Korn
The Path Of Totality

It had been a very long time since I listened to Korn; I had loved them back in the days of their self-titled debut album and was captivated by their new, angry, rough, and to my ears, very innovative style. I then listened to the successor “Life is Peachy” and something else, I think “Follow the Leader,” but I didn't find the genius and originality of their first work, so I lost track of them, and I admit I completely ignored their work in recent years. Yesterday I learned about the release of the new CD, and partly out of curiosity and partly because I haven't found any new releases lately that managed to capture my attention, I decided to listen to it.

This “The Path of Totality” I liked because it’s a good crossover, a mix of genres, without forgetting rock and metal, filled with an abundant dose of electronics and DJ style; surely a child of industrial, this album winks at “synthetic” sounds such as some tracks by RAMMSTEIN, with electronic inserts that vaguely remind me of “Remanufacture” by Fear Factory, which was nothing but “Demanufacture” remixed in a disco-dance key. The DJ's hand is always present in the tracks, with scratches, sounds coming directly from machines and synthesizers, and some typically dance rhythms; the drum sounds absolutely follow this line, while the guitars are always present but filtered and frighteningly compressed. You won’t find rock riffs or bass slaps like in the old days, forget metal, and enter this new dimension that will lead you straight into the Matrix club, the one where Neo and Morpheus meet the Merovingian, among men and women wrapped in latex, laser and psychedelic lights and music at full volume.

It’s difficult to do a “track by track,” the tracks are all on this line, but they are enjoyable if one is open-minded; there are no fast rhythms, but only well-structured mid-tempos, heavy at the right point. I think an excellent job has been done on the sounds, which manage to maintain the typical characteristics of the instruments while making them synthetic and electronic, yet still preserving cleanliness and hardness. The first “Chaos Lives in Everything'' very well summarizes the whole album: an absolutely dance intro and a guitar that takes a back seat, overwhelmed by synthetic impulses and driving rhythms. But the voice is unmistakable and opens to melody when the tempo change takes us into the refrain. Also very good are “Get Up!” which goes from a similar-pop to a delirium of sick sounds that wouldn’t be out of place in an Aphex Twin piece, and “Narcissistic Cannibal,” where the Korn style is joined and accompanied by a mix of sounds, rhythms, and electronic pulses.

This “The Path of Totality” also has its weak points; you can't expect big changes while listening to it, and in this case, there are also some less successful tracks; however, KORN has managed to pull out a truly modern sound and, in my opinion, very well done. It won’t be the album of the year, but it certainly deserves a bit of attention from those who, despite being a metalhead like me, do not disdain a bit of healthy experimentation.