Review Summary: Basically Korn part 2, but with some slight tweaks to the formula that keep this album out of the garbage disposal.
Well, my obligation to continue through the Korn discography after my first listen was pretty much guaranteed. I can easily say that what I thought I was in for, wasn't at all what I got from Life is Peachy. After the dark debut success, I was expecting a completely different approach from the band. That was the first thing I was wrong about. In Life is Peachy, Korn take their old sound, and show a more humorous side to them, while at the same time, putting out some rather debut-sounding content. But even though this album is heavily recycled, it's still complimented by the fact that the whole thing executed in a very orderly fashion.
Life is Peachy is a strange album, even for nu-metal. I can understand how after a very successful debut, the band might want to recreate their new content based on that, but these songs do occasionally take that aspect too far. But other than that, this is still yet another promising addition to their albums. When the album takes off, it is immediately apparent that Korn might be trying to do some things a little differently any who. "Twist" is one of the most promising intro's ever to hit Korn's market, but its simplicity is the real deciding factor to its success.
Ultimately, a lot of the album is composed of the same modern formula Korn had become famous for in their debut. Fieldy is still slapping his bass, and between the two albums, bass has had little change. Munky and Head actually, have toned themselves down a bit in the guitars. Songs like "Chi", "Lost", and "Swallow" hold really good examples when it comes to the even better executed eerie lines from Head in the verse. The chorus's hold some more action, but it immediately tones back down to quiet. As for the drumming, it is still relatively the same, and actually heavily recycled, but the new sounding snares do help make up for this, and it is still superb.
Jonathan's vocals are still maintaining a practical sound to them. They aren't raspy, like they would become later, and they certainly aren’t detrimental to the albums overall performance. Other than his lyrics that still pertain to angst, the man's voice still holds plenty of unique opportunities to shine in the album due to the much more quiet instrumentation. Aside from angst-y lyrics comes Jonathan’s rather humorous lyric upon occasion. Anyone who has ever heard this album cannot doubt that "K@#0%!" is the ultimate example of "humor" the band expresses in this album. This song is a complete rundown of every swear word they could come up with, and for anyone who can get pass those, listen to the guitar in the backdrop. They are twisting and screeching along like a glitchcore project. This is just a small example of the newer side to Korn, but the album quickly returns to roots in a very prominent manner.
"Wicked" is probably the most interesting song on the album. The guest star from Deftones really added some catchiness to this song. On the other hand, the verse isn't really worth listening to the actual lyrics, and the chorus is the ultimate high point for this song. Due to this, the song loses replay value once it wears off, as does a couple other areas of the album. Random interludes for this album are also included in difference to their debut. "Porno Creep" and "Low Rider" are both interludes, and they are just short and stumpy instrumentals that do nothing more than add some humor throughout this well executed Korn Pt. 2.
So up until this point, it is hard to deny that Korn was better back then, than they are now. But even this well recreated album wouldn't stand up to anything Korn prepared to do later. For now anyway, at least they keep their heads (figuratively) in the music, and appropriation. This album is the last from Korn's true prominence, and almost never gets boring. The value of this album is probably a lot higher than their debut, it's just put out in a slightly different way that didn't necessarily compliment the band the same as their old school metal did, but is still an excellent effort.
