Listen To The Album Korn Follow The Leader
Lorna Schildt
I fondly remember the giant Korn poster in my brother's room growing up. I'm pretty sure it was adjacent to the door-height Deftones poster, but I could be mixing up band poster memories there. The color scheme was this orange and brown, with lettering that said -- oh wait, it was straight up the cover of Follow The Leader, what turned out to be my favorite Korn album out of all 14 of them.
That's actually a hard thing to quantify here - a favorite Korn album - because I thought their two most recent albums were some of their best work ever. I'll get to that later. Let's outline my preconceived notions of Korn before I embarked on this journey:
I started from the actual beginning this time. I didn't jump in at their best seller like I did with Limp Bizkit because I wanted to do it right this time. I was worried early on, honestly. The music wasn't drawing me in as intently as Significant Other did. I was ready to write Korn off by the end of all this, and I was well aware of how many albums I had yet to endure.
Korn, their self-titled debut, does have a lot of samey qualities to the songs and didn't produce a ton of my favorites overall, but I came out of it with an appreciation for the music and the time it came out of. What a revolutionary sound for the mid nineties, man.
Life Is Peachy wasn't all that different of an experience, but I think the songs I ended up enjoying were better than what I heard on Korn. The grooves in "A.D.I.D.A.S." and "No Place To Hide" are nuts.
Follow The Leader is where things picked up fast for me. That trio starting the album - "It's On", "Freak On a Leash" (FOAL), and "Got the Life" set the mood with such intensity. I don't want to hear how you can listen to those tracks and not bop your head. I had known FOAL before from Guitar Hero, but "Got the Life" and "It's On" were fully new to my ears. I'm pretty sure those two songs alone were on repeat for hours.
Did you know that "Got the Life" was requested on TRL for so many weeks in a row that they had to retire it? And did you see all the documentaries about Woodstock '99? Korn was massive. Name another band that sounds remotely like them that isn't as old as them who can play to crowds that size?
Issues solidified Korn's high-praise in my mind. "Falling Away from Me" (and the premiere of it on South Park!!) is so good. Again, those guitars are crunchy as hell and produce sounds I wish I had. Where this album gets to me is in how consistent and cohesive it is. The album experience front to back here is tight, not suffering from some of those same mixed-bag results that even later albums have. If I had to pick an early-era Korn album for someone to start with, it'd be this one.
The thing about this next group of albums is that you really don't need to listen to them. It sucks to say that, but unless you want to have a deep understanding of the band or have thoroughly enjoyed yourself in the first four albums, you aren't missing much.
Coming out of the high that is Issues, Untouchables doesn't pack nearly the same punch. My favorite song off this album - "Here to Stay" - is a solid single with heeaaavvy guitars, and "Wake Up Hate" is a fun listen, but I'm looking at the track list now and can't tell you what any of these other songs sound like.
Take a Look in the Mirror does not help as a follow-up release either. It's been ranked last by both Head and Jonathan Davis if that says anything. I saw a review on Rate Your Music (I think) where someone said it was as boring as the album cover.
See You on the Other Side is an interesting one! It doesn't feature Head, who left the band at this time, and they worked with The Matrix to produce it. It's a different sound in a weird but good way. I know I said you could ignore this set of albums, but this one is worth the stop along the way. At least listen to "Twisted Transistor" before skipping over it.
The Untitled album increases the weirdness by not having a static drummer anymore. It's an odd, completely average point in Korn's history. I thought it was interesting to hear Korn without Head or Silveria, but it wasn't fantastic.
Korn III is a return to form in some ways, but suffers from the same boring factor that Take a Look had. "Let the Guilt Go" is a fun song though, and they even performed it on Jimmy Kimmel. Sad to see it didn't get any certifications (platinum, gold, etc). It was their first one not to.
Continuing on a path of weirdness, The Path of Totality is largely a collaboration between Korn and electronic producers. I remember when this one came out because there was a lot of shit thrown around about it on the internet. I don't know, man. All these years later I admire the effort.
Look at this article from 2012 where Davis says dubstep is the new electronic metal. The comment section tears it apart, because it's the UG comment section and it was 2012. But you know what? Those guys are wrong and Davis is right. Dubstep is heavy regardless of if it is metal, has guitars, or whatever you use to describe heavy music. The combination of metal and dubstep resulting in this album is perfectly fine and a worthwhile listen, if for nothing other than having said you gave it a try.
