Korn

considering when bands try something new and fail almost every time, this album isnt bad at all. there are one of two tracks that perhaps try too hard (Bleeding Out is very boring indeedy), but the majority of the set is all good. best tune on the album is actually a bonus track called 'tension', which is very well put together.

not sure why shrillix has been given the most attention on interviews etc. yeah 'narcissistic cannibal' is a good track and is certainly up there as one the best sounding tracks on the album but, the others have put together arguably better mixes.

One thing that did annoy me is that JD is claiming to have been involved in creating dub-step which is absolute rubbish. OK they (korn) trying something different but in no way new. Ministry, Fear Factory, White Zombi have mixed metal with this kind of genre before. The Progidy have mixed dance with metal for years so if he is claiming to have part created dub-stup/grime etc, then why isnt DQ1 or Scarecrow featured on the album? Two highly rated artists in that field.

viadah wrote: »

If those songs had no electroblips and beeps over them, everyone would honestly say they're awful. It sounds like a bad band who had the good fortune of foreseeing a bandwagon. There's my two cents.

That's a bit of a sweeping generalisation isn't it? Without the blips and bloops the album would roughly sound like Untouchables-era Korn which I happen to think is very good indeed. And whatever you say about the music itself, I don't think it's right to question the band's motives; the album is a labour of love not a desperate attempt to cash in, like it or lump it.

OK they (korn) trying something different but in no way new. Ministry, Fear Factory, White Zombi have mixed metal with this kind of genre before. The Progidy have mixed dance with metal for years

First of all I'd have to disagree with you when it comes to Fear Factory. Their genre is straight-up metal in my opinion, and I certainly wouldn't regard the odd atmospheric industrial noises and ambient synths to comprise an "electronic" sound. I think what JD is getting at is this album is the first major rock or metal release to be so heavily influenced by dance/electronica. Pendulum, the Prodigy, etc. have been making dance albums with rock influences for years but here the emphasis is different. Korn approached this record from a metal standpoint, and then molded the songs to incorporate the conventions of dance/drum and bass/dubstep. To my ears the results sound entirely different and new.

Joe_Dull wrote: »

That's a bit of a sweeping generalisation isn't it? Without the blips and bloops the album would roughly sound like Untouchables-era Korn which I happen to think is very good indeed. And whatever you say about the music itself, I don't think it's right to question the band's motives; the album is a labour of love not a desperate attempt to cash in, like it or lump it.

First of all I'd have to disagree with you when it comes to Fear Factory. Their genre is straight-up metal in my opinion, and I certainly wouldn't regard the odd atmospheric industrial noises and ambient synths to comprise an "electronic" sound. I think what JD is getting at is this album is the first major rock or metal release to be so heavily influenced by dance/electronica. Pendulum, the Prodigy, etc. have been making dance albums with rock influences for years but here the emphasis is different. Korn approached this record from a metal standpoint, and then molded the songs to incorporate the conventions of dance/drum and bass/dubstep. To my ears the results sound entirely different and new.

I take it you've heard titles from Fear Factory such as 'Fear is the Mindkiller', Hatefiles & Remanufacture? Would you call this 'straight up metal'?

I hear what your saying about the prodigy mixing (mainly) dance with a percentage of metal. But mixing metal with a small proportion of dance has all well and truly been done before. Listen to Fear Factorys "Self Immolation (Liquid Sky Mix)" from the Fear is the Mindkiller album or 'Newbreed' from Demanufacture

Dont get me wrong, Korn have done a good job on the album. But the principle of mixing different genres is nothing new to the stage.

Malice

Phew, I came in expecting to have to kick someone's ass for dissing Fear Factory

Malice wrote: »

Phew, I came in expecting to have to kick someone's ass for dissing Fear Factory .

Not mine, been into them for years and years. They can only get better and better after the Mechanize was released.

Beekay

Album of the year in Revolver Magazine, Haven't read the mag in years so not sure of it's quality but that's still a bit of a shock
http://www.revolvermag.com/news/exclusive-interview-korn-frontman-jonathan-davis-on-revolvers-album-of-the-year-the-path-of-totality.html

Album of the year and not even out when it was announced? Nice. Serious cash going around.....

