Review Summary: Korn's newest album is uninspired, trite, and has as much life as AVA's I-Empire or any Moby album. In a surprising move, Untouchables surpasses Untitled in many ways that it's not funny. It's just sad and pathetic. Korn literally does a faceplant into th
KoRn in the 2000's can be described as quite unbearable. Untouchables had a producer who literally turned the lights on bright for the band and left a major opportunity for Korn to make a huge impact on the mainstream scene after the end of their three year hiatus. The very same year, Jonathan Davis takes some time off to produce the score and soundtrack to Queen of the Damned with friend Richard Gibbs. However, Jon lets the new ideas that he could have used in Untouchables after getting experience and some new styles from Queen of the Damned go to waste, and instead amplifies many metal elitists' disgust for the band itself with atrocious lyrical structure, predictable song structure, simplified drumming, and annoying, toneless riffs, all while Jon's vocal became annoying.
The same could be said for Take A Look In The Mirror. Take A Look In The Mirror took the flaws in Untouchables one step further, with Jon sounding comparable to Corey Taylor from Slipknot, and the production on David Silveria's drums sounded cacophonial, making signs that Korn could have been possibly calling for a revival of the 80's. But then we have See You On The Other Side, an album that Korn busted their asses to make after Head's turn to Christianity, with their hard work paying off. Korn did manage to make a solid album in See You On The Other Side, something that it took six long, grueling years for Korn to accomplish since the disappointing Issues, with better lyrics and some more emotion rather than just constantly throwing the emotion of hatred around.
Here we are now in Untitled, which I expected for Korn to make an remarkable album to follow up the success of See You On The Other Side. With many expectations for Korn, this album was quite interesting. However, that anticipation would turn into disgust, nostalgia, and downright disappointment. With David Silveria on hiatus, Untitled was announced to be a three-piece, only using Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, and Fieldy. Those who produced See You On The Other Side would return again to produce Untitled, this being The Matrix and Atticus Ross. As soon as this album came out, I did not get it right away, and instead, waited for reviews and thoughts on this album. At first, I was disgusted at the thoughts people gave, and I was angry. Of course, some time later, I would go and get Untitled and as soon as I put the CD in my Walkman, I was shocked and disgusted.
The production is downright distasteful. Production team The Matrix throw in electronic textures to this album, making it sound more like a Nine Inch Nails album. Those electronic textures were sickening. Though it was intended to modernize Korn's sound, it would ultimately blow up in their faces. This new sound that The Matrix has added into Korn's resume does no justice. The technical effects blow the whole album in smoke, as in the ambient, evil circus like Intro and Ever Be: the song with a chorus that describes two things: why that song sucks and why it was a disasterous song for Jonathan Davis to write and for Korn to even attempt.
But is The Matrix TRULY to blame for why Untitled is such a terrible album? While The Matrix carry a large portion of the reason why it's so terrible, there are also other factors that jump into the mix and give elitists more and more ammo, such as the instrumentation. Now more than ever, the instrumentation is mediocre; the entire band sounds uninspired and bland. Terry Bozzio does most of the drumming in Untitled, and instantly, I'm already wishing for David to come back from his hiatus. The drumming is quite slow and offbeat, and it never gets exciting. Though I can't really stand David's simplified drumming, he does at least give his drumming life. Fieldy's bass is literally nonexistant in Untitled, and Munky's guitar playing has gotten uninspired. Nowhere in this album does Korn make it somewhat exciting, and the only one who really does show any, if there was any effort at all, was Jonathan Davis, but Davis mostly shows mediocre and boring vocals. To be simple, Untitled has about as much life as Angels and Airwaves' I-Empire and any Moby album mixed together to create an extremely unbearable attempt at modernizing the band's sound.
To further increase the similarities to I-Empire, Jonathan Davis does give some truly heartfelt lyrics in Kiss and Hushabye and even shows strong singing from the two songs, but it's never exciting due to the fact that the band isn't on the same page as Davis. I Will Protect You and even Do What They Say contain a decent lyrical structure, but all Davis does is provide mediocre vocals. The "Everything's Magic" of Untitled, if you will, definitely goes to Evolution. Evolution is quite boring, and it puts me right to sleep. The drums are at their worst and Jon provides the weakest vocals that I have ever heard him deliver. The relevancy Korn shows is refreshing yet laughable, due to the fact that it took Korn exactly THIS LONG to write better lyrics and talk about other subjects than Jonathan Davis's life.
Do I find any songs listenable? No. None of the 13 tracks on here deserve a place on my PSP. Bitch, We Got A Problem, along with Love & Luxury are the only two songs that come even close to being decent. While Bitch, We Got A Problem is one of the few songs where Fieldy's bass is existant, and Munky does have some better guitar playing, not forgetting to mention the catchiness of the song itself, Jon's mediocre, trite vocal yet again ruins another perfectly decent song. Love & Luxury is just as catchy, but this is also yet another song where the band isn't quite on the same page as Jon. Untitled sounds more like a garbage pop album, with the only true highlight being Jon's singing. In other words, Untitled feels more like a solo album from Jonathan Davis rather than a Korn album, seeing as the rest of the band cannot get the album going, and the only song that comes close is Bitch, We Got A Problem.
Even Untouchables was better than this. At least Untouchables had some life to it, displaying some of Jon's strongest singing in Make Believe, No One's There, One More Time, and more importantly Hollow Life. If I had to choose between this album and Untouchables, Untouchables would be my choice. Untitled leaves a feeling of a nearing disband, and Davis's acoustic tour and work-in-progress opera supports this theory. At least the band was somewhat together on the same boat when they did terrible songs like Bottled Up Inside, Wake Up Hate, and Beat It Upright. Untitled has no life to it, and it's all terrible. It's even worse than all of Untouchables.
To be simple, the band has finally reached their lowest point and Korn does a complete faceplant into the concrete, and it's not surprising to see this, with the band nearing their late 30s-early 40s. Evolution? You're joking me. The only song that truly shines is Bitch, We Got A Problem, but it's not even that good. Korn comes together to make their most unispired, trite, boring, unbearable, and downright pathetic album. If there was a better time for Korn to disband; this would be the time. It's obvious to see that their reign as nu-metal pioneers has come to a pathetic end. I feel sorry for Ray Luzier becoming the new drummer of this truly pathetic band that I used to have respect for. Sorry, but I'm done with Korn. Whatever hope I had for them to come back and make a great album has now been smashed. We've seen Korn rise, and now watch as they fall and wallow in their own disgrace, pity, and high level of suckage.
1/5
-Josh "Ashtray" Bowers
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