“When somebody who doesn’t know metal asks, ‘What does your band sound like?’ I’m like, ‘Just imagine Limp Bizkit — but heavier.’”
That’s how Fox Lake vocalist Nathan Johnson sums up his Denver quartet’s cement-cracking, rap-rock-inspired aesthetic. He’s not foolin’, either.
His band first left a dent on the scene with 2020’s Silence & Violence — a grill-smashing brickbat of rhythmic nu-metal menace and braggadocious, threat-laced lyricism. Since then, they’ve toured with Cane Hill, Left to Suffer, Butcher Babies and others, while also collaborating on tracks with rising heavy music players like Paleface Swiss, Mugshot and Eyes of Salt.
And sure enough, throughout the outfit’s forthcoming New World Heat album (their first on MNRK Heavy), they’re super-sizing that sound to match their outsized aspirations. It’s shaping up to be their boldest, baddest move yet.
It’s a record where Johnson hits the mic with a knuckles-up swagger that conjures the classic, confrontational spirit of backwards-ballcap-era Fred Durst. Songs like “For the Love of the Game” and “Cold Hard Truth” merge detuned, femur-snapping hardcore breakdowns with surging, DJ Lethal-worthy turntable scratches — giving things, in Johnson’s words, that “extra bad-boy nu-metal style.”
The irony behind the band’s boastful nature is that when the vocalist first got into music with his brother — Fox Lake co-founder and original drummer Griffith Johnson — they were extra-good church kids, set to walk the straight and narrow.
“It would be really cool to say I grew up on Limp Bizkit, Korn, Slipknot and all those nu-metal bands, but I didn’t,” Johnson admits. “It was a pretty strict Christian household, and our music was monitored.”
His parents vetted every album he bought from the local Christian bookstore, ensuring no heretic anthems made it into his headphones — at least not until iPods and downloads changed the game. Still, he got his heavy fix from one faith-based nu-metal band. “My roots [are with] P.O.D.,” he confirms. “I still love them.”
Johnson shares this over Zoom from a coffee shop in Chicago, just hours before his band’s next show on their winter tour with Cane Hill and hardcore toughs Mugshot. Fox Lake have been hitting North America and Europe hard these past few years, but the singer notes that fans are launching off the monitors with even more intensity to their new music.
The group are matching that energy, barreling through sets with unrelenting force — a vibe Johnson distills with his shout-rapped mission statement on New World Heat’s heart-pounding “Pure Adrenaline”: “All gas, no brakes.”
Johnson’s musical journey, however, wasn’t always at full throttle. Long before he was commanding metal crowds, he got his start on piano. He’s been playing since he was five, and it remains a huge part of his life. A music teacher with a degree in piano performance, he even weaves jazzy finger rolls into Fox Lake interludes.
By his early teens, though, Johnson and his brother began playing in heavier bands after discovering the Rock House, an all-ages music venue in nearby Littleton, Colorado. “At the time it was much more metalcore than right now — like straightening your bangs, the whole Warped Tour scene,” he recalls.
By 2017, he and Griffith founded Fox Lake with guitarist Brandon Kemp and bassist Zachary Swafford. Their goal? Bring more nu-styled grooves into the mix.
Eventually, Fox Lake left the Mile High City to record with Mugshot drummer Connor Haines at his Corruption Recordings facility in San Jose. Following their debut, Silence & Violence, the band gained momentum through two self-released EPs, Lady Luck (2021) and Fear & Loathing (2023).
But just as they started crafting New World Heat, life happened — Griffith Johnson stepped back from the band to raise his newborn daughter. He didn’t end up recording the album and likewise hasn’t toured with Fox Lake since late 2024. Considering Haines was already a trusted collaborator, it was a natural move for the producer to become their full-time percussionist.
“Connor is so instrumental in Fox Lake’s writing, and he’d [previously] played guitar and drums for us live,” Johnson says. “Brandon has also done multiple tours playing bass with Mugshot. We almost made stickers that said ‘FoxShot’ — it’s definitely a family dynamic between the two bands.”
That camaraderie carries over into New World Heat. “For the Love of the Game” has Mugshot singer Ringo Waterman and guitarist Michael Demko adding ireful guest growls over grotesquely battering, effects-blurred riffage. Meanwhile, Johnson spits fiery takedowns throughout the album. The potent “Savior” targets corrupt politicians and police, as well as the politically complacent. On “Cold Hard Truth,” he delivers a no-mercy warning with fuck-around-and-find-out fury: “You knew the rules/You rolled the dice/No second chance/You pay the price.”
“It can come off as a bravado kind of ‘fuck you’ song,” he admits, “but it’s me embodying the idea of your consequences. ‘I am the cold hard truth.’ You treat your life like a game, but it’s not a joke — you’re not getting off scot-free this time.”
At its core, New World Heat is about “burning down the old world and starting anew in the ashes” — and Fox Lake channel that fire while pushing toward a heavier, faster, contemporary nu-metal sound. But Johnson doesn’t want to be too prescriptive about his message. He hopes fans will extract their own meaning from of the album’s themes.
“It could be about anything: going to the gym more, leaving a toxic relationship,” he suggests. “I hope the aggressiveness of this record leads people [towards] actionable things they can do to make their lives better… All you’ve got to do is light a match and you can have a whole new world in front of you.”