KORN

[Thorngrub]

well... korn is sponsoring a LIFETIME BACKSTAGE PASS + 1 GUEST contest, they will select 3 LUCKY WINNERS out of the tens of thousands who submit, pleading & squealing their little guts out as to why they should be chosen for this.

All you have to do is submit a comment on their myspace page.

So I did. Here it is:


'Sup guys, I'm Shaun, born in "Thunderkiss" '65 babies, here is why I should win this:

* I've experienced ORGASM during your music. 'Course I WAS HAVING SEX, but that's the point isn't it ? *

+Been an Official Fukker since the GetGo: *March '95 1st show* /$6 @the door/CHANGED MY LIFE+

-I feel I've EARNED this: seen you 13 times live ever since; Representin' in the pits every time:

*Once I climbed & jumped over *TWO 12-foot chainlink fences* (@summer Sanitarium) to bumrush the floor 4U*

**I bypassed TWO SETS OF GUARDS dextrously and made the playing field during your opener, FAFM**

*Was greeted w/a friendly Punch In The Face in the frontcenter pit when I made it there*

+ @lupo's in Providence RI, '96 -- my 24-carat gold glasses were KIKKED OFF MY FACE during my mad scramble to make it UP FRONT CENTER 4 GOOD GOD! Totally worth it! +

- by the time iSsuEs dropped, I was telling everybody you were The New PINK FLOYD to me -

* THEY ALL LAFFED @me but I told em U were like "Floyd / NIN X pure originality" *

+ I had a 2 year love affair/LDR w/one of YOUR BIGGEST FANS over you guyz; together we saw you 4 times: in Denver, Salt Lake City, & twice in Dallas+

- Since I'm "Twice-Twenty-One" (Thunderkiss, remember?) I AM AN ADULT NOT A LIABILITY - ;b

*In short, you are and have been for 12 years now, My #1 Favorite Band 4 the 21st Century. Before that, it was Pink fukking Floyd. That's saying somethin, as far as I'm concerned*

P.S. :

I've had all 5 of you on my "Who I'd Like To Meet" myspace page since its inception. I've got at least 15 Korn T-shirts (my prize possessions). I'm an oldskool rocker (growin up w/Zep & Floyd); I've bought every album of yours the day it dropped (starting w/ LIP: I purchased your debut on CASSETTE TAPE back in December of '94, when it was still pretty fresh); plus all the remixes; It's been a Tradition w/me to rip that shRinkWrap off like a kid'n'a candystoRe & let that Sonic Bliss saturate my soul: I Can't fukking WAIT for next Tuesday guyz! which reminds me:

+I HAVEN'T LISTENED TO UNTITLED YET, because as far as I'm concerned, it's TOO IMPORTANT to me, and I want that shit to rip outta my subwoofers @ maximally impactive levels, know'm say'n~? It's like a Sacred Ritual w/me +

*but I DO love Evolution & I Will Protect You; and Ever Be kicks it oldskool, very much appreciated!*

A good millenia to you, kind siRs. Thanks for all U have done 4 me & your legion of devoted fans.
We love you.

SIN-cerely,

~thoRngRub aka "thoRnswrAth" or just plain Shaun

[Paul]

Cool man, hope you win. That's a pretty good write up, makes me wonder what other folks are writing about.

[Thorngrub]

There's a lot of good ones on there. Plus I don't have tits. :\

(no way i'm going 2 win)

[Thorngrub]

[Thorngrub]

NEW YORK —

With a sparse field of real corn behind them, juxtaposed by the hustle, bustle and blaring fire engine sirens of the city's Times Square, the three active members of Korn — frontman Jonathan Davis, bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu and guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer — announced that they've gone green.

Surrounded by a crush of photographers, fans and curious onlookers, Korn revealed that on the band's Family Values Tour this summer, they'll be traveling in vehicles that operate on domestically produced biodiesel fuels.

The conversion of the group's eight buses and eight cargo trucks will help reduce by almost 50 tons the amount of carbon-dioxide emissions the tour produces, Davis said, and added that they'll be asking the rest of the bands on the festival's bill to follow suit. The band hopes the move will inspire others to make the switch, too.

