The odyssey of discovery promulgated by korn's fourteenth studio album release has really struck me from out of left field, almost as if I've been hit by an incoming comet NASA hadn't detected.
Lies are truth refined. Dark is light hidden from the eye.
I don't even know where to begin. My experiment in sonic exploration seems to have only begun. This duality aligns.
I could never let go the concept of dark and light.
One tries to pull me in, one gives me strength to fight.
My official preorder for REQUIEM arrived today -- one day after my preorder of the REVOLVER limited edition (1,000 pressings) silver vinyl having arrived yesterday. So I listened to the silver vinyl and am right now about to flip the dark crimson splatter vinyl onto side B. Disconnect just finished playing and now I can sum up my general feelings about korn in a nutshell.
To be bounded in a nutshell and count one's-self king of infinite space. I imagine this comes very close to Jonathan Davis's own headspace. There's one variable connecting him to Hamlet, at least.
Am I implying that korn's latest album may be seen as having some positively Shakespearean aspects to it? Damn straight I am. After all, few frontmen in rock and roll have personified all the world being their stage with as much visceral eloquence as the man who fronts the band from Bakersfield.
Hopeless and fucking beaten.
In the wake of online fan forum discussions concerning the digital compression and loudness tactics that seem to plague the CD version of Requiem, I can now veritably guarantee that yes indeed, the vinyl edition of this album stands now as the definitive version that should really be listened to (along with the cassette).
For example, I had no idea that Worst Is On Its Way is really an acoustic song until I listened to it on my record player. Incredible what the organic warmth of the vinyl medium can do. Destroyed by your penance to sorrow. Go, Go, Go!
But I am not jesting. Every track on Requiem sounds a little different than the digital rip to my ears now that I'm attuned into the grooves. And so what is this? You wait to commence? You just run and hide! The industrial slamming riffs of My Confession really balance against the loose swinging groove of the bass and drums supporting Jonathan's impressive range of vocal stylings.
Lonesome, your bed is made. The outcome a useless masquerade. In this song Korn have at last lived up to the legacy they were pointed directly at standing proud on the stage getting close to thirty years ago now.
The crushing riffs alternating with the squeaky hollow reverberating counter-lead work, which is the evolved trademark of the 2-Headed Monster (Head and Munky trading off their licks with uncanny efficiency) has by now evolved into an artform they've served up with perfection on this album.
It's toward the end of Worst Is On Its Way where I can actually hear an acoustic guitar being strummed (like delicate shells revealed on the beach when the riptide of churning guitars pulls away momentarily). I don't believe it's noticeable on the .mp3 -- that is, the digital rip -- but I haven't listened to the CD version yet, so I wonder if its evident on that. This is exactly why the analog mastered vinyl edition of Requiem, it's like the director's cut versions of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. The only ones worth experiencing.
I've been pulled through Requiem enough times to have experienced both the highest possible heights and even been dragged through an uncomfortable exposure to the lowest depths inherent to the songs captured on this fourteenth studio effort from Korn. And right now I can say with a smile, the nutshell I was referring to earlier is that this album really brings the band full circle and in other words sounds as if it could be an auspicious debut and I do mean that in the sense that one of the remarkable aspects of today's age, circa 2022, is that there's such a prevalence of material out there within our exploding human population that its easy for all of it to get lost or dismissed in the burgeoning crowd. Make no mistake about it. Korn's promise of being Here To Stay, delivered all of twenty years ago, still rings true to this day.
I believe this phenomenon has been occurring since the get go, even to go so far as saying that the world is designed like that, it's in its nature to repeat itself with new iterations because it's on an infinite loop; and as many new batches of fans discover older bands, the demographics shift and morph into different shapes, even as some earlier, now disgruntled fans drop the band and move on toward new and different waters, fresh new generations of kids discover Korn anew and the cycle begins again.
The musical landscape of rock'n'roll constantly shifts and evolves, undergoing all manner of topographical storms, and for us to neglect to consider the impact the Covid pandemic has had on virtually everything we do in our daily lives, for the past two years, is to potentially overlook certain aspects of the music industry itself which dominate and shape the form commercial music takes.
