Paramore singer Hayley Williams recently compared her band to Metallica in a message celebrating the 12th anniversary of Paramore’s 2009 album, Brand New Eyes.
Released that year on Sept. 29, Brand New Eyes arrived when Paramore, encountering a surge of success that was at the time their biggest to date, were undergoing a period of conflict between band members. It led to guitarist Josh Farro and drummer Zac Farro leaving the group the following year. (Zac returned in 2017.)
Likely thinking of that discord while looking back on Brand New Eyes this week, Williams suggested the album represents Paramore’s Some Kind of Monster period.
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is the warts-and-all 2004 film that shows Metallica’s challenges while recording their album St. Anger amid a search for a new bassist (who would end up being Robert Trujillo) and a rehab stint and sabbatical for frontman James Hetfield.
On Tuesday (Sept. 12), Paramore tweeted an inset image of the back cover art for Brand New Eyes and said, “12 years ago today we were obviously mad as hell at each other. thank yall for the grace.”
Retweeting it, Williams added, “this was our ‘some kind of monster.'” (While she could’ve conveyed the idea by saying it was their St. Anger, the parallel with Metallica’s intra-band turmoil portrayed in Some Kind of Monster gives a better idea of the strife Paramore experienced.)
Williams and Farro, who were in a romantic relationship with each other before Brand New Eyes, wrote the bulk of the album together after they split as a couple.
“A large majority of those songs have to do with the relationship we had,” Williams said in 2011. “It was really hard because we were friends, and then going through a breakup and going through any kind of tension as a band really affected all the lyrics.”
After Paramore announced they had parted ways with the Farro brothers in December 2010, Josh called the group a “manufactured product” in a statement. He further said Hayley was the only one signed to their recording contract and that they had started Paramore only after Williams was first offered a solo deal.
“The management then decided to build our band up the grassroots route,” Josh continued. “They put Hayley on Fueled by Ramen not making it known she was signed to Atlantic as well. All the while, we still questioned whether or not we were an actual band.”
While they no longer work together, Williams and Josh still have a current hit — each are credited as cowriters on pop star Olivia Rodrigo‘s recent single “Good 4 U.” However, the acknowledgments are likely only due to the song’s similarity to Paramore’s “Misery Business.”