Look, if you like Korn, fair enough, I love their first four albums still, faults and all (Fred Durst). Underneath the 'dubstep' the songs are weak in my opinion, the only attention they're getting outside regular spheres of interest is due to the birth of a bandwagon, which will make itself apparent over time. Whereas Fear Factory were actually ahead of their time, the record will show.

Malice

viadah wrote: »

Album of the year and not even out when it was announced? Nice. Serious cash going around.....

Heh, I was just thinking the same thing. The linked article doesn't even justify the decision, it's just mentioned in the introduction to an interview with Jonathan Davis.

http://gunshyassassin.com/news/if-youve-never-questioned-revolver-magazine%E2%80%99s-motives-before/#more-19696

I always bang on about Chris Harris' blog, so here's his opinion on Revolver at least. And he hates Korn's new album too.

Beekay

viadah wrote: »

Underneath the 'dubstep' the songs are weak in my opinion,

This doesn't make any sense, the songs were made with the electronic/dubstep to fit in and be the song. Its not a remix where the song was written and then remixed with electronics over it.

duke916 wrote: »

I take it you've heard titles from Fear Factory such as 'Fear is the Mindkiller', Hatefiles & Remanufacture? Would you call this 'straight up metal'?

I hear what your saying about the prodigy mixing (mainly) dance with a percentage of metal. But mixing metal with a small proportion of dance has all well and truly been done before. Listen to Fear Factorys "Self Immolation (Liquid Sky Mix)" from the Fear is the Mindkiller album or 'Newbreed' from Demanufacture

Dont get me wrong, Korn have done a good job on the album. But the principle of mixing different genres is nothing new to the stage.

I will give you Fear Factory, on second listening they're more electronic-influenced than I gave them credit for (Obsolete would be the only album of theirs I'd care for personally) but these elements are still relatively extrinsic. They compliment the guitars but aren't molded around them as in the new Korn record - despite the electronic elements the songs tend to revert to a recognisable heavy guitar sound within the first minute. Yes, metal and dance have been mixed before, this is true, but not in the way it's been done here, where both have an equal role to play.

I apologise to any FF fans who may have taken offense, they were and are a unique voice in metal. As for those who don't like the record, the music, the production, whatever it is, to each his own

Beekay wrote: »

This doesn't make any sense, the songs were made with the electronic/dubstep to fit in and be the song. Its not a remix where the song was written and then remixed with electronics over it.

What I mean is, if this were a Korn song, straight-up, even with Atticus Ross doing his business over it, the songs would still be bad. It's the 'dubstep' that distracts from the bad song writing, and all the attention this album is getting is from the 'bold new direction' they're taking.

Even from the small amount I've read of interviews from Davis lately, I'd avoid the album just to try and hide from his immense sense of self satisfaction. I'm not one to get involved in flaming on the internet (they closed blast.ie years ago) but what gets me is people listening to this album for all the wrong reasons.

viadah wrote: »

What I mean is, if this were a Korn song, straight-up, even with Atticus Ross doing his business over it, the songs would still be bad. It's the 'dubstep' that distracts from the bad song writing, and all the attention this album is getting is from the 'bold new direction' they're taking.

As I say, clearly someone's liking the music itself is a massively subjective thing. If the dubstep/electronic elements were removed from the songs (which, as a previous poster pointed out, would be difficult seeing how intrinsic they are) I think they would still be strong. They remind me of mid-career Korn which in my book was their best period. Basically, you can say you don't like it, don't like the songwriting, or you can phrase it so that you wouldn't like it if the dubstep elements were gone. Long story short, you don't like it and that's a perfectly valid opinion. It just doesn't say anything about the music's objective quality.

Even from the small amount I've read of interviews from Davis lately, I'd avoid the album just to try and hide from his immense sense of self satisfaction. I'm not one to get involved in flaming on the internet (they closed blast.ie years ago) but what gets me is people listening to this album for all the wrong reasons.

He's proud of the end result, I would be too. And as for people's reasons for listening, as far as I'm concerned if a regular punter picks up a metal album on whim and ends up liking it then that's a win for the genre.

