Review Summary: A truly focused and motivated experience, Korn have finally succeeded in what they set out to do: Make honest music.
Korn seems to be the epitome of bad feelings. First, they broke ground with two records – a blistering debut and a follow-up, Life Is Peachy – which were essentially centered around bad feelings. They continued this tradition of writing about bad feelings for their next two albums; Follow the Leader and Issues; but now parents and other authorities had bad feelings for them as well. Their next two records, Untouchables and Take a Look in the Mirror, caused bad feelings from the band surrounding internet piracy and low sales, as well as bad feelings from critics regarding staleness. Their final (up to this point) couple of records – See You On the Other Side and an untitled album – caused Korn’s own fans to have bad feelings about the band itself regarding over-production. All of these albums center around messages of pain and bad feelings to some degree, but it seems as though they always cause some other kind of unrelated bad feeling, and these bad feelings tend to stay for two albums. Korn III: Remember Who You Are will not change this tradition. People will still find ways to criticize Korn for this album, and it will cause the same bad feelings but, true to Korn III’s namesake, these feelings are a continuation of Korn’s first two records. That is to say, the focus is again on the hatred in the music, and not about the hatred of how over-produced Korn had become.
The album kicks off with the intro track, “Uber-Time”, which isn’t really an introduction to the album as much as it is to the next track, “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)”. I would go so far as to compare the connection between “Uber-Time” and “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)” to the similar connection shared between the first two tracks from Slipknot’s 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone, ".execute." and "Gematria (The Killing Name)": The tracks are essentially a single track. “Uber-Time” would not survive without “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)” and the latter benefits noticeably from the former. “Uber-Time” instrumentally builds up to the explosion that is “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)”. With this track, it is immediately clear that Korn means business with this record. The song seems to take a “good cop/bad cop” approach, with the emphasis on the chorus; during the verses, everything is tuned down to emphasize Jonathan Davis’ vocals, which are quiet and seemingly calm. However, as the end of a verse approaches, the spirally guitar lick comes out of nowhere and everything escalates: Davis is shouting, Ray Luzier’s drums get loud and crazy, Fieldy Arvizu’s jamming hard on the bass, and Munky Shaffer really starts to come into play. The chaotic bridge is the emotional and energetic highlight of the track, where everything builds up, peaks, and then eventually deteriorates into the end of the song. A flaw with Korn III immediately surfaces here, however: Davis just feels out his parts, and doesn’t process them. As a result, the melodies and lyrics are overly simplistic, and while this isn’t a real problem by any means, it would be nice to see some of the intricate melodies that seemed a primary focus of the 2007 untitled album.
“Pop A Pill” is the next track on the record, and it’s just as blistering as “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)”, if not more so. The track begins with an instrumental intro that leads into Davis’ awe-inspiring shouts of “Well look at this!” It’s on this track – specifically on the chorus – where you really begin to notice Korn III’s great beauty: Korn sounds like a band again. Arvizu's and Luzier’s instruments compliment each other so well through the album, proving them an airtight team capable of supporting Davis’ vocals with ease. It all fits together. The bridge of the song is a change of pace, as Davis picks up a different singing style, and the entire fiasco eventually deteriorates into a quiet, calm version of the chorus. This soon explodes into an aggressive chorus, where Luzier really proves his worth, as his work is absolutely insane on this last chorus, effectively paving the way for the funky “Fear Is a Place to Live”, which is interestingly Davis’ favorite track from the album. The song fades into an instrumental intro, again proving Luzier and Arvizu an airtight team. Davis’ vocals come in and groove to the instruments beautifully, creating an addicting verse that unfortunately doesn’t last long. The chorus breaks in all too soon, and this doesn’t seem to possess the flow of the verses. The bridge eventually kicks in and, in Life Is Peachy style, Davis is chanting.
This is where another one of Korn III’s flaws really comes into view: These breakdowns too often go nowhere. In “Fear Is a Place to Live”, Davis continually chants during the bridge, supported by a steady instrumental backing that, disappointingly, never elevates to anything other than a progression into another chorus, and then the song is over. This problem presents itself frequently throughout the album in tracks such as “Pop a Pill”, “Fear Is a Place to Live”, “Lead the Parade”, “The Past”, and “Are You Ready to Live?”. It’s as if Korn had a great idea, started executing this idea, but didn’t really know how to conclude it, and so backed out into a safer, more reliable chorus. This is discouraging to say the least, as there are some great ideas, but they’re never permitted to grow or evolve.