Three years later comes The Serenity of Suffering which has no suffering at all as a listener. So many good songs here! Damn! "Rotting In Vain" and "Take Me" are clear standouts. Going back to that comment about Issues being consistent, as is this one. The first one to be that well connected in a while.
We've reached the point of Korn's true return to greatness. The Nothing is a brain-melting journey of heavy riff after chunky groove. Look no further than the single "You'll Never Find Me" for proof of that. Is "The Ringmaster" a weird-ass track? Yeah, no doubt, but just skip over that one if you want.
Requiem has no bad tracks on it. I'm serious. This album is pure gold and might be the rightful owner of the title of my favorite Korn album. Not a dull moment exists here, with guitars and drums to die for, and melodies woven throughout - both instrumentally and vocally - that refuse to leave your mind. I love the new take on melodic metal showcased here. Davis reigns in his vocals to blend nicely with those detuned guitars that now ring out more than usual with the beefiest of chords.
In this edition of Versus, dig out your JNCO jeans, Adidas tracksuits, and your backwards baseball caps, as we dive into the peak of nu metal. Two bands that are considered the faces of the genre, releasing their most successful releases less than a year apart. Records that would define the sound, cement their names in the history of metal, and make themselves household names. Let's look back at the height of this divisive genre in this matchup I'm calling "That Nu-Phase in Heavy Metal History."
In this corner, we have KoRn, with their third album, 1998's "Follow The Leader". Cited as being the pioneers of nu-metal, the band broke into the mainstream with the release of this record and is one of the most successful records in the band's career. It is also one of the defining records in the nu-metal genre. The album also featured artwork by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, as well as in the band's breakthrough video for the song "Freak on A Leash". Let's check out this defining record and see what the band brings to this matchup.
Opening on the thirteenth track, which lead singer Jonathan Davis has said he's very superstitious and didn't want an album to end on the number thirteen, is the song "It's On!". With a wobbly stereo effect, accompanied with a deep kick drum hit, the song kicks off with the trademark KoRn sound on the guitars with each guitar mirrored, but different in tone in each speaker. Bassist Fieldy's slap bass adds such a unique instrumentation to the main riff and drums, almost a unique percussion element to the band's sound. Davis' shrill and anguishing vocals fit the anxiety inducing feeling of the song in the vocals and cadence.
Next is one of my favorite tracks off the album with "Freak on A Leash". Driving, "in the pocket" style drumming by David Silveria keeps the track pulsing. Distorted vocal effects within the background vocals, add unique touches in the pre-chorus before the chorus kicks in. The bass slapping throughout the main chorus is prominent in the mix behind the tom hits of Silveria. Then the famous breakdown with Davis' scatting over Fieldy's slapping bass and drums hitting hard into the breakdown. With chaotic vocals of singing, screaming and scatting over the simple riff breakdown just makes it an amazing song to picture the crowd losing it live during this section.
Following that is my all time favorite KoRn song with "Got The Life". With that thunderous opening snare hit, into a nice 90's sounding guitar riff with pounding bass hits. The slap bass on the verse section sounds so good, giving a funk feeling to the track. Davis' vocals are at his best, with his aggression and delivery. The vocal harmony of the chorus sounds so good. The beat fading out after the chorus with just drums with the trademark distorted guitars of James "Munky" Shaffer and Brian "Head" Welch, letting Davis' vocals help set the tone for the build that Fieldy's slap bass brings and intensifies with the guitars back into the chorus. The last vocal harmonies at the end into the distorted and fading guitars close out this KoRn classic.
The album takes a darker tone in the song "Dead Bodies Everywhere". With 808 sounding bass drums and a music box sounding melody, before the riff kicks in HARD with that slapping bass adding grit to the riff. The ambient guitar effects create an ominous tone with Davis' trademark vocal delivery. The album does feature three guest appearances by rappers and tries to cater to their rap style, which unfortunately, only one of them is good. The Ice Cube-led track "Children of The Korn" starts with an old-school hip-hop drum beat with Cube hyping the track up. The vocal collaboration of Davis and Cube is a little "out there" and I feel like the song just doesn't work. The second is with fellow nu-metal artist Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit on "All in The Family". A sort of diss track towards the other's band is VERY cringe worthy. With dated lyrics, homophobic slurs, and testosterone-saturated bravado, the only saving grace of the song is the screaming duel both singers share on the chorus. The last featured artist is Tre Hardson of The Pharcyde on the song "Cameltosis". The song actually works really well and is the best of the three with both artists gelling well together musically and working well on the track.
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