Review Summary: Instead of taking a step forward, KoRn takes three steps back with this 60 minute, waste of my time and money album.
You know, I've spent so much time bashing Untouchables that I didn't even listen to the album in the first place. I just got it today, and I must say: I was definitely NOT impressed. Instead of taking a step forward, KoRn takes three steps back with this 60 minute waste of my time album. This album was released in 2002, some time after Jon produced the soundtrack and score to the movie, "Queen of the Damned". When I heard this album, I thought a part of me had died inside after it ended. I have been a HUGE KoRn fanboy for at least the past 2 or 3 months, and it's really depressing to see one of my favorite bands make such a terrible album.
The lack of originality is overwhelming, as KoRn basically recycles riffs from songs they've already done. Let's use "Blame" as an example here. The intro to Blame is exactly the same as the album opener, "Here To Stay". The main riffs in "Bottled Up Inside" sound too familiar to the riffs used in "Trash" from Issues, only with different tab patterns and a different note used that is spread out throughout the whole entire album, and that would be the nearly toneless A. There are barely any different drumming patterns in this album, as they all consist of simply hitting the cymbals rather than actually hitting drums, making the drumming the most laid back that it has EVER been when it comes to KoRn. You know, I really do agree with a reviewer that stated KoRn has so much talent that they don't use to their advantage, and I will GLADLY stand by that statement.
To add more to the problems of this album, the same formula of the constant playing of the toneless A note from Munky and Head, the simplified drumming, and Jon's insanity driven vocals that only work in a handful of songs is used in all of the tracks in Untouchables, as previously quoted by the reviewer that gave this album a 3.5. You know what was another problem? That KoRn rushed Issues and made a decent album, while it took them three years to release Untouchables and it basically did the opposite of what you would usually want to see a band do, and that's to take their time to make a good album rather than rush an album that's only a major disappointment, and that's what pisses me off about KoRn when it comes to Untouchables.
There are also songs that I wanted to shoot myself with after hearing, but one that just stands out in the level of uber-suckage would have to be "Beat It Upright". When I hear that song, it just pisses me off, because here you have Jon in Untouchables trying to be a tough guy when you compare that to the vulnerability that Jon perfectly showed on "Daddy", the closer to their self-titled masterpiece. I don't believe anything he says about being a sexist(misygonistic or whatever it was) or that he likes to hunt. Really, just like anyone else, I think that Jon is actually a nice guy inside, and "Beat It Upright" just pisses me off so much that I would just want to punch anyone wearing a KoRn t-shirt. "Wake Up Hate" just pisses me off even more. I mean, sure it might use the new industrial sound that KoRn has recently been starting to use presently, but the lyrics are just to be scoffed at.
But at least there are some decent tracks that I can stand taking a listen to, such as "Make Believe", "Hollow Life", "Thoughtless", and "One More Time". Hollow Life and Make Believe have some of the strongest singing I have heard from Jon(with the stronger singing being in Make Believe), and it's actually refreshing to hear a different vocal style used by Jon when it comes to those two songs. One More Time uses the same styles as most of Untouchables, but does it in more of a heartfelt way instead of using the same teenage angst over annoying riffs. "Thoughtless" is just a great song in this reviewer's opinion. It's about the same stuff as any other song that KoRn has done, but I just think of it as a great song, except for the part where Jon starts rambling on the bridge while yelling "Gonna take you down!" I also give this song extra marks for the creepy intro to this song, followed by a huge riff exploding to dive straight into the song.
My final thoughts about Untouchables is that it is an album that you might wanna give a miss to, but if you wanna give it a try, then go ahead, but it's safe to say that you probably shouldn't expect anything spectacular about this album with a good summarization of this album in this reviewer's mind, as previously quoted by another reviewer(wow I'm using a lot of quotes, aren't I?), as nothing but a "cacophony of teenage angst over annoying riffs", with the exception of Make Believe and Hollow Life. This album gets a 2 instead of a 1.5 because some songs aren't that bad, but the whole album is just nothing but shitty shit shit.
