Issues

KOЯN | CHAPTER FOUR

Remember in my Follow The Leader review when I said that Korn will need to reinvent themselves and put out a more experimental album if they still want to be a good band? Well, I feel that this is that album. I don’t know what it was, maybe it was a creative spark amongst band members or maybe the new producer pushed them out of their box, but this album is very unique to their discography.

Firstly, I think Jonathan’s vocals have matured very well, as he grew older. And while I love 24 year old Jon from the Debut and Peachy era, It’s really great to hear him pull out falsettos once in awhile and you can tell he’s really learned to sing over the years. Hell, they even acknowledge this in interviews for this album.

Speaking of interviews, in an interview they did to promote the album, Jonathan Davis said something along the lines of, “We heard that a lot of people were trying to impersonate us so we feel we had to evolve our sound a step.” And that’s exactly what I feel they did. This album is a lot different than their other records because of how much they experiment with the Korn sound like having little spacey atmospheric interludes that bridge each track, which helps the album flow insanely well I might add, or electronics that feel tastefully added (unlike acts like CrazyTown that would come after). Hell they even experiment with other genres, with some interludes having a Bowie art rock vibe (4U, It’s Gonna Go Away) or some tracks having Trip Hop drums (Trash, Make Me Bad). This is probably my favorite part of the record in the fact that it’s so much more interesting than trying to recreate the already great debut album like the previous two tried, even though I feel like Follow The Leader set the path for this record. The experimentation with vocal effects is a cool touch as it makes some songs have a unique atmosphere.

While I feel Korn has gotten a little blunt with their lyricism (even still on parts of this record) I truly think there’s some very interesting writing on certain songs like Wake Up which seems to be Jonathan writing to his bandmates on the chorus, telling them to stop as they are brothers in arms, or Trash which is apparently about Jonathan being with someone who stuck with him even while he cheated and made her feel like trash. There’s definitely still things to write about besides pain on here, and even if that’s still a main topic, I feel like it’s written pretty well. Along with Jonathan and his writing, the bandmates are still very sharp on this record, offering very solid performances all around. Fieldy also shows he can do more styles than just the signature stringy mangled bass sound, and the guitars are as great as ever, them even doing some slower playing on here, or more varied guitar styles which is very welcome. And the drums are great and varied as well with, like I said, a more trip hop style on some songs.

But overall, this is their most creative, well-flowing, fun, dark, noisy and experimental album since 94’s Korn, and even though the singles are probably the weakest songs, they still are great.

Favorite Tracks: All

Okay Tracks: None

Least Favorite Tracks: None

(100 - 95

Very consistent. Gets rid of all the joke tracks and filler. While they shed the features and a majority of the rap elements, which I think is for the best, they do add a lot of Industrial, Art Rock and even Trip Hop flavors and tinges to the mix tastefully. A clear evolution and variation from their increasingly stale formula).