October 15, 1996 - Life Is Peachy

A week after my last release and two years since their self-titled debut, Korn released their second album "Life Is Peachy" on October 15, 1996. Korn toured extensively in support of their debut album and developed a strong, underground following, even opening for Ozzy Osbourne! This album continued Korn's rise into the mainstream and it's the same heavy, nu-metal style that they pioneered with lots of hip-hop influences. Let's check out the new Korn!

The album kicks off with "Twist", which is the perfect showcase for Jonathan Davis's unique vocal style. It's been called metal scat-style singing by some, which seems like a good description, since Davis is making some pretty crazy noises. The only actual words in the song are when he sings the name of the song softly, then it's right back to the craziness/awesomeness. It's less than a minute long, but it's pretty cool and a very interesting way to kick off the album. Up next is "Chi" and it's named after former Deftones bassist Chi Cheng! David Silveria plays some nice, fast drums and Fieldy's unique, super low bass still sounds just as cool as the last album. Head and Munky play some trippy guitar in the verse while Davis sings softly, but the chorus is way louder with some heavy guitars and some heavy and fast vocals. The shift from quiet to loud is done really well on this song and there's one part that is extremely heavy with Davis full-on screaming his lungs out, and unsurprisingly that's my favourite part! This is one one of my favourite Korn songs, not just on this album, but of their career! Words don't do proper justice to how fucking heavy this was, especially for 1996. Fantastic stuff! Track 3 is "Lost" and it follows the same formula of a quieter and space-y verse that leads into a loud and heavy chorus. The heavy part is nice and upbeat and even though Davis does mostly quiet singing on this one, it's still a pretty good song. The next track is "Swallow" and it hits pretty fuckin hard with a pretty sweet main/chorus riff. Fieldy's bass in the verses is really cool and Korn are excellent at luring you in with a quiet but unique verse and then smacking you over the head with a nice headbanging chorus. Another pretty good song! Track 5 is a short instrumental titled "Porno Creep" and it's a little interlude that just repeats a short, trippy riff. It's not bad, but not much either. Up next is "Good God" and it's led by a cool guitar riff and as usual has a pretty sweet rhythm section. Davis sings in a nice voice throughout, including a really heavy "won't you get the fuck out of my face?!" that sounds awesome. They build perfectly to an extremely heavy part with Davis just screaming with all his emotion and everything sounds amazing! I love when Davis just lets it all out, he's a really great singer! Track 7 is "Mr. Rogers" and Davis named it after the very famous TV host because "As a kid, he told me to be polite, and all it did was get me picked on. I fucking hate that man." It's got a slower pace, but it's still a solid and heavy riff. Most of the song is pretty chill, but Davis yells in a couple parts to spice things up, including a nice verse near the end. Track 8 is "K@#¿%!" and it's censored name seems perfect for a song where pretty much every lyric is some sort of vulgar insult. Davis rants profanities overtop a nice and heavy main riff and this is every parent's nightmare! So many dirty words to learn! It's a teenager's paradise, and all set to some solid music. Track 9 is "No Place To Hide" and it follows the same formula of a quieter but cool verse into a loud and heavy chorus. This one's a little repetitive, but it's still solid. Up next is "Wicked", which is not only a cover of rapper Ice Cube, but it features Deftones singer Chino Moreno! Two of the original nu-metal bands team up to pay homage to some hip hop, in a very metal way! The verse's rapping vocals aren't my favourite, but the music is cool for sure and Davis scat screaming in the chorus sounds great. There's some cool guitars by Munky and Head throughout, but strangely the somg featuring Chino was probably my least favourite vocals on the album! Track 11 is "A.D.I.D.A.S.", which stands for "all day I dream about sex". The opening couple verses are solid, but after that the only lyrics are the name of the song lots of times. Thankfully, it's overtop a pretty catchy beat and even though it's a bit of a joke song, it's a decent one. The next track is a one-minute cover of War's famous song "Lowrider" and they actually do a good job! Davis sings in a really low voice and he also plays the main catchy riff of the song on bagpipes! It still shocks me a bit that Jonathan Davis plays bagpipes, but just like on "Shoots And Ladders" last album, they did a tasteful job of it once again! An interesting little interlude that somehow leads right into track 13 "Ass Itch". It's got a nice fast main riff with some great bass by Fieldy and the opening lyrics are "I hate writing shit. It is so stupid. What's my problem today?" Interesting lyrics for sure, but Davis delivers them in his unique way and things sound pretty good as usual, another solid jam. The final song on the album is also the longest and it's called "Kill You". It's got a slow and melodic main riff, a change for Korn, but after this slow start we reach a nice heavy chorus with some nice drums and some nice screams. Davis goes off on a rant about wanting to kill his Mom (so that's who the you is) in a twisted little part and just like the final song on their debut album, Davis gets very emotional and we even hear him start to break into tears at the end of the song, which is about the five minute mark. Also like their debut, there is a bonus bit after a couple minutes of silence and on this album it's an a capella version of this album's opening track "Twist". One of the other band members says "use the force Luke" and Davis replies "ok, I'm gonna use the force", and then let's loose with the scat vocals. It sounds better with the band, but it's crazy to hear this raw take of Davis, he can just pull these out whenever!

That is the end of "Life Is Peachy" and I thought it was a fantastic album! It was full of headbangers and I love the heaviness that is on most tracks. "Chi" and "Good God" were especially awesome, but most of these songs were way above average, thanks to all five members really bringing something to the mix. I thought this was even better than "Korn", which was also a heavy, great album, but this one is overflowing with metal goodness! Keep trailblazing Korn!