Metal Anarchy

Back in 2000, Mephisto Odyssey joined forces with the late Wayne Static (Static-X) for “Crash,” a single from the “Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker” soundtrack. However, it appears Static-X’s current vocalist and manager, Edsel Dope tried to block the recent “Falling Star” remix of the song.

Mephisto Odyssey said the following about the remix when it was released:

“This is Mephisto Odyssey’s CRASH: Reborn (Falling Star Edition), the completely reimagined version of CRASH, (featuring Wayne Static of Static-X), written by Mephisto Odyssey founder Mikael Johnston, with additional production and guitar by legendary guitarist Brad Gillis (Ozzy Osbourne, Night Ranger).

The original version of the song was written by Mikael Johnston with help from friends Michael Julien Morris of Faith No Man (which later became Faith No More) and Wayne Wells (aka Wayne Static founder of the industrial metal band Static X), with additional production by Static X guitarist Koichi Fukuda and Orpheos DeJournette of Mephisto Odyssey. The song was slated for release on Mephisto Odyssey’s forthcoming album on Warner Bros. Records “The Deep Red Connection“.

In 2000, the label approached Mikael Johnston about also using Crash for the soundtrack of the animated feature film Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker, starring Mark Hamill as the Joker and Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne / Batman.

Mikael agreed and a music video, directed by Len Wiseman, was shot featuring the then-current lineup of Mephisto Odyssey (Mikael Johnston, Orpheos DeJournette, Barrie Eves and Josh Camacho, as well as Wayne Static and Static-X guitarist Koichi Fukuda.

However, both Mikael and Wayne felt that the original mix didn’t fully capture the song’s energy and that the video was too focused on promoting the animated feature rather than the music itself. Talks of a remix and a re-edit of the video began, but for years, various demos and ideas remained unfinished.

Finally, in 2023—9 years after Wayne’s passing—Mikael revisited the original demos. He first rerecorded and produced the original version of the song from the ground up, mixed it and had it mastered by Maor Appelbaum. The video was also re-edited in 4K using the original 35mm prints, which had been dormant in the Warner Vaults for 25 years.

These film canisters contained never-before-seen footage, inspiring Mikael to completely reimagine a new version of CRASH from the ground up, using what has been dubbed the “lost track” demo as inspiration for both the song and the darker theme of the video which contained additional footage shot and edited by director William Instone; now known as the “Falling Star Remix” and starring actress Mandy Rachael Perez as the female joker; an idea by Johnston and Instone to create a female version of the joker inspired by Arthur Fleck.

A demo of this new version was played for longtime friend Brad Gillis, who loved the direction and contributed guitars throughout the track as well as re-shaping the bridge in a more melodic direction to help break up the tension of the harsher more industrial verses and Chorus that were heavily influenced by artists like Marilyn Manson, Ministry, The Prodigy, and Rammstein.

Both the re-recording and production of the new mix and master of the original version and the newly reimagined/rewritten “Falling Star” version of Crash will be released as an anniversary single under the title “CRASH Reborn” for streaming in 2025/2026; starting with the Falling Star Edition on December 31, 2025 to make the 25th Anniversary of the original song..

NO AI was used in the making of this music or video!!!”

Mikael Johnston has since reflected on the release, while calling out Edsel for trying to stop it:

“Hi, I’m Mikael Johnston. I’m the producer and co-writer of the song ‘Crash‘ alongside my friend the late, great Wayne Static of Static-X. And I want to talk to you a little bit about the single. Some of you guys are new to it since it hit YouTube, and some of you remember it from when it came out in 2000 and was in ‘Batman Beyond‘ and on MTV X and on the radio, etc, etc.

What you might not know is that Wayne and I had always talked about redoing the mix and the edit of the video, because we felt the mix wasn’t quite right and the video was a little bit too movie-centric and needed to be more focused on the band. But we didn’t get around to it, because unfortunately, Wayne passed away.

In 2023 I ended up taking that project on, and with the full support of Warner and Rhino, we made two versions of the song: a new mix of the original, plus a remake from the ground up, and two different versions of the video using footage from the original 35 millimeter film shot by Len Wiseman.

However, even though the label was ecstatic about how good the quality was, and they loved the product, right before we were setting our release date, an executive from the label came to me and told me that Static-X‘s management was not happy about the release.

That really surprised me, given my relationship with the band. But I was reminded that it was Static-X management, which is Edsel Dope. He is the singer and he is the manager of the band now, and he didn’t want it out for whatever his reasons were. I could only hypothesize maybe he felt that new Wayne material coming out at that time would interfere with what he was doing. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter, because he didn’t have the right to do it.

It was a Mephisto Odyssey song, not a Static-X song. And what he did was incredibly selfish. It hurt me, it hurt my wife, it hurt my children. It hurt the fans, and it hurt Wayne Static and his legacy. He really should be ashamed of what he did — I know he’s not, but he should be. I’m very disappointed. I don’t hold grudges, and I hope we can move past this.

Fortunately, as you all know, it came out to great success over 1.3 million views on the remake, and it’s all because of you guys. I love you guys. The comments and the love that’s been coming [have been] incredible. We’re going to be doing more until then, have a great night and we will talk soon.”

[via The PRP]