Review Summary: Korn return with an album that really rocks fists.
Korn is a band from the nu-metal era and they pioneered the genre of it. Nu-metal gets a lot of crap for being angsty and emotional, but on the surface, isn't that what music is about? I mean, would we have the Beethoven's 9th Symphony if he hadn't been so pissed about being deaf? Would we have Heartbreak Hotel if Elvis wasn't madder than *** that his heart had been broken at a sleazy hotel of all places? Answer me that, and enjoy the genius of Korn.
This go-around, the band Korn have returned with much of the same Korn-y stuff. And I definitely do not mean corny. I mean korn-y because this album is very good. Jonathan Davis whines his heart out and he talks about getting swirlies back in school and how, even in his late thirties, no one will ever like him, not even his wife or children or countless (and I mean countless) fans. They just aren't good enough for him. Davis was and will always be a tortured and lost soul, trapped in an agonizing world where family and love and support just doesn't cut it. So, in a mere vasporation, Davis is the Nick Drake of our time; his songs a true tour de' force of sadness and emotion, so raw and real and true that even Morrissey would shake a leg at them, and even still, the songs maintain a disguise (yet shallow one at that) of normalcy and cheerdom, much like Black Francis and his Pixies before him.
The muscianship is just as tight as ever. As technical as Tesla and as heavy as Hanoi Rocks, the gritty, grimy guitars paint an image of an old playground, untouched for years, yet an old lady and her dog go out there everyday and just waste away, and kill time until the grim reaper himself comes knocking; a day that they indeed know is truly inevitable, and will be both a blessing and a curse, much like Korn's music.
The only flaw is that the bass just isn't there. While Korn's previous work was known for it's prominent and edible bass, providing the flavor on reocords such as Life Is Peachy and Unotuchables, on III, we get lacking bass which is nearly non-existent, and defintely doesn't help the songwriting. Which just reminds us all of how we miss the good old days of when Head (or Bryan, as the fans know him) was in the band. Ah, the 90's and early 00's...
Yet even without getting some Head, Korn has proven one thing: All you need is Jon. Becuase Jonathan Davis makes, nay, breathes the mere spirit of Korn, of what it was, and of what it is today; a hurt man just letting it all out, backed with heaviness. And come on, metal guys can be soft too, right?
