Review Summary: ... are...You... READY?!
It's time to dig in the dirt and the darkness to find the roots of nu metal, and see what made it so unique yet familiar, unsettling, brutally honest yet approachable, but mostly, look at the first and best creepy nu metal album. Once again, I got myself into a strange challenge: reviewing an album that has been talked to death, and finding something interesting to say about it.
Korn’s debut album is haunting, because of its darkly confessional lyrics, but also because of its strange sound that has been copied many times, but never truly replicated. And because it’s an incredibly creative and well-made album. It takes inspiration from already existing sounds (grunge, alternative metal, maybe even what could be called experimental or progressive rock, and even some folk music), but it combines them in a completely unique way, and goes where few other bands would even think of going. I mean, how many grunge bands would introduce their album by warming up their instruments and screaming "Are you ready"?
And that’s not all. The album is full of interesting little details in various places. Just listen to how “Clown” combines an intro with the band warming up and arguing, heavy and kind of scary riffs with a catchy bass line. Or how “Ball Tongue” begins as a fairly ordinary angry alt metal song with simple, heavy riffs, but then on the chorus, Jonathan Davis starts making weird noises with his mouth, then the band messes around with a turntable in the middle, and with loud, heavy percussions on the outro. “Helmet in the Bush” has a sort of odd, trippy feel. The bonus track is just a nonsensical conversation between two people not in the band, but it feels oddly unsettling in the context of the album. But the highest point of creativity would be “Shoots and Ladders”, which I guess you could call the first and only nu/folk metal song. It begins with a very nice bagpipe solo, before bringing in slow, heavy, creepy riffs and Jonathan reciting nursery rhymes, emphasizing the creepy undertones those folk songs can have. It’s a one-of-a-kind song, and I wish Korn had made more like this.
Even songs that seem more “ordinary” still have something gripping about them, like “Need To” and its fast, tense riff, not to mention Jonathan screaming “I hate you!” and “Why?”. Or “Divine” and its fast, bouncy riffs, and darkly humorous chorus “You’re suffering ‘cause of me, it’s divine”. “Predictable” isn’t that interesting, but it has some nice and heavy riffs. The “Let! It out now” and growled “Fake! Fake! You’ll regret it, you’ll regret it!” parts of “Fake” are the only parts I really remember from it, just like the weird echo and scream of “Do you ever” on “Lies”, but they’re memorable enough.
Korn’s other best assets are Jonathan’s voice and lyrics. He’s not a particularly poetic or subtle lyricist, but he’s great at expressing ugly emotions that poison you from the inside unless you let them out. He’s not scared to show vulnerability, which was rare on metal albums at the time. He shows no mercy to all the people he hates, all those who made his life hell, like on “Ball Tongue” where he gets back at a former friend, or on “Clown” where he encourages his bully to beat him up again if he’s so tough, and concludes that “I’m free, you’re just a wannabe”.
Though the best getting-back-at-bullies song would be “Faget”, and look, I can see how that title hasn’t aged well and how Korn’s detractors might use that against them. But I agree with its main idea, that guys who don’t fit into traditional masculine roles get called gay like it’s the worst thing you could be, and in general, anyone who dares express themselves gets persecuted. Many of us have been there. We’ve definitely wanted to scream “I am ugly, just go away!” and “To all the people who think I’m strange!” at someone.
As for his singing, the first time I heard him, I couldn’t get into his performance at all, I thought he had such a weird voice. But now, I really love all the things he’s doing with his voice, like singing with pain and anguish, going from a whisper to a scream with the same angst and rage, and repeating the same lines, increasingly loudly until it begins a mad incantation. The repeated screaming of “knick knack paddy wack, give a dog a bone” on “Shoots and Ladders” sounds absolutely ridiculous on paper, but it feels absolutely hypnotic. Clearly, Dave Williams was inspired by his mad repetition of lyrics, and once again, Jon makes it work really well, though if anyone less talented tried that, it would be incredibly annoying.
But I can accept how someone might find this album incredibly annoying, or might hate it from bringing nu metal into the world. And I will admit it has one flaw, aside from well, being too much sometimes: after “Shoots and Ladder”, it becomes a little less memorable than the first track. But wait till the end, where “Helmet” already brings a darker edge and then transitions into the album’s darkest, most devastating and tragic song, “Daddy”. I don’t know what hurts me the most about the song, the part where Jonathan sings from the point of view of his rapist, or when he has to insist, probably to his parents, that he didn’t lie about what was done to him, or when he actually starts screaming and crying. Even the intro, where he sings a sort of church hymn about why he had to do what he did, is incredibly eerie. Many listens later, and this song still leaves me in shambles.
No matter what I or my readers may think of Korn as people, or of their later albums, very few would have the courage, or the skills to make a song like that. And in general, to make an album so peculiar, but still immediately enjoyable. It works so well because it’s completely genuine, it lets Korn and the listener release all the painful feelings and heal. It’s not afraid to express those feelings in a loud, ugly, excessive, uncomfortably real way. That’s one real talent Korn has, which they kept in all the goods songs of their not always great albums. This is a talent shared by all nu metal acts, and this amazing debut by Korn laid out the foundations of this genre, with its mix of musical styles, honesty and dark emotions. But even though this album has been an influence to many others, there still is something unique and great about it, and it will always have a place in my heart.