Joe_Dull wrote: »

I will give you Fear Factory, on second listening they're more electronic-influenced than I gave them credit for (Obsolete would be the only album of theirs I'd care for personally) but these elements are still relatively extrinsic. They compliment the guitars but aren't molded around them as in the new Korn record - despite the electronic elements the songs tend to revert to a recognisable heavy guitar sound within the first minute. Yes, metal and dance have been mixed before, this is true, but not in the way it's been done here, where both have an equal role to play.

I apologise to any FF fans who may have taken offense, they were and are a unique voice in metal. As for those who don't like the record, the music, the production, whatever it is, to each his own

Ok so we all love certain bands and dont like criticism when it falls hard on a new release. Fact is Munky has little or nothing to do on this album and the music is CLEARLY based around the electronic elements. That was the whole point of this 'experimental' release. i am a korn fan but im also a bigger fan of music in general and its obvious that without the dub-step elements, there would be no basis for a track. Simple. No basis for argument. There are about three to four songs here that have guitar elements, nothing more ...so minus the instruments, what have you got? nothing but a common denominator - JD.

Jesus, Obsolete would probably be one of the FF albums Id listen less of. Soul of a New Machine, Demanfacture & Mechanize would be more my bag in fairness but each to their own. However ya seriously cant say their mixes are 'extrinsic'. There is a track on Hatefiles called Transgenic and I cant even listen to that one!

Here's another example. Listen to later stuff from Gary Numan. Albums such as Exile and Hybrid. All electronic elements and guitar distortion. There are many many examples out there that have tried this. As said before, Im not condemning Korn for their efforts but, you simply cant deny the principle of mixing genres such as dance, drum and bass or dub step or whatever with metal has not been done before.

devildriver

Live in Hollywood for the record release - 06.12.11

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/kornlive/

This is only online for a few hours and will be removed sometime tomorrow.

Kess73

Joe_Dull wrote: »

I will give you Fear Factory, on second listening they're more electronic-influenced than I gave them credit for (Obsolete would be the only album of theirs I'd care for personally) but these elements are still relatively extrinsic. They compliment the guitars but aren't molded around them as in the new Korn record - despite the electronic elements the songs tend to revert to a recognisable heavy guitar sound within the first minute. Yes, metal and dance have been mixed before, this is true, but not in the way it's been done here, where both have an equal role to play.

I apologise to any FF fans who may have taken offense, they were and are a unique voice in metal. As for those who don't like the record, the music, the production, whatever it is, to each his own

It is nothing new for the genres to be mixed with both having an equal role. Two albums that spring to mind are the Spawn soundtrack from 1997 and the Judgement Night soundtrack from 1993.

Both albums have major rock/metal acts mixed with major dance/hip hop/rap acts with the genres used in each individual track getting pretty equal billing.

People come on! All this talk of mixing genres isn't fair to Korn's new album, it detracts from the fact that it's ****en awful in its own right.

Kess73 wrote: »

It is nothing new for the genres to be mixed with both having an equal role. Two albums that spring to mind are the Spawn soundtrack from 1997 and the Judgement Night soundtrack from 1993.

Both albums have major rock/metal acts mixed with major dance/hip hop/rap acts with the genres used in each individual track getting pretty equal billing.

Listened to a few tracks from those there. The Spawn one is really cool, Judgement Night reminds me of the few Korn songs with rapping in them. I never would've thought to look up film soundtracks but you've fair points on each.

viadah wrote: »

People come on! All this talk of mixing genres isn't fair to Korn's new album, it detracts from the fact that it's ****en awful in its own right.

You don't like it, we get it. There's no need to keep restating your position.

I'm an old man. I just preferred Korn when they sounded hungry, back in the day.

I've given Korn and Life is Peachy so many chances, but to my ears they're mostly an unappealing sonic mess... I'd be in the minority that thinks their best work was from Follow the Leader on.

Ashally, I'll go out on a limb here and say 'Issues' is my favourite Korn album. The first album sounds fine to me, 'Life is Peachy' was , by their own admission, a messy album. The guitars were overdubbed with acoustics to give some clarity.

Ah, Issues is great. That's interesting about the acoustics on Life Is Peachy, but I read a long interview on ArtistsDirect (IIRC) recently in which the band were reminiscing pretty fondly about the album.