Artist: Korn
Album: The Nothing
Genre: Korn
Country: USA
Release date: 13th September, 2019
Released via Roadrunner Records
Cover artwork © Roadrunner Records, 2019
Alright guys, do I really need to tell you some stuff about Korn? The band, not the German booze, you fools. Founded in 1993 in Bakersfield, California, Korn had a really succesful, self-titled first release on which you can find two band classics with “Blind” and “Shoots and Ladders” ,that I still love today. Follow The Leader” wasn’t just the name of their third full release, but also a message to all the other bands who started their NuMetal-careers after Korn. The similarities between Korn and Nirvana are interesting. I think Korn picked up the kids, who never had a chance to follow Nirvana. Luckily Jonathan Davis didn’t went the way Kurt Cobain did, so we can still enjoy the band’s music today, 2019.
The Nothing is the title of the new Korn release – 13 tracks, 44 minutes of music, lots of explicit lyrics, but f*** it. Most of the tracks have a playtime roundabout 3:40minutes, three are longer than that – we have an intro and an interlude, as well as an outro.
I really love it when Jonathan Davis uses the bagpipes in Korn’s music, thus the album directly starts with goosebumps while the bagpipes evolve into guitars and finally crying. “The End Begins”. “Cold” hits you right in the guts with fast, deep spoken lyrics and heavy riffs. That’s exactly how I love my Korn, the band. The production is just awesome, you are even able to hear the low-tuned bass between the powerful guitars and the drums almost all the time.
The blueprint for the songs is typical Korn: Spoken lyrics in the verse with the famous chopped guitars and melodic singing – and sometimes keys in the chorus. You can directly recognize that it is a Korn song in each song – they have their signature sound audible in all the tracks. I’m abolutely fine with this. If you didn’t like Korn so far, you won’t like the new album as well… Nothing bad.
However, there is always an exception, isn’t it? “Idiosyncrasy” starts as if it could have been heard on a Slipknot release as well, the drops in the bridge nearly force me to do the crab. 😉 Don’t get me wrong, I like this from time to time, okay, no cowbell in there, alright, but nobody is perfect, right? “This Loss” surprises with a part that sounds a little like a James Bond theme. Interesting idea, isn’t it?
My second favorite track is “H@rd3r”, another really heavy song with some interesting breaks. You get the feeling of a voice in your head speaking while the drums are doing some weired stuff – and you can feel getting crazy. Great! Only thing I am missing is a real explosion of aggression there… But maybe I listened to too much Death Metal this weekend.
All in all I think the band did a great job and gave us a real good album. In my opinion the dark, and sometimes aggressive feel of the songs is washed away by the melodic choruses – but I know some people who like exactly these choruses more than the verses, so what is right and what is wrong? No answer to that in my opinion, and often it depends on the personal mood.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
9/10
As usual, we added the favorite track(s) to our Transcended Review Playlist.
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