44
Christ this is dull. Dull I tell you! What makes this worse is that Korn actually seem to aim for some sweeter hooks on this record. They end up falling short for a number of reasons though:
1. They all use the same shitty vocal effect that seems to infect every Korn song (you know the one).
1. They all use the same shitty vocal effect that seems to infect every Korn song (you know the one).
2. They just aren't that catchy.
To make matters worse, it's not like the guitar riffs are providing any sense of catchiness either as most of them are just boring and irritatingly simple. The biggest offender in this regard has to be the riff on "Start the Healing", which is infuriatingly half-baked and obnoxiously overmixed, making it virtually migraine inducing. And listen, it's not like I need my Korn album to be extremely poppy or have earworm choruses, but that's clearly what the band is trying to do on a number of these tracks, and they just fall short pretty much every time. And that isn't made up for with a sense of rawness or grittiness either, because, for the most part, the production on "Requiem" is so god damn dry, and Johnathan Davis really sounds like he's phoning in his singing, two negatives that immediately kill any edge or sense of danger. Plus, lyrically, even for Korn standards this is nothing special and, once more, feels soooooooo half-assed.
"Hey you, what are you doing / Laugh as you tear out my heart / The pain is so stimulating / I've been too numb from the start / Why can't I defend? / Tear all these demons apart"
My God, how many cliches can you fit into one verse?
"I cannot simply convey / The things I keep hidden inside"
Correct. You can't.
"The concept of dark and light / One tries to pull me in / One gives me strength to fight"
Muy dark. Big emotion.
"Every night the wish is always the same / Keep on hoping that I don't go insane"
Believe me when I tell you that I predicted the ending to this rhyme the second he said "same".
So yeah. It's bad. In the interest of fairness however, I will dish out some compliments before I run off and find a new record to be a bitter, insufferable asshole over. I know I made a comment regarding how mediocre the hooks on this record are, but the first three songs are all exceptions to this. "Forgotten" especially is a pretty good one. That "bow down" bit is silly, but fun. Can't really complain there. Also, I do kind of enjoy that lumbering riff on the chorus to "Hopeless and Beaten". That's decently heavy. And yeah. That about wraps up the positives I'd say.
Oh but one last tidbit before this review fully ends: the fact that so many of you were celebrating the return of scatting on the final song is just... beyond baffling. How that track is not the lowest rated one on the album has got to be an 8th wonder of the world. That instrumental... those awful "noi noi noi" synth things... dear Lord... I feel like I'm flashing back to 'Nam even talking about it.
8 Comments
JustSomeGuy
1y
The scatting section on the closer was one of the worst parts of the album for me... the rest of the song, though, I actually liked a lot.
1y
Korn scatting is a staple. Insult that you might as well insult the entire damn kingdom!
*doom was later found three weeks later, dead, naked and covered with grape jelly in a cornfield*
*doom was later found three weeks later, dead, naked and covered with grape jelly in a cornfield*
1y
To be more serious, why highlight the less creative lyrics when there is lyrical highlights like Hopeless And Beaten’s Bridge:
“I can't remеmber a thing
You had me strung up by a string
Oh, the things I wish I could convey
A better version, me without disdain
And nothing beats the heartbreak left behind
And nothing soothes the hurting only time“
“I can't remеmber a thing
You had me strung up by a string
Oh, the things I wish I could convey
A better version, me without disdain
And nothing beats the heartbreak left behind
And nothing soothes the hurting only time“
1y
@ImplicitDoom Because the lows are more frequent as well as more extreme. While there are some occasionally okay lyrics, they aren't nearly as good as the bad ones are bad (if that makes sense). In other words, the lows are lower than the highs are high. Even the record's best moments from a songwriting standpoint don't graduate beyond okay, and that includes the lyrics you have commented. There's not really anything on the album that strikes me as evocative or interesting. Are they emotionally honest? Sure. Does that emotional honesty translate into decent lyricism? No.
4w
My music taste has changed quite a bit from then and since I’ve noticed that Korn’s biggest problem is their lyrics so yeah fair
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