Ah yes. Korn's first greatest hits album. This compilation covers all of Korn's "Hits", starting from the most recent singles at the time to the oldest, spanning from 1994's self titled masterpiece all the way to 2003's Take A Look In The Mirror. Now, though it may be Korn's greatest, it's not that great when you look through the track selections. I'll touch on this later on in this review, but for now, I'd like to spend some time on the band's overall sound, the "new songs", and much more.
Compilations are special to grade, in my opinion. It really doesn't have one certain flow/sound, and you already know what you think about the songs instantly that are on the compilation. There are some factors, at least in my opinion, that decide what compilations are good and what compliations are ones that you should trash if you are looking to buy or download. For example, the band's overall ability. Before I go on to talk about the band's skill, I would like to say that I'm going to leave Fieldy out, because of the fact that there really isn't anything "interesting" about bass, plus it's a little nitpicky to dedicate one entire paragraph to his bass, wouldn't you think? But I will make a mention that I liked how his bass was dominant in Issues, yet it was annoying to hear his bass clanking in Take A Look In The Mirror. It might seem like I'm contradicting a statement in my Take A Look In The Mirror review by stating this, but it rarely gets on my nerves as bad as everything else would. I'm getting off subject, so I'll end these previous statements here.
Now then, the ability is mixed here, specifically with Jon's vocals sounding different each time. You have the sweet vulnerability from what could easily be said as Korn's best two albums, this being the self titled album and sophomore effort Life Is Peachy. You have the visceral power of Follow The Leader. You have the "harmonial tones" of Issues. And then you have the annoyingly weak vocals that could be described as a second rate mentally unstable overtone, such as in Untouchables and Take A Look In The Mirror. To sum up Davis's lyrics, they're stronger in the first two albums, the third album was laughable, and the rest dealt with the same poor lyric structures, as Jon would majorly contradict the lyrics over and over again, and still deal with issues of teenage angst and self-abandon. But why talk about Jon's vocals and lyrics? Because I said the band's OVERALL ability, but more importantly because Jonathan Davis is considered as one of the driving forces behind Korn's earlier success after the Nirvana era. It might seem nitpicky to talk about singing and lyrics, but I'd rather grade a band based on their technical ability as a whole, and just what exactly each member brings to the table, separate or together.
Then we have guitarists James "Munky" Shaffer and Brian "Head" Welch. These guys aren't that bad, despite these two only repeating the same riffs over and over again, and rarely giving a guitar solo. The thing about Munky and Head that makes them, in a sense, "good guitarists", could be the fact of the soft guitar intros, notably Blind from the self titled album and Take A Look In The Mirror singles Right Now and Did My Time. But that's not too important. The main thing that makes them interesting, at least in my opinion, is their ability to provide a rhythmic assault that you can bob your head to. This case can nearly all albums presented on here, however, when you throw the riffing contained in Untouchables and Take A Look In The Mirror into play, what happens is that this ability to provide rhythm is overshadowed by the annoying instrumentation. Every song presented in this compilation that came from Untouchables is the same one string riff tuned to a toneless A, with exception to the soft riffing in Alone I Break. A little side note I need to make about Alone I Break real quick that seemed interesting: the custom made 14 string guitars used by Munky and Head. The songs from Take A Look aren't the same way in terms of riffing, but now the rhythm has been thrown out the window
Now we have drummer David Silveria. Like Jonathan, David Silveria could theoretically one of the driving forces behind Korn's early success. Interestingly enough, it's entertaining to hear a drummer contribute hip-hop drumming while the guitarists provide a heavy rhythmic assault to fuse into one unique sound that mixes well together. David's drumming would do just that in the first three Korn albums, however, it gets boring and uninspired in Issues, Untouchables, and Take A Look. Issues still shows some promise, but the decreasing drumming ability was evident. If it wasn't evident in Issues, it stood out in Untouchables. David's drumming in Untouchables was lazier than ever, with a simplified cymbal assault rather than some good old skin pounding. And what's his excuse? Apparently, he said he stopped bashing away at the skins because "he hit them too hard". That's bush league to me. SUCK IT UP AND BE A MAN!!! Take A Look still continued this simplified drumming, but it now became more annoying than ever, with the production on David's drumming sounding like a poor attempt at an '80s metal revival.
So that should give you some idea of the band's skill, if any at all. Let's go into the covers now. In my opinion, Korn's covers are good, in a sense. Why? Well, you have Korn trying something new and straying away from your average angsty song with the traditional bridge, but it works like a double edged sword in this compilation. It can work for the better with the funky Cameo cover of Word Up!, staying true to the original sound of the song, but making it their own, keeping the listener interested. But then you have the Pink Floyd cover of all three parts to Another Brick In The Wall. This really isn't a good cover, in my opinion, because Korn isn't one of the bands that can pull off making a good ten minute song. Not a good decision for Korn, seeing as Korn is one of the few bands that can give good four minute pop-metal songs, but never should they attempt a ten minute Pink Floyd cover.
