October 11, 1994 - Korn and Korn

A week after my last release a new band joins my library when Korn released their debut album "Korn" on October 11, 1994. But who is Korn? They are a five-piece band from Bakersfield, California consisting of Jonathan Davis (lead vocals, bagpipes), Brian "Head" Welch (guitars), James "Munky" Shaffer (guitars), Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu (bass) and David Silveria (drums, percussion) and they are the pioneers of a new genre known as nu metal. Nu metal is a pretty heavy style of metal with lots of loud, headbanging riffs and usually some pretty fast and heavy vocals as well. There was nobody else playing music anything like Korn in 1994 and they set the stage for a massive wave of bands to follow in their footsteps. Let's see what Korn is all about!

The album begins with "Blind", one of for singles, and Silveria starts things off with some light but fast cymbals and one guitarist does a start-and-stop short little riff. Fieldy adds some nice bass next and then the other guitarist completes this main riff with a loud, heavy and pretty damn catchy guitar riff. Davis does a nice "are you ready?!" as everyone nicely jams out this heavy riff and then things dissolve into a slow, trippier verse with Davis singing in a soft voice. Davis sings in his more regular voice in the chorus, but it's just "I'm so blind" overtop a solid heavy chorus riff. After another soft verse and heavy chorus they briefly return to the catchy opening riff before Davis starts to repeat "I can see, I can see, I'm going blind" with increasing volume until he's nicely yelling it by the end  and the music also builds until reaching a nice heavy conclusion with some nice drum fills by Silveria. They end the song with a very different riff led by some cool bass by Fieldy and it sounds interesting for sure, but it's way different than the rest of the song. Up next is "Ball Tongue" and they kick right into a cool heavy riff with some nice guitars and bass. Once they reach the verse Fieldy plays some awesome bass to keep the pace and we hear some very weird guitar that sounds almost Rage Against the Machine-esque while Davis sings a fast-paced verse overtop. Things sound pretty cool and when they hit the chorus Davis snaps into a scarier, creepy sort of voice that sounds very unique and pretty heavy. This song does a great job of alternating between the cool funky verse and the much heavier chorus and they don't really stray far from these two riffs and at the end they just play the chorus even louder! Track 3 is another single titled "Need To" and one guitarist plays a repetitive riff that drives this song while Fieldy slaps some pretty cool bass in the background and the other guitarist comes in with some sweet faster lead guitar. Davis eventually sings a verse that matches the mood very well and he sounds solid holding some long notes. Davis alternates between some nice screams and some creepy whispering in the chorus and I love the emotion in his screams. Davis holds several nice long "whyyyyyy" screams as well after the chorus and then hit reset and start up the whole song again for a final verse and nice final chorus. The next song "Clown" was also a single but it starts with the band missing the count-in to start and then we hear the guys talking with the recording staff for over thirty seconds trying to figure out the timing in a bit of a funny opening. We even hear Jonathan Davis say "just fucking do it, damn it!" Once they do start playing, it's possibly their heaviest riff yet as the drums, bass and guitars all sound pretty great. The verse has Head and Munky both playing some cool, weird guitar riffs and along with Jonathan's light singing things sound pretty cool. The heavy riff turns out to be a nice chorus riff and Davis sings louder and faster in this solid chorus. After another verse and chorus we get a short guitar break that isn't really a solo but sounds pretty good and then Davis nicely starts quiet and slowly ramps back up to a final chorus before they close things out on a nice heavy note. Track 5 is called "Divine" and Silveria plays some nice fast drums before everyone joins in to complete this fast-paced headbanger and Davis sings quickly, and nicely, along to the music. Davis sings in a much quieter voice in the chorus and while it's not as heavy it does sound pretty creepy. After another verse and chorus Fieldy gets a brief spotlight with some cool bass and this sets the stage for the next verse where Davis sings quietly at first "fuck you. I'm fed up with you. I'm not as good as you, fuck no, I'm better than you" and after a couple times he starts to just yell the same lines at the top of his lungs. The music is pretty intense as well and this is a perfect example of what nu metal is: high octane and hardcore stuff! They smoothly segue from here back to the chorus to finish off this short but solid song. Up next is "Faget" and Jonathan Davis wrote this song because in school many kids made fun of and bullied Davis for wearing black make-up and one of their favourite insults was to call him a faggot (not sure why the different spelling). The opening is a quiet version of the main riff but it doesn't take them long to turn up the volume on this slow but cool riff. Davis sings a soft verse about going to school as a teen while one of the guitarists changes to some trippy stuff. The chorus is the opening riff with Davis holding some long notes overtop and after another verse and chorus we hear Davis yell the name of the song a few times and he is really giving it all on these yells (not a scream per se, but he is screaming!) They play another verse and chorus before we hear Davis go off in a new direction. He does a nice singing bit that ends with him yelling "suck my fucking dick and fucking like it!" and then he goes off on a nice yelling bit followed by a softer bit. There's a nice slow build-up until Davis releases a yelling binge and I think he sounds awesome as you can really hear the emotion in his voice. At the end of the song he is just pouring his soul out as he yells "I'm not a faggot! I'm not a faggot, you motherfucking queers!" A LOT of profanity. Track 7 is "Shoots And Ladders" and this is unlike any of the songs we've heard by Korn so far. It's very quiet at the start and out of the silence emerges Davis playing the bagpipes! They are very slow and bagpipes are not my favourite instrument, but it does somehow sound ominous, like I feel something bad is around the corner. After a pretty long bagpipe intro the rhythm section kicks in with Silveria playing a catchy drum beat and the bass and one guitar heavily follow this catchy beat. The bagpipes continue along with this for a short bit, then the lead guitar comes in with some slow, trippy and pretty epic stuff. This epic riff is the backdrop for the first verse and we hear Davis start to sing "Ring Around the Rosie". It's certainly a weird choice to cover this children's song but they make it sound pretty cool! After this Davis sings an original verse about how dark nursery rhymes are (he's right) and then moves into "1, 2, buckle one shoe" and then without skipping a beat into "London bridge is falling down". A whole song of nursery rhymes played to heavy metal music... a new and interesting choice. After another same original verse everything stops but one guitar and we hear a faster new riff that is quiet but sounds good and Davis whispers "Nick nack paddy wack, give a dog a bone" a couple times before they nicely snap into a way louder and heavier version of the same riff. The music is headbanging at it's finest and Davis yells the nursery rhyme overtop and he sounds pretty awesome screaming "this old man came rolling home!" He moves seamlessly into fastly singing "Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow" and he sounds like a crazy person as he creepily sings another nursery rhyme overtop the great music. They return to the slow original riff and play another round of "Ring Around the Rosie" followed by a final original verse. Davis closes out the song with a final loud rendition of "nick nack paddy wack" before they abruptly end this pretty cool song. The next song is "Predictable" and Fieldy plays a groovy bass riff that everyone else forms around for another cool and heavy main riff and Davis sings a quiet verse overtop. The chorus is pretty basic but things pick up afterwards and then everything but the bass falls away. Fieldy plays some more cool stuff while Davis sings a new verse and they nicely ramp back into the heavy main riff for a final verse and a final regular chorus before they play a heavier version of the chorus to finish things off. Track 9 is "Fake" and it opens with a nice heavy riff but they switch to a slower, creepier vibe for the verse with some more strange guitar noises and Davis almost whispering overtop. The opening riff turns out to be a cool bridge between the verse and chorus and Davis sings a solid chorus that ends with a great stop-and-start bit that sounds really heavy. After another verse, bridge and chorus Davis continues to sing lightly overtop the creepy music until he unleashes a few deadly "FAAAKE"s that sound awesome! This is followed by another cool part where Davis alternates between rapping and more loud "FAKE"s and then they finish the song as it began with a final heavy bridge riff. Those were some great screams! Up next is "Lies" and it begins with a slow but heavy riff before they settle into another creepy sounding verse with some strange and cool guitars and bass. The lead guitar sounds pretty sweet in the verse and the chorus has Davis doing some nice fast vocals, all while there is one long, deep growl in the background and things sound pretty cool. After another verse and chorus Davis goes off on a new tangent, ending his bit with a loud "GO!" and then they segue nicely right back into the deadly chorus. Davis yells quickly in a great little ending bit as well and they packed a lot of heavy awesomeness into this short song. Track 11 is called "Helmet In The Bush" and it has an odd opening where we hear a stereotypical spanish voice talking about tacos for some reason. Then they proceed like normal with a heavy yet pretty catchy main riff. They never really stray from this repetitive riff as the chorus is very similar and they roll through a couple of them. One guitarist breaks away to add some weird high guitar but it's still all pretty repetitive and it certainly loses some luster after a few minutes. Davis ends the song with a bit of really cool screaming and I wish there had been more of that in the rest of the song, it was easily the best part and it was only 10 or so seconds! The final song on the album is "Daddy" and it is easily the longest song on the album at seventeen and a half minutes long! Davis opens the song by himself, singing nicely while the other members add some "ahhh"ing backing vocals behind him. After this opening Fieldy starts up another cool bass riff and everyone else forms a typical, creepy Korn riff around it. The verse is from the point of the view of the father as Davis sings creepily about how sweet and innocent children are, but in the chorus Davis switches to his point of view (the child) and we hear a very disturbing chorus which details how Jonathan's dad would rape him as a child and how Davis even caught his Mom watching it happen, and she didn't do anything. This is no joke, Jonathan Davis was abused heavily as a kid and this is his way of letting some of that anger and sadness out and it makes for a very dark chorus. After another creepy verse and dark chorus they move into a pretty heavy new riff that is certainly a headbanger and then Davis quietly sings the chorus overtop instead of yelling it. He then sings a brief new part before they return for another verse and yelling chorus. Each proceeding chorus shows more emotion from Jonathan and by the end of the last chorus you can actually hear him sobbing. This is as real as it gets as Davis yells while crying "Motherfucker! I fucking hate you! You ruined my life!" as the music is coming to a halt and this is some really sad stuff. Davis is pouring his soul out into this song and you can't help but feel for the poor guy who is clearly dealing with a lot of repressed emotions. It's insane that they actually put this to tape as the music is now over and we just hear Davis crying in the studio. A women's voice starts very softly in the background to sing a creepy part while Davis is still sobbing and then Silveria returns with some light cymbals and one of the guitarists returns for a creepy new riff to close things out at the 9:32 mark. That is the end of the actual song "Daddy", a very dark and depressing song indeed and then follows about four and a half minutes of silence before we reach a bonus "song" called "Michael & Geri". This is not a song at all, but just two people arguing about what a certain part of a car is called. There's a lot of swearing from Michael and it's some pretty annoying bickering honestly, a weird way to end this debut album.

That is the end of "Korn" and I thought it was a pretty sweet album! These guys are unlike anything that was out at this point and they make a very interesting formula with each member playing it's own piece: one guitar that's heavy and catchy, another guitar playing some creepy and cool stuff, some solid drumming, some really great and catchy bass by Fieldy and the one-of-a-kind Jonathan Davis on vocals, who has a great vocal range from soft and creepy singing to some awesome yells and even a few really nice screams! This all makes for an exciting new style of metal and Korn pack a heavy yet groovy punch that I think is pretty cool. I can't wait to see where they go from here!