Korn - Korn Review - sputnikmusic

Korn Korn

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Tracklist:
1. Blind
2. Ball Tongue
3. Need To
4. Clown
5. Divine
6. Faget
7. Shoots and Ladders
8. Predictable
9. Fake
10. Lies
11. Helmet in the Bush
12. Daddy

Ranking: #65 for 1994

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3.7
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3.5
great

Neoteric EMERITUS (104 Reviews)

2006-02-17 | 37 comments | 3,229 views

Picture yourself in 1994, you were shocked of Kurt Cobain's death and the whole grunge scene was dying. You didn't have any music you could talk about to your friends in the playground. One day, you are sitting in front of the TV listening to MTV. You have your cola in one side and your chips and dip in the other. A random music video starts playing. Some long-haired dudes with track-suits and chunky guitars are in front of you. "What the hell is this?" you say. Suddenly the front-man scrunches up his face and growls, "ARE YOU READY!?!?" You sit there with your mouth opened. "This is da shiznay man, hell yeah!" Next day you buy the album, every track relates to all your problems. You've finally found the next new thing, nu-metal, well done!

Now, I would not say Korn were the most talented bunch, their music is simple. They also are not that great at writing songs but what they base their music on is Jonathan Davis's emotions and anger. Every song has some kind of meaning behind it about Jon's life. Jon can't even sing to save himself but his whiny singing and his angry shouts and screams can portray what he has to say perfectly. The band isn't that special either though they were original back in the day. The grunge scene was power-chord infested heavy punk so they weren't expecting this. Whether it was the low 7-string duo Munky and Head (I'm pretty sure they were one of the first mainstream band to have that kind of power behind them) or the popping and slapping of Fieldy's bass or even the fast flow of David's drums.

The band works well together though individually they don't stand a chance of being respectable musicians. Munky and Head simply play power-chords though they are quite heavy with a de-tuned 7-stringer. Fieldy is sometimes described as a low point of the band since his popping bass can sometimes be irritating. I think it flows with the drums, you'll see what I mean if you've heard the songs. David is though a high point of the band thinking up original beats and rhythms and is sometimes quite fast and crazy (Faget is a great example of this)

Korn's low point seems to be thinking up different ideas for each song since most of the songs have the same basics. They all have the whiny and angry vocals of Jon, the low distorted chunky riffs from Munky and Head, the popping bass and the fast slow drums. I can only think up one song that is entirely different and that is "Helmet in the Bush" which is more synthesiser oriented than heavy chunky riffs and is actually a breath of fresh air after all the heavy distortion. One other thing that annoys me is that David�s drums are a bit low in the mix for me considering he's the most talented in the band. David thinks up all these beats just to get them drowned out by the bass and guitar. The bass especially since it's never David on his own during the interludes, Fieldy always has to follow him drowning him out. It's a waste of what are good drum parts.

The songs lyrics aren't that good from a writer's point of view. Rather than hiding the lyrics under metaphors with hidden meanings, he just comes out and says it. The lyrics are usually about Jon's personal experiences. Including his speed addiction from teenage years (Blind, Helmet in the Bush) and Jon getting taunted in the playground with homosexual insults (Faget, Clown) it also has one of his most emotional songs on this. The song Daddy gives you some horrid imagery. The song is when Jon felt he was raped by his neighbour and when he told his mother she didn't believe him. Jon's childhood takes place in a lot of Korn's songs in general like "Kill You" on Life Is Peachy where Jon's step-mother was simply put it, a bitch.

The songs on these all set a certain atmosphere. "Faget" is probably the strongest track on here. The lyrics are one about Jon's bullying trauma in high school, though you guys would think, "boo-hoo!" He is still a master at anger. The song shows the best drumming on the album. It's also quite fast yet the song isn't fast at all. it is a really angry song with lyrics such as "To a world that never appreciated shit, YOU CAN SUCK MY DICK AND ***ING LIKE IT!!!" "Fake" is also up for a mention as a pretty underrated track. The intro is heavy but the verse is really chilling yet creepy. Jon has some weird singing in the verses but it's a great track. It is a sort of grower track as I couldn't get into the song first time I listened to it. Korn have changed since this album though. Life Is Peachy still contains the anger but it's less raw and there is a lot more going on. After Life is Peachy, Korn turned into every other nu-metal band that was influenced by them. They had lost that originality that they once had and it was pretty much the only reason they got all that attention back in 1994. Nevertheless, this will still stay as a nu-metal classic and its influence.

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