Another track, “Lead the Parade”, begins with a trippy sound effect intro, quickly complemented by Luzier, and soon elevated into a full-on band pummel, eventually joined once again by Davis’ vocals. The verses are casual to say the most, but another flaw is just around the corner. Davis soon begins shouting, “I need to make a decision, I need to make it right! I need to lead the parade or this *** will ***ing take my life!” At this point, Davis is literally creating harmony from chaos. It works, and it’s an amazing sound, and it’s definitely not a problem in any means except for the one I just said: Davis is creating harmony from chaos. The chaos is the other three members of Korn, and the harmony comes solely from Davis, and you soon begin to realize that Korn III’s main focus is Davis’ part in the band. Again, this is not per se a bad thing, but Shaffer’s guitar, Ray’s drumming, and Arvizu’s bass consistently take a backseat to Davis’ vocals throughout Korn III. It’s simply disappointing to see the rest of Korn downplayed, and although this approach works for Korn III, it would have been nice to hear a little more focus on the others in the group.
Yet another track, “Let the Guilt Go”, breaks the mold a bit with a short drum-and-bass intro, with Davis and Shaffer following shortly. The verse is absolutely amazing, as Davis’ vocal delivery here has to be heard to be believed; I can’t even compare it to anything. It flows extremely well with everything else once again, but it progressively gets more intense, which is exactly what it should do. This leads into Davis’ chants of the song’s title, then transitions into an extremely funky chorus.
One thing “Let the Guilt Go” made me realize was how throwaway Shaffer seems to be on Korn III. His guitar parts seem minimalist to say the most, and they are generally unremarkable when they are present. Where Luzier’s drumming meshes exceptionally with Arvizu’s bass to support Davis’ vocals, Shaffer has nobody supporting him in the mix. He holds his ground for some of the songs, but for most, Davis’ vocals rule the day, supported by the airtight drum/bass team, and this just puts Shaffer’s guitar work to shame at times. I’m no guitar expert, so don’t take my opinion as gospel (I don’t want to put down Shaffer’s otherwise great work), but he’s obviously at the bottom of this mix importance-wise. Anyways, “Let the Guilt Go” eventually progresses from a breakdown of, “Now we waste our lives away, letting guilt lead the way!” into a chant of, “I’m constantly thinking, thinking, thinking,” which repeats itself, but continually grows more intense. The difference here is that this chant knows what to do with itself and progresses very beautifully and appropriately into another breakdown of the “Now we waste our lives away” bit, and then into the chorus and conclusion; a very good song.
“The Past” is a very interesting track in that it is one of two potential “bad eggs” on Korn III. It’s got a very good-yet-boring minute-and-a-quarter instrumental intro, which leads into somewhat minimalist instrumental work, backed by very plain and unemotional vocals. This all evolves into a much more progressive and great chorus, but these are few and far in between. The bridge suffers from the same problem; it has Davis chant “run away, go away” (One of the only segments of the album where he isn’t in the forefront) with, again, minimalist instrumental work: There’s essentially nothing going on here. An in-studio laugh leads this into some different progressive instrumentals that never seem to be able to break out of the box in which they’re contained; that is, they are dull. And I just hinted at another flaw on the album.
Between most songs, or every so often during a song, you’ll hear some "in-studio" noises. These existed in Korn’s debut, as well as that album’s follow-up, so they’re proven effective with in moderation. However, Korn III overuses them. Between almost every song, you’ll hear the recording session ending or beginning. I will admit, it’s cool at first, but by the tenth listen, I had wished they had trimmed the edges; there’s usually a good five to ten seconds of this extra commentary, and sometimes more, and it takes away from Korn III’s edge with successive listens. It grows tiresome to have to push the skip button on your iPod to skip the commentary and just get to the next song, but at the same time, you don’t want to listen to Shaffer going “Haha that was the *** man!” six hundred times, as it adds no listening value to the recordings. I’m not saying Korn III should be completely rid of these, as they are sometimes effective, but the album should minimize their use a bit.
