ALBUM: Korn – Untitled

Regular readers of the metal press will know that there’s a formula for reviewing Korn albums. It’s not exclusively used for Korn, but they suffer from it more than most. According to this formula, Untouchables was a storming return to form after the disappointing Issues, Take a Look in the Mirror was a storming return to form after the disappointing Untouchables, See You on the Other Side was a storming return to form after the disappointing Take a Look in the Mirror, and now, Untitled Eighth… well, you can fill it in for yourself.

Korn’s major hindrance was to peak early. An immediately classic and influential debut (Korn), a slightly patchy but basically more-of-the-same follow up (Life is Peachy), a big, shiny, MTV breakout album (Follow the Leader), and downhill from there. Except it hasn’t been so much downhill as wilfully peculiar. For the record, let it be said that There Is Nothing Wrong With Issues, other than the fact that it’s called Issues. It isn’t nearly as whiny as its reputation insists, and it properly rocks. The enormous, three-years-in-the-making, multi-million dollar Untouchables recently won a Metal Hammer poll as the “embarrassing” album that its readers actually secretly most like (pace, again, it’s not anywhere near as crap as legend has it), and tellingly, their only real misfire is Take a Look in the Mirror; the album which saw them listening to their critics and half-heartedly stripping things back down to 1994 levels. A contemporary interview saw frontman Jonathan Davis saying something along the lines of “Uhh, yeah I remembered, like, some other stuff I was angry about”. It wasn’t convincing.

Untitled Eighth comes barely 18 months after predecessor See You On the Other Side; their dramatic rallying after Mirror and the loss of guitarist Brian Welch (to Jesus), which saw them controversially teaming up with Avril Lavigne uber-producers The Matrix. It’s very much a companion piece – perhaps their first album since Life is Peachy to have any sort of consistency with the previous one – and it seems defiantly vigorous despite their having lost another member in drummer David Silveria. Drum duties here are taken on by numerous session temps, including Davis himself, but Silveria’s most impressive replacement is Zappa alumnus Terry Bozzio. Bozzio’s contribution to the significantly titled first track (barring the short, weird intro) Starting Over kicks things off to a pretty goddamn thrilling start. Bitch We’ve Got a Problem is catchy, but seems a bit forced, as if the band is deliberately trying to re-bottle the Twisted Transistor formula that worked before, but the quality picks up again with the crunchy, Dawkins-friendly Evolution, where Davis’ voice is as powerful as it’s ever been.

Hold On begins exactly like Trash from Issues, but turns out to be a bit of a dirge and heralds the album’s slightly shoddy mid-section: the feeble and maudlin Kiss; the decent-chorus-but-otherwise-turgid Do What They Say; and the underwhelming Ever Be. But then Davis throws his head back and laughs, and it’s plain sailing until the end of the album. Despite The Matrix’s departure early in this album’s recording process, Love and Luxury is a radio-friendly unit shifter of the highest order. You can imagine it on the opening credits of an American Pie movie. But in a good way. Innocent Bystander is tear-the-roof-off heavy by comparison, and Killing is even fucking better. You wonder why they ever needed two guitarists. Seems like Munky is enough on his own. Things quieten right down again for the Coheed-esque Hushabye (which has the opposite problem to Do What They Say in that the verses are great but the chorus sucks), and the big finish is the proggy I Will Protect You, replete with Eastern influences familiar from Davis’ Queen of the Damned soundtrack, the trademark return of Davis’ bagpipes, and more berserk Bozzio drumming.

Untitled Eighth is like a movie that underwhelms to start with but climaxes so well that you leave the cinema beaming. It’s no better or worse than any of the band’s post Follow the Leader offerings (bar Mirror), and probably won’t change the minds of any Korn detractors. That said, it does feel like a rebooting of sorts: the finished statement of intent after the prototype that was See You on the Other Side, proving that (session musicians notwithstanding) Korn have a viable future as a trio.

Untitled Eighth is still recognisably Korn. It has the crunch and chug of their early stuff and the breadth and atmosphere of Untouchables, but it also takes them in some directions we haven’t been in before. Experimental but familiar, it’s the sound of Korn meeting us on the Other Side as promised, and saying “onward”! Where next?   Owen Williams

Buy this album here.