KORN - Requiem

30 Jan

Written by: Tom Wilson - Sense Music Media | Sunday 30 January 2021

Picking a setlist must be a challenge for KORN at this stage in their career. How the hell do you adequately represent 14 albums worth of work? It could be argued that, after the unbeatable first five records, KORN’s output fluctuated during the 2000s – sometimes underwhelming, sometimes awesome – but they have never been afraid to take risks. There aren’t many of these stylistic curveballs here. After a string of great albums starting with 2011’s The Path of Totality, KORN haven’t played it safe with Requiem, they’ve just stuck to what makes them a great band. Forgotten wastes little time, slamming into their signature down-tuned pounding over drummer Ray Luzier’s intricate grooves, and it opens an album full of massive vocal hooks, crushing breakdowns and eerie guitar atmospherics from Munky and Head.

Fieldy’s famous rattling bass sound is less pronounced than in previous albums – the band opting for a thicker, inescapably massive sonic pummel. How much of this is due to the band’s decision to buck technological trends and utilise analog tape, only they can tell you. What we’re left with is a bottom-end so sludgy and molasses-thick that it threatens to distort space time. The end of Start the Healing feels like it should register on the Richter scale and trigger tsunami warnings, and let’s just say that the title of Hopeless and Beaten will also describe the listener after hearing it.

“It’s an album with a staggering amount of ideas thrown into the mix, but still has cohesion and focus.”

Lost in the Grandeur is a staccato spasm of warp-speed pummelling and scratchy riffage that wraps a gorgeous vocal hook around jarring tempo shifts. At one point his vocals are surrounded by swirling laughter, like he is mocking himself. Hey, would it even be a KORN album without a decent serving of signature Jon Davis torment? I worry about that man sometimes. While we’re on that subject, KORN superfans no doubt already know that Fieldy has taken some time away from the band to work on some private issues. Whether he feels able to return or not, he’s in our thoughts here at SENSE, and we wish him well.

As album closer Worst is on its Way comes to a boil, Jon’s vocals erupt into his signature scatting, and you’ll feel like you’re a kid hearing Twist for the first time.

Pictured: *Brian Welch, James Shaffer, Jonathan Davis + Ray Luzier*
Photo by: *Tim Saccenti* @timsaccenti

The Verdict

Freed from touring-related time constraints due to COVID, KORN have taken their time, and thrown everything but the kitchen sink at Requiem. It’s an album with a staggering amount of ideas thrown into the mix, but still has cohesion and focus. They’ve sold more than 40 million records, created a genre (whether they liked it or not), and somehow, in 2022, still sound as energetic and ferocious as they did in the 90s. Requiem carries on a winning streak that has lasted for over a decade.