Korn is never hesitant to push their own established sound into new areas and showed us this with the album See You On The Other Side which offered up tracks like "Twisted Transistor" and their most recent MTV Unplugged adventure which showed the group able to strip down to bare essentials as well as offer "mash-ups" to their fans. Their latest release comes to us untitled with Jonathan Davis citing that it allows the fans to call it whatever they wanted to but many are simply calling it Korn or Untitled – for the purpose of review we shall stick with the latter. Untitled once again finds Korn adventuring deeper into layers of available sound and bringing a very Atmospheric and Dark Metal vibe to the front for their new album. There are moments of heaviness that will appeal to their most staunch supporters but they also manage to slow it down to extreme subtlety on occasion as well. The album would be the second that was recorded without Brian "Head" Welch who has since left the band after finding religion and it's now the first without drummer David Silveria who had gone on hiatus before the group went into the studio. Drums are instead courtesy of monster player Terry Bozzio, Brooks Wackerman and also Jonathan Davis. Together, the three offer up many different flairs of percussive instrumentation. "Starting Over" begins the album and seems almost an announcement on the band's continuing to go forward despite the changes they have found in recent years. It trudges along in a very familiar fashion and starts the mood right. "Evolution" is another winner and was the first single on the release where Davis mulls about the aspect on whether his children will have a place to live once they grow older based on the ever-changing world and environment. "Kiss" was one of my personal favorites and it is the most sedate and melancholy number on the album. There is some great piano involved and shows Korn can blend in more than just heavy guitars, drums and electronics to their songs. I also enjoyed "Hushabye" quite a bit and felt this one of the darker tracks on the album and second to this one "Ever Be" based on its solid heavy structure. Bozzio's drumming is most prevalent on the closing track "I Will Protect You" which begins with an electronic bagpipe intro by Davis. The technical proficiency of the drummer is staggering throughout the songs middle section and showed he would have been a terrific compliment to the pending tour had he been able to remain in the bands ranks. "Creative Differences" were the reason that he failed to remain and I think that's a shame since one can tell that he was in the pocket on all of his tracks. It was great to hear Davis on the drums as he has not done this role in the band since about 1999.
The questions that remain about the album are "is the band now stagnant" or "are they reaching new creative peaks" and depending on how tough a critic you are for their music then one of these answers is perhaps your own. I am leaning to the second option about their reaching new creative peaks and found that while the album didn't hit me on the first go around it made a lot more sense on the second and third listen. It is most certainly different from their last few releases and I think Korn intended it that way – they are always a band that starts discussion among their fans and with Untitled the floodgates of musical conversation shall once again open.
Track Listing 1. Intro
2. Starting Over
3. Bitch We Got A Problem
4. Evolution
5. Hold On
6. Kiss
7. Do What They Say
8. Ever Be
9. Love And Luxury
10. Innocent Bystander
11. Killing
12. Hushabye
13. I Will Protect You
Added: September 5th 2007 Reviewer:Ken Pierce Score: Related Link:Korn Website Hits: 3264 Language: english
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Korn is never hesitant to push their own established sound into new areas and showed us this with the album See You On The Other Side which offered up tracks like "Twisted Transistor" and their most recent MTV Unplugged adventure which showed the group able to strip down to bare essentials as well as offer "mash-ups" to their fans. Their latest release comes to us untitled with Jonathan Davis citing that it allows the fans to call it whatever they wanted to but many are simply calling it Korn or Untitled – for the purpose of review we shall stick with the latter. Untitled once again finds Korn adventuring deeper into layers of available sound and bringing a very Atmospheric and Dark Metal vibe to the front for their new album. There are moments of heaviness that will appeal to their most staunch supporters but they also manage to slow it down to extreme subtlety on occasion as well. The album would be the second that was recorded without Brian "Head" Welch who has since left the band after finding religion and it's now the first without drummer David Silveria who had gone on hiatus before the group went into the studio. Drums are instead courtesy of monster player Terry Bozzio, Brooks Wackerman and also Jonathan Davis. Together, the three offer up many different flairs of percussive instrumentation. "Starting Over" begins the album and seems almost an announcement on the band's continuing to go forward despite the changes they have found in recent years. It trudges along in a very familiar fashion and starts the mood right. "Evolution" is another winner and was the first single on the release where Davis mulls about the aspect on whether his children will have a place to live once they grow older based on the ever-changing world and environment. "Kiss" was one of my personal favorites and it is the most sedate and melancholy number on the album. There is some great piano involved and shows Korn can blend in more than just heavy guitars, drums and electronics to their songs. I also enjoyed "Hushabye" quite a bit and felt this one of the darker tracks on the album and second to this one "Ever Be" based on its solid heavy structure. Bozzio's drumming is most prevalent on the closing track "I Will Protect You" which begins with an electronic bagpipe intro by Davis. The technical proficiency of the drummer is staggering throughout the songs middle section and showed he would have been a terrific compliment to the pending tour had he been able to remain in the bands ranks. "Creative Differences" were the reason that he failed to remain and I think that's a shame since one can tell that he was in the pocket on all of his tracks. It was great to hear Davis on the drums as he has not done this role in the band since about 1999.
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