Review Summary: This is not just a review, this is a tribute to KoRn.
KoRn, at the peak of their prime, could be easily compared to the likes of Kiss, Black Sabbath, Metallica and Guano Apes. Say what you will about these corny guys (pun intended), but they always delivered. The ADIDAS sponsored metalheads grabbed music industry by the balls and never let go. They sucked the sh!t out of mediocrity and showed the world what it means to suck it. They were not just ground breaking but pioneers of the new movement that forever changed 90's and the world as we knew it, nümetal.
They had millions of fans and if Facebook existed back then, KoRn would have nearly 73% of the FB population as their friends. The popularity was huge and rightfully so, they were the voice of our generation (not self-proclaimed like Kanye West, but the real ones).
They did what was unheard of before: mixed the rap and metal. Actually, perhaps rap isn't the best way to describe their sound because Jonathan Davis doesn't actually rap, per se, but their vibe is kind of… well I really don't know how to explain why KoRn and rap are ever mentioned in the same sentence, but I think it has something to do with the vibe. So, that new "vibe" was, well, new. And fresh and clean.
Sure, the years passed and KoRn were shedding skin, literally speaking. They lost two very important members, David the drummer and Head the guitarist. While it is not officially known what happen to the drummer, we know that God got Head. He reached his divine arms and grabbed head by Head, thus opening his eyes and made him write a song about puking (true story, I'm not being "silly" or "mad" because Head left KoRn, this is an actual course of events).
These kinds of unholy events, as Batman would said it best, "rattled the cages". KoRn started losing fans to maturity, trends and family life, changing them into something evil. Into something that started to criticize KoRn as being "immature" and "lame". These critics completely forgot that once when they were just little rascals, they sang along with JD (Jonathan Davis, a.k.a. HIV) such memorable lyrics as:
"You've raped!
I feel dirty
It hurt!
As a child
Tied down!
That's a good boy
And f@cked!"
And, of course, "I'm just a pretty boy, I'm not supposed to f@ck a girl" and " Deeper!.. Deeper!.. Deeper inside me!".
Oh boy, did we sang! We had memorized each and every single lyrics, making everyone kind of a walking azlyrics.com specialized for KoRn discography.
Those were the best of times.
KoRn released a few classic albums afterwards, where "Follow the Leader" and "Issues" stand out. Corey Taylor (#8, singer of that grindcore band, Slipknot) even stated, that he liked "Issues" and expressed his dislike for the third album ("Follow the leader") as being "too commercial", which is still debatable to this date. Is FREAK ON A LEASH a masterpiece or just a MONEYpiece, I hope you get my pun.
After their sixth album, "Take a look in the mirror", they had a few bad ones and just one pretty solid ("Greatest Hits, Volume 1"). We, the fans, had given up that KoRn will ever deliver another album as good as their ST (self-titled) was, even though they promised that each album they were making is going to sound like ST, but it never really did. I think they were just saying that so that we would buy it, but I don't think they're that mean.
Anyways, it passed almost a decade before KoRn truly returned to their roots (ironically with a new drummer and without a second guitar; KoRn were always recognizable for their dual guitar expertise). Their latest effort, which is about a year old, is semantically a multi-layered play on words, entitled "Korn III: Remember who you are".
The title suggest that they remembered who they are (KoRn) and is ALSO encouraging us to remember who WE are (namely, the fans).
First single off the new album is entitled "Oildale (Leave Me Alone)". I had to actually Google Oildale because it sounded like that thing that JD is known for, scatting and gibbersih-ing. But it's actually a name of some town or whatever, I deducted that JD lives there and people are not letting him alone, thus making him write a song about it.
Jonathan sure as hell doesn't like to beat around the bush when it comes to unleashing his anger pretty straight forwardly. He is challenging the listener to "leave him alone", as the title already suggested. Actually it might be a question, because he begins with an "why" yet we all know that JD is an experienced writer, so that's probably a rhetorical question. As in, "why don't you just leave me alone, but don’t answer it, because I don't really want to know, I'm actually asking you to leave me alone in a form of a question".
When the question is asked, he continues, "My heart's gonna break from the fall." Which kind of challenges the listener to at least wonder "where does he stand?" because he doesn't make it apparent. He might was well be standing at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, which is like a McDonalds for suicidal people, because GGB (Golden Gate Bridge) is known by this fact (copied from Wikipedia): "More people commit suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge than at any other site in the world". Which is soooo JD, since he did flirt with suicide a several times in his songs throughout their discography. Actually, this is just a thought, GOLD COBRA (KoRn's brotherly band, Limp Bizkit) could be a reference to the GGB, since cobra can kill you to death, much like suicide.
Back to the KoRn's single: It is apparent that KoRn are growing and taking influences in bands, such as Isis, Cult of Luna and Neurosis, perhaps a bit of God is an astronaut, too. It is evident in the outro of the Oildale, how they all escalate and building the climax to the best ear-gasm ever. Lyrically the escalation is clearly visible:
" Leave me alone!
Leave me alone!
Leave me alone!
Leave me the *** alone!"
JD builds the tension, much like Isis in all of their songs, but escalating his anger to a violent "leave me the *** alone!" which is not even a question anymore. In the chorus, he had still that shred of decency to ask us kindly to leave him alone, whereas in the outro he demands it, violently.
Indeed, an instant classic, but Oildale is just an intro. It's hard to imagine that KoRn could keep this kind of quality throughout the whole album. I was wondering why start an album with such a strong song that it can only get downwards from there, but it actually doesn't. It feels like the whole album sounds like that one song, which is exactly what we love about KoRn. Not afraid to not-experiment in this society and music industry where it's always about "experimental" and "indie" and "rediscovering the sound". No, KoRn plays numetal, always had, always will. They will never compromise this, like some bands that just forget their roots (Papa Roach, Deftones, Oasis and Queen).
A controversial song "Are You Ready To Live?" starts with a heavy, grungy, metalish riff that will grab you by the head and just won't let go. Until the verse, where the guitars are a bit of faded so that the JD can start singing. I think his throat or voice rather is damaged, that's why they always have the verses not as loud as choruses so that the JD can let it all go out in the chorus. I don't know, it's just my opinion, but worth checking out.
JD gets into a kind of schizophrenic mode in this particular song, where he asks himself a question and answers it at the same time ("Am I wasting my time? (No I'm not!) ") but I think it's healthy for him. It does him good to let the anger and emotions out the way he does it, perhaps Michael Jackson should do that too and wouldn't have to take as many pills as he did and he could still be alive. Speaking of Michael Jackson, the rape anthem "Daddy" out of KoRn's self titled spectacle had really much raw emotions, but this is pretty good, too. Not as much as he singing about rape, but still there. A runner up for sure.
As if you didn't expect this already, but Jonathan is growing as a writer, too. In several songs he gives us a bone to pick, like for example in "Lead the parade" he states: "Or this sh!t will f#cking take my life". We immediately start to ask ourselves "is he in real danger?" or "what is this sh!t?" etc. The answer is, however, not given. We have to look deep inside ourselves to find this "sh!t" Davis is so vulgarly talking about.
JD also did a lot of thinking about life in general. And I mean A LOT. A good example is in the song entitled "Move on", where Davis figures out that he is alive ("I realize I am alive"). In "The Past" he figures out that "Life is a connection Separate from the brain" which at first doesn't make much sense, but if you really take the time to let it sink in, you do realize that life IS indeed a connection, that is separate from the brain.
He also changed his trademarked teenage angst (which so many haters pick on) for a whole new level of angst, namely the LIFE. In "Never Around" he is no more that little boy who cried in the pillow because his schoolmates hated him for enjoying The Cure, but he is a grown man, dealing with troubles of love ("The prying / The cheating / The hellish nights alone / While I am weeping").
The album ends like it should. "Holding All These Lies" reminded me of the outro song to their ST stuff (Daddy) because Jonathan does this little thing that is reminding me to weeping on the Daddy, it just lasts for like 3 seconds. But if you listen to it closely, he is about to break down in tears, just like in Daddy. The song isn't as long as Daddy was, but it's just as hard and it literally rapes your ears. It does, however, get a bit experimental and features a semi-solo, which is always good, except if you're Slipknot. At the end Jonathan SCREAMS violently (like "AHH!") and weeps or something. I don't want to repeat myself but this is just like Daddy!
Before the scream, he kind of address us, the fans, by saying "I never meant to hurt you" which is an obvious reference to their last two albums which were not as good as this and he hurt us by saying it's going to sound like their self titled effort, but it did not. With this album, however, he deserved our forgiveness.
KoRn's "Korn III - Remember Who You Are" truly changed the 2010 and climbed to the tops of the charts and even more importantly, they found their way back in our hearts. A truly masterpiece, from the song 1 aaaaall the way to the song 10 is without a doubt an unforgettable experience. All I can say is that I TRULY hope, that Limp Bizkit's GOLD COBRA will do to 2011 what KoRn did to 2010.