“Never Around”, on the other hand, is largely devoid of these sounds, and is a contender for the album’s best track. It begins with some heavy volleys of Shaffer’s riffs, and solid work from Luzier and Arvizu, but soon collapses into a quieter, more emphasized sound. This brings out the emotion in Davis’ vocals, and soon enough the instruments are back in full force to further support him, and it gets really intense. The bridge is the best on the album yet, as this one truly knows what to do with itself. Davis has a borderline maniacal laugh that dominates the bridge, transforms into a falsetto version of the first verse, and then into a chorus. I won’t go into any more detail regarding this song, because it truly should be heard before I give any impressions.
“Are You Ready to Live?” is Korn III’s other potential “bad egg”. The song begins with a riff from Shaffer, and soon explodes into motion with great work from all three instruments, but the song again takes a “good cop/bad cop” approach, but to a more ill effect than “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)” in that this is simply monotonous. The verses are almost silent, save for Davis’ whisper-like vocals, and the chorus is a throwaway shout of “My mind plays tricks on me, I can’t control it, you see!” It’s an OK chorus, but the verses really hamper its effect, and then we get to the bridge, during which Davis sings falsetto and the instruments tune down. It really builds intensity to a great climax, but the sound effects that are added to the chorus after this bridge are just bizarre, and again, work against the good parts of the song. It’s virtually the same chorus, just with odd, computer-generated sound effects I simply cannot describe, but are much too prominent and pointless for my tastes, as they are almost distracting once you notice their presence. The song soon closes in a version of the bridge that simply does not move, because Korn chose to take the basic idea of the bridge, but eliminate all progression and build-up that made that section work so well before. To be frank, the ending is boring; it's a chore to listen to, and after the final chorus is over, I often found myself skipping the last thirty or forty-five seconds of the song.
“Are You Ready to Live?” really spearheads another problem with Korn III, though: Some of the songs don’t really seem to be saying anything. Davis effectively formulates these lyrics on the fly, and does as little to them as he can during the writing process so that they stay as basic and human as possible, but sometimes you wonder what the song is trying to say. “My mind plays tricks on me, it's unbelievable to see” illustrates what Davis is trying to say effectively but some of the songs are just random phrases like this glued together. Individually, and sometimes paired, they function, but as a whole, some songs don’t cohesively say much. It’s troubling, but just another small flaw, because what is offered does work, I would just like to see a little more work put into it.
Now we find ourselves at the final track of Korn III: “Holding All These Lies”. This song truly breaks the mold for Korn. The verses are really racy, which seems different for Korn, whose motto is something along the lines of "Play low and play slow". It's a nice change of pace, adding an unusually addictive intensity to the song that the chorus capitalizes on: What the chorus lacks in raciness, it makes up for in sheer intensity. Davis sings all of his lines exquisitely throughout (his best performance on the album), but what's truly intriguing is the transformation his part of the song makes. He starts out almost shakily, yet determined. This very quickly transforms into a whimpering of sorts, but this doesn't remain either. Instead, Davis picks up a sobbing rage that's truly stirring to witness. By the end of this song, Davis is truly freaking out, sobbing and in tears; that’s how into it he gets. It’s a beautiful finish to an album that’s more about working together than promoting the hits, like too many albums are today.
And thus, Korn III: Remember Who You Are is the ultimate embodiment of who Korn is. There are a few missteps on the record, but these are mostly nothing more than opinions: Davis’ prominence, Shaffer’s downsizing, sometimes boring breakdowns, and other things. In the end, however, the bottom line is that Korn III has no glaring flaws. Each member of Korn delivers their part with absolutely admirable drive and it’s a mix that simply works. The choice to return to Korn’s roots was an inspired one, and it made for a great album that came just at the right time. Ultimately, Korn III will change nothing: The fans will drool all over it with over-affectionate love, the haters will hate it with unmotivated bias, but the album truly illustrates that Korn doesn’t care about any of this; they will continue to write classic records despite what anyone thinks they should write; they will continue to please themselves.
