Contrary to the rumours circulating prior to its release,
KoRn have not self-titled their eighth studio album. In fact, they have chosen to give it no title at all. My best guess as to why the whisperings of it being self-titled were so strong is that the band probably fully intended for it to be that way, before someone reminded them "psst, here, by the way, you already did that about 13 years ago". Certainly, listening to the past couple of sub-par
KoRn albums, I would find it perfectly believable that they have completely
forgotten all about their self-titled debut these days, and the revolutionary explosion of youthful angst that they were once so skilled at expressing through a trailblazing fusion of detuned guitar grooves and hard-hitting bouncy drum beats.
If anyone
hasn't forgotten about the boys from Bakersfield's initial impact on the music world, though, it's their hardcore fanbase. Despite later selling over 14,000,000 combined copies of what many consider their breakthrough releases,
Follow The Leader and
Issues, the band seem to have hit a bit of a slump in the public eye since then. Many critics claim that the band have now strayed too far from the sound which made them famous, and the majority of their fans are crying out for a return to the trademark style first unleashed on an unsuspecting public way back in 1994. If you are one of these fans, anxiously holding your breath for your first listen to
Untitled, then the good news is that the band are giving you good reason to feel angsty again. The bad news is, this reason is that the new album sounds ABSOLUTELY FUCK ALL like the
KoRn of old. But is that necessarily such a bad thing?
The departure of long-time guitarist Brian "Head" Welch back in February 2005 seems to have presented an opportunity for the band's sole remaining full-time guitar player, Munky, to re-define his instrument's role in the bigger picture of his band's music. No longer seeing guitars as just "those things what we use the first five frets to bash out riffz on",
KoRn now appear to synchronise the quirky tones of their seven-stringed lumps of wood with eery piano loops and synth effects, using this formula to craft a much more involving musical landscape on
Untitled than on any of the band's previous works. A solid example of this new dynamic can be found on third track
Bitch We Got A Problem, in which carnival-like keys ride a stripped-down drum beat and driving distorted bassline to arrive at a very jangly effect-laden chorus that would make a great soundtrack to someone losing their fuckin' mind. In a good way.
Upon deeper exploration, perhaps the decreased focus on guitar riffing in the absence of former axeman Head may actually have come about for a much less flattering reason than creating a bigger overall sound, as what few attempts at balls-out guitar-based aggression remain in the
KoRn camp seem to lack the ferocity of old. Generic, repetitive fretwork is the order of the day on
Untitled, and despite being a band formerly best known for their influential metallic grooves, you'll be hard pushed to hum even a single riff from this album if asked, even after repeated listens. Songs such as
Killing provide a fairly Helmet-esque start/stop stomping staccato style obviously designed to make heads nod, but aside from these brief outbursts the guitar playing on this album takes little priority over the assortment of strings, keyboards and drum effects.
This new-found lack of driving rhythm guitar provides an opportunity for the other members of
KoRn to step-up to the plate and carry the sound, most notably vocalist Jonathan Davis. On
Kiss, a song that is a borderline
ballad, Davis croons some of his most heartfelt and emotional-sounding lyrics to date, and the chorus of songs such as
Love And Luxury reveal the frontman's impressive knack for catchy vocal patterns and memorable lyrics built around a strong pop sensibility.
Line-up shuffling aside, perhaps the most noteworthy change in KoRn's attitude leading up to this latest release has been their gradual embracing of a diverse range of musical influences. Moving away from the typical guitars / drums / vocals set-up of most 90's metal bands, they now include a tasty "carrots and curry sauce" side helping to the “meat” of the infamous
KoRn riffing style.
*
It may surprise some to learn that
KoRn haven't been as one-dimensional for the past decade as their slew of critics would have you believe - a slight experimental streak has been creeping its way into the band's sound since as long ago as 1999's
Issues, when bass player Fieldy and vocalist Jonathan provided some mood-setting programming to the musical mix. This inclusion of new sounds and different takes on old ideas has slowly progressed over each album, finally reaching its peak with this one.
I vividly remember Jon Davis – along with pretty much every other "alternative" musician in the world at the time – singing the praises of
Nine Inch Nails in a bunch of interviews throughout the 1990s, and that influence has definitely become a dominating factor in the sound of today's
KoRn. It may be the case that this change of musical direction has occurred simply because that's what the band want to play, which is very admirable if true, but the fact is that the popularity of industrial peaked about a fuckin' DECADE ago and the genre has been on the decline ever since. It's perhaps a case of "too little, too late" to be releasing an album with this kind of sound in 2007, especially if you are a band which is obviously making a conscious effort not to sound dated.
This is not actually the first album to sport KoRn's new musical direction, with
See You On The Other Side throwing us many of the same ideas but in a much less organised, well-structured manner just over a year ago. In fact, that album was pure fucking shit. This one, as Borat would say, "not so much", perhaps thanks to outside assistance from legendary sticksman Terry Bozzio on the drum stool and a veritable gang-raping of producers, with Atticus Ross returning from work on the previous album to twiddle the knobs alongside the band themselves and trendy pop-orientated production team The Matrix (
Britney Spears,
Shakira,
Avril Lavigne,
Busted).
This is the album that SHOULD have been released instead of
See You On The Other Side - it still sounds absolutely nothing like how the band of choice for angry teenagers in baggy jeans and New Rock boots sounded in the mid-90s, but the fact is that sometimes musicians change their style and the listener will just have to either deal with it or stick to listening to the back catalogue. The fact also stands that outdated nu-metal isn't going to provide the kind of sale figures in this day and age that new label home Virgin Records will be looking for... But will this new "
Evolution", to quote track 4 off the album, fare much better? Only time will tell.
Untitled is available now though Virgin Records.
http://www.myspace.com/korn * my girlfriend has really got me into eating carrots and curry sauce with my chicken as of late, and if you haven't tried it then it comes heartily recommended. legit.
KoRn - Untitled 
