In addition to being a member of System of a Down, bassist Shavo Odadjian is also a member of Seven Hours After Violet. He hinted of a collaboration with Korn frontman Jonathan Davis back in 2023, however Davis’ name was not on the tracklist for Seven Hours After Violet’s October 2024 release.
In a new interview, Odadjian explained why they ended up shelving the song despite its impressive feature. Morgoth [real name Michael Montoya – and guitarist of Seven Hours After Violet] had a chorus he had sang for [Davis] a while back. ‘Cause he produces a lot of bands, and he’s worked with Jonathan Davis,” he recalled in a new interview. “And he’s, like, ‘Let’s write a song around this and then play it for him and see if he digs it.’ And it just didn’t work out well. But at the time when I announced that [Jonathan was going to be making a guest appearance on the album], we were making that song and it was still gonna be a record filled with features. We weren’t gonna get our own singer, we weren’t gonna have our own band. It was gonna be an album of my music with featured vocalists on there from around the planet.
If we collaborate and bring in Jonathan Davis, I want him to work on this with us rather than just repeating what he did ten years ago,” Odadjian continued. That’s what it was, then. He had nothing on it. He is incredible. We have a friendship. Jonathan is someone I adore. As a result, we can collaborate at any time of day. And we will.
The song ended up on the album even though the feature didn’t work out. “That song actually became ‘Paradise’, the first Seven Hours After Violet single,” said Odadjian. It was much different when he was on the chorus of that. Although the riff was the same, the song’s feel was different. He didn’t dig it, in my opinion. Looking back, it was too soon. It was something we wanted to accomplish. I ought not to have made the announcement. I was at fault. Due to the fact that I was ecstatic at the moment… It wasn’t what ought to have been. You can tell when something is correct. And none of us felt that it was right.