I'm just grateful that one of my favorite bands of all time has successfully climbed to such a height of commercial success. For one, it vindicates my stance a quarter of a century ago when I said that Korn were eventually going to become "as big as the Beatles," and for another, it means that they're still in the game -- and still influencing the shape of music to come.
These guys have been my rock'n'roll heroes for twenty-seven years, now. I no longer question how they manage to keep on doing it any more than I questioned how they managed to do it in the first place. The same certain confidence which brought about their memorable single Here To Stay all those years ago remains today in both the band and its growing, ravenous fanbase.
What else can I say? Hell, I could write a book. Maybe someday I will, and if not, fukk it.
I'll never forget when I decided, at the very last moment no less, to go ahead and log onto YouTube on Thursday, February 3, earlier this year, when Korn livestreamed their concert at the Hollywood United Methodist Church in LA. OMG, did I ever make the right choice. That show was a complete surprise, an absolute stunner, believe me you kinda had to have been there, and I do mean even livestreaming it from the comfort of your own home, in perfect pandemic Zoom style.
I've got to lay it out 4U all. First off, I myself, as die hard a fan of the band and their music as anyone, truly doubted the efficacy of opening with a live church choir, on account of the glorious harmonies and beautiful tones setting a bar far too high for any band, much less Korn, to follow in the wake of. Know what I mean? I was thinking, "damn... soon as the heavenly music of the choir fades away and the band takes center stage, thumping and clicking away with their aging vocalist straining at the mic with these songs..." well let's just say I worried just a lil' bit that it might be cringe-worthy...
Boy was that ever not the case. Turns out the band accompanied the church choir, or should I say vice-versa? It doesn't matter...what followed was really impressive as the five members of the band (eschewing Fieldy, who's been on hiatus, while the bass player Ra Diaz of Suicidal Tendencies stood in for him) seamlessly integrated their sound with the celestial tones of the church choir, and eased their way to front and center stage while they proceeded to knock eight songs out of the park; it was outstanding and I swear to all the angels in heaven and demons in hell that it was a riveting performance for the ages.
They opened with Falling Away From Me, a perennial favorite and a perfect match for the church choir and musicians, as if they were fated for one another. Alone I Break followed and somehow its underlying message blended in perfect harmony with the hallowed atmosphere of the church. What on Earth was happening, here? Then I realized that Jon must've embraced this golden opportunity to blaspheme in a church... Lol (that must be it). Then they launched into No One's There, and I should take this moment to mention the band sounded fantastic, and Jon's vocals were on point, but my God I did not expect them to play this song... No One did! WTF... It became perfectly evident right about then that this was a moment in time that the band would either conquer or be conquered by. And O, Lord did they ever deliver. I could not believe what my eyes were taking in or my ears hearing.
When they launched into their new single Start the Healing, the song began to make perfect sense in the wake of the pandemic, and the whole point of their playing a Requiem live in a church (with 300 lucky individuals who managed to score tickets in attendance, all dressed in funereal black to honor the fallen over the past couple of years). Korn were dead serious, dressed to the nines, and they played their bleeding hearts out. I can't wait to get the eventual DVD and experience the whole thing in all its twisted glory again. Ray Luzier was absolutely possessed while playing the drums.
Next came Lost in the Grandeur, and by now I was amazed that these aging gents still has what it takes to knock these songs out of the proverbial park. That did not prepare me for the final three songs, each of which continued to shock and amaze with their perfect delivery. Those songs were Hopeless and Beaten (my favorite from the new album), Worst Is On Its Way, and Let The Dark Do The Rest. Like I mentioned earlier, you had to have been there. On a side note. This was the first time I heard Hopeless and Beaten and those last two tracks. The way Jon sang "Hopeless! and Really Beaten!" sent chills down my spine, having no clue that it was the "clean" version of the chorus. It was great in retrospect because we all know how the song really goes, now. But that just made me appreciate the track even more when I finally listened to the record itself. It's likely the heaviest song Korn ever recorded, at least to my ears and mind, and it's an absolute stand-out track on the album.
What else can I say? Enough is enough, already. Korn just knocked their 14th album into outer space. And they have amassed enough material for the next album already, just like the epic closing track suggests, lol. Well I say, "Bring it!"
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