Korn review: Metal's most intense album

Time has not been kind to nu metal. Despite wild popularity in its late 90's heyday, the subgenre is now remembered as an inferior rebound to the grunge scene, prompted by the suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. As such, nu metal's biggest bands are often thought of today as copyists lacking in originality and imagination, but what's often forgotten is that some of the best albums in rock history were recorded by bands of this underappreciated genre; Deftones White Pony, Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory, and of course the greatest of them all: Korn's self-titled debut alum. Critically revered on its release twenty years ago, does the record today retain all of its brutality, originality and lyrical relevance?


Without even hearing a single note of music, it's obvious that Korn is not going to be easy on the ear. The now-iconic album sleeve displaying a young girl peering up at a tall, leering figure seen only in shadow instantly infers the dark undertones of the music within, as well as establishing an early theme of the loss of innocence. Opening with a tectonic scream of "are you ready", Korn quickly establishes the band's trademark sound of hip hop and rap elements merging with jarring metal riffs, creating a violent and uncompromising noise as early as first track Blind. Throughout the record, melodies are accompanied by low, never-ending bass riffs, resulting in an agonised and despairing sound  counterpointed by the album's lyrics. Singer Jonathan Davis describes Korn's songwriting as having been heavily influenced by his work on child autopsies, and this truly shines through on a number of overarching lyrical themes dwelling on topics as controversial as child abuse and mental illnesses. Combining this with skin crawling lyrical imagery at word level leads to songs which can be almost painful to listen to in their unflinching intensity and anger. Davis' vocal style only heightens this feeling, his remarkable switching between scream and wavering soprano giving a disturbing touch to many songs and becoming a totem for future metal singers including Slipknot's Corey Taylor.

 While it's easy for bands to create such heavy and intense sounds that it becomes almost white noise rather than music, Korn rarely takes that path because of how cleverly it's written. Despite it's unpleasant themes, it's lyrically superb, and brilliantly memorable riffs on songs like Blind and Divine suggest a young band full of ideas. The shocking juxtaposition between signwriting genius and horrifically-themed lyrics is no more apparent than on final track Daddy, an epic 9 minute hate anthem relating to Davis' experience of sexual abuse as a young child. Dark and focused melodies and riffs build to a stunning climax of Davis screaming wildly and bursting into anguished sobs alongside the album's most strikingly violent lyrical images.

20 years on, Korn remains one of the greatest and most intense metal of albums of all time, and was the inspiration for a new generation of bands including Sepultura, Machine Head and Slipknot. It's songwriting is undeniably brilliant and it's full of intelligent themes and meanings, and is a rare example of total and uncompromising focus in a heavy metal record.

9/10