"We all have children, and I just worry about my kids' kids," Davis, the proud owner of a Toyota Prius, said during the press conference. " they will have a place to live [and I hope] that they won't have to live underground. I think it's time we really did start trying to do something about getting rid of oil in general. We have the means to fuel cars in different ways. We have the technology to do it. We're doing our part to set the wheels in motion."

In addition, Korn — whose untitled eighth studio album lands in stores Tuesday (July 31) — discussed the launch of Korntastic, their own brand of biofuel, which they're cultivating in conjunction with Music Matters' Sustainable Minded Artists Recording and Touring program. The formula, according to the band's publicist, is still in development and will be revealed soon via Korn's new Web site, korntastic.com. At some point, Davis said the band would like to release the fuel for commercial consumption.

"We want to do something for our environment," Davis said. "I know it won't happen overnight, but little things like this, everyone being conscious about it ... we can't change the world, but we can all make a difference."

The bandmembers also said they'll be giving away free Family Values tickets to all U.S. soldiers on leave who want to check out the concert when the 'fest rolls through their towns.

"We got together with the USO and we're offering, in any city we're stopping in, free tickets to the show [to members of the armed forces on leave], so that they can have a good time," Davis explained. "We've always looked out for those guys who're going over to Iraq, risking their lives for us. It's the least we could do — offer them some entertainment and have them forget about what's going on over there for a little bit."

This isn't the first time Korn's worked with the USO. Back in November 2005, the band gave a special live performance on a transatlantic flight to London before an audience of contest winners and eight U.S. soldiers who had served in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

------------------------
www.kornspace.com

[Thorngrub]

^ If that don't beat all.
Go KoRn !

[Thorngrub]

I had to brush the dirt off my ass after hearing untitled. Ok so I was sitting in a grove of trees
on a bare patch of ground; still, it's because the listening experience rooted me to the spot
for the whole trip. & that's exactly what this 8th, classic, album from what's left of Korn is:
a trip. A heady trip. A feverish one; you name it, whatever superlative one might have for it after
hearing the whole thing would probably nail it, cuz this beastie is all over the map.

track 1: intro. This sad, carnivalesque intro drew me in effortlessly & immediately. It walks you silently clown-like hands in pockets into our under ground circus side show. The calliope sounds ominously like elephant ululations (recalling adrian belew), and its sounds form a ghostly arch under crossed tusks, which the tragedy-painted face of our host, a crow-painted mime, flourishes a greeting in a welcoming gesture that let's us pass the safety of his border line while too late,
we are suddenly sucked into a looking glass scream, shocked that the mirror broke before
our eyes into shards tumbling to the floor, we find ourselves lost and alone and

track 2: starting over. "god is gunna take me out", sums up a lot. @2:48 in the song,
Fieldy's bassline really takes it up a notch. The ambiguity and double meaning of that
lyrical refrain is not lost nor is it wasted in this song. "Come take me", an excellent defiance.
The song just has this sweet heavy groove. Which makes the sudden introduction of

track 3. bitch we got a problem. quite jarring. interesting dissonant piano amidst the rumbling
electronic bassline. a close focus on the meaning behind the lyrics cannot fail to bring a smile.
at least to this quirky subdivided face. "we're both schizophrenic I feel, say how many voices you hear?" is quite a snarky line & Jon delivers it - as he does the entire damn album - w/the sneering
panache of authenticity, this is just another one of those songs that could only have come from korn, and their own twisted brand of

track 4. evolution. when jon screams take a look around nothing much has changed, and why,
do i deserve to die, he does so with such ferocity and finesse that it just, man. In the context of the remaining songs from untitled, this song opens up fully as the hit korn song it was intended to be, but it also works as a great intro to

track 5. hold on. ok this is badass. Awesome beginning riff, excellent lyrics, fantastic chorus.
heart/chest-cavingly crushing and effective song, here. A shattering monster mash.

