from an average metalcore band into a fast-rising phenomenon? It’s all thanks to pop music and better mental health, says frontman Noah Sebastian
WORDS: STEPHEN HILL
PICTURES: BRYAN KIRKS
When Bad Omens frontman Noah Sebastian enters the Zoom chat, he’s sitting in an empty backstage room of a music venue in Massachusetts, wearing a black hoodie that all but envelops his skinny frame. We introduce ourselves and offer our gratitude to him for taking the time to talk to us. “No problem,” he replies, as his eyes dart around the room.
There’s really nothing to suggest it from our opening exchange, but this is a man who fronts a band that took metal by storm in 2022. Shy and unassuming he may be, but Noah Sebastian is a superstar in the making.
Last year was massive for Bad Omens. The Richmond, Virginia quartet went from being another bunch of modern metalcore also-rans to a breakthrough act. Much like Lorna Shore or Spiritbox, the groundswell of support for their third album, 2022’s The Death Of Peace Of Mind, seemed to come from a grassroots level. Music fans, and lots of them, loved the record – and by the end of the year, the noise they were enthusiastically making about Bad Omens was impossible to ignore.
At time of going to press, three songs from last year’s album have clocked up well over 20 million Spotify streams, and the official video for the title track has been viewed just shy of eight million times on YouTube. To put that into perspective, that’s a few hundred thousand more than the video for recent Slipknot single Yen on the same platform. Bad Omens are a big deal.