Now we finally arrive at the tracks presented on Korn's first greatest hits. It's safe to say that the best songs on this compilation are the songs from the first two albums, the Follow the Leader singles, Issues' Falling Away From Me and Make Me Bad, and TALITM singles Y'all Want A Single and Did My Time. I could describe all of these songs, but instead, I'll describe what is the "cream of the crop", in my opinion. Blind contains a chilling guitar intro, building up into Jon belting out "ARE YOU READY?!?!?!?!", followed by what could be considered as a bomb dropping, going straight into a heavy assault of rhythmic riffing and skin bashing all around. Then we have Korn's "nursery rhymes", otherwise known as Shoots and Ladders. This has Jon reciting well known nursery rhymes, such as "Ring Around The Rosey", "This Old Man", and "London Bridge Is Falling Down", creepily spitting out the lyrics in such a way that will catch you right off of your guard, and maybe even make you hit pause before continuing onward at the end.
Y'all Want A Single is one of Korn's catchiest and more popular songs, with Jon saying *** nearly 100 times in the entire song. Y'all Want A Single summarizes what rappers who only want to be famous might be thinking during this time period, at least, in this reviewer's opinion. Did My Time is similar to Blind in terms of a soft guitar intro, but this song actually has some of Jon's stronger singing and is one of Korn's few solid songs in the 2000s that Korn would have killed to have on their recent albums, especially with the lack of success they've had since the turn of the millenium. Did My Time overall is a better song from Take A Look, and rightfully so, straying away from the annoying riffing, bass clanking, simplified drumming, and constantly annoying screaming. A.D.I.D.A.S. might seem like another sex song from a metal band, but compared to horribly bad songs coming from the same artists who talk about nothing but sex over and over again(*Points to R. Kelly*), A.D.I.D.A.S. is actually more fun and playful compared to many of the modern sex songs of this day and age. I also give A.D.I.D.A.S. extra marks for the infectious guitar intro.
While Korn has their best on this compliation, they still manage to do the following three things: exclude some of the better singles from the compilations(Such as Faget and Good God), place some of their worst songs in place of the better ones(Here To Stay, Right Now, Somebody Someone, Trash), and even place songs that make the listener say, "Why?"(Twist, FOAL remix). Faget and Good God were some of the more entertaining singles of Korn's career, and it's quite perplexing to me that Korn would choose to exclude these singles from this greatest hits album. The bad songs that are "good" instead take their place.
For example, Grammy winner Here To Stay. I don't see what exactly would make the judges at the Grammies give Korn a Grammy for Here To Stay, unless they smoked a little too much weed. I thought the Grammies were supposed to be reserved for the best of the best? Here To Stay is not one of these Grammy worthy songs, rather, it spits right in the face of an award winning single. Here To Stay contains some of the weakest vocals I have heard from Jon, but that's not the important reason pertaining to why I don't like the song in the first place. Munky and Head provide terrible one string riffing that gets annoying, no matter how rhythmic it may be, after the 10 second intro finishes, and David's half-assed drumming is abysmal, with simple cymbal banging. The lyrics are to be scoffed at, especially when Jon says "
So I Take My Face and Bash it Into A Mirror. I Won't Have to See the Pain." It's obvious that Korn wanted a heavier sound when they attempted Here To Stay, but what they deliver is nothing more than your typical nu-metal song.
Now here's what I don't get: Why add Twist and Trash on this compilation? WHY? Twist is nothing more than 50 seconds of pointless growling and gibberish. Need I say more about Twist? Why even a Freak on A Leash remix? That makes no sense to me pertaining to why Korn would do this. Ok, ANYTHING INVOLVING ANY METAL + A DANCE CLUB MIX USUALLY EQUALS BAD RESULTS!!!! Basically, it's pointless to see the remix on the compilation, and it's a complete waste of time to add this onto the greatest hits. Korn just ruined one of their best songs for me with that remix of Freak On A Leash.
So overall I give this a grade of a 2 out of 5. Though some of Korn's greatest is present on here, other negative factors contribute to the grade, decreasing the actual value of the compilation and make this just about as entertaining as Take A Look In The Mirror, and that's not saying much. Korn made good decisions on what songs to put on the greatest hits in some cases, but these decisions rarely work well, with Korn replacing some of the more entertaining singles with fillers, "meh" tracks, and songs that question Korn's motives for putting a certain song as a greatest hit.