track 6. kiss. beautiful atmospherics. this is sung & performed w/enough renewed feeling
to last any number of the band's incarnations. Feral & alive. Great use of Jon's vocals with strings.
Snot-bubbling goodness here (wipes away a tear). @the why must you push me away interlude
the beatles' reference washed slightly by and thankfully was crushed underfoot in the continuing
industrial strength ending. I particularly enjoyed how Jon's plea gradually sunk into the lower right speaker's register, nice.

track 7. Do What They Say. Nice Crushing Chorus/DAMN. I'd rather be dead than miss this song... I think live it would destroy. Bite your lip; don't be cursing... impulses you must refrain.
Nice changes in the music, mid-song. It was gruff. It's like an oldskool Korn song's mirror image
run backwards through a vacuum. The ending features a sweet segue into

track 8. Ever Be. Now here we see its place in the hierarchy of this album's major lyrical themes.
Right after do what they say. Nice. And this song, well its a bonafide postKorn klassic.
Yet another deepening of the shades in the carefully articulated brushstrokes of perhaps,
Korn's nth masterpiece? Lucky 4U to decide (and I'm pretty sure Jon sings "songs").
@ the 3 and a half minute mark, Munky's sustained guitar riff is the stuff of spontaneous genius,
like the dissonant collection of instruments assembled by Tom Waits, Munky's guitar solo is like
defiance channeled through a toy guitar; transcendent.

track 9. Love & Luxury. This concludes the venting trilogy against head. And oh you just have to
dig this dreamy tune, let's get real. Stellar lyrics/chorus/jammage, I can't even . .. this is... am
freakin out. Moving along is always something I highly endorse. There is a real sense of discomfiture in these songs, a bitterness made all the more palatable by just a moment's
reasoning that there are mentalities such as this to address. And it perfectly moves along into

track 10. Innocent Bystander. Clever use of anthemics, here. Nice blow off to the hard asses.
Begins really kicking ass around the two and a half minute mark and follows through for another
minute to a rousing close. serves as the perfect precursor for

track 11. killing. Sweet guitar sharpening chops at the beginning. It's a trained response.
Nice. Establishes definite korn quality riff at min and a quarter mark... by the two minute mark
this song has cut deep. @2:08 a weird interlude then aw FUCK, we're all reason to rescind to god.
At 3 minutes it is in complete control. It's like Darth Vader grabbed you by the throat and sang at you a confessional ballad. The song's ending is the closest to deathmetal this band has come.
which makes

track 12. hushabye. all the more rewarding. actually NEEDED seemingly soft song lures you
into feeling safe then in a trick move pulls the rug out from under the listener in a manner of rocking the fuck out. I've remained planted here in this sheltering grove along the sidewalk suffering from mild aluminum poisoning, lol. Songs like hushabye are WHY Korn exist, Jon, and you know its why we all exist, too, evergratefully yours, the legion of fukkers.

track 13. I Will Protect You. Makes a killer ending for the masses, and I dig it too. This song
really puts an epic cap on a thoroughly impressive first listen of korn's 8th studio disasterpiece, a work which remains untitled thoughtfully by choice of the band, ironically enough. But, it ain't over until

track 14. Sing Sorrow. The creaky sounds bleeding from IWPY's fading echo finale gradually creep into a wannabe-David cymbal intro which suddenly uncoils at 37 seconds into a creakily driven, total korn song. Does anybody know about love. Does anybody care about god. If you're with me sing sorrow. A cracklin' splinterin' overture of klassic korn madness. Sing sorry U guys had to sit this one out (Head and David). At 3 min mark this song makes a clearer ending to the rest of us,
that we have each other all of us in this community 4 much love & support Thank U Fukkers

1 reason to love untitled: These are all supremely crafted, catchy, gifted songs
w/meaningful lyrics & melodic digressions. This album is very self assured,
and it best be since it packs more than thirteen years of experience & raw passion
into one superproduced package. Highest rating.

thoRnz

[Thorngrub]

ok this album is picking me up and slapping me, this morning the following songs

hold on
kiss
do what they say

which all appear in order... completely, well, for lack of a better word, let's just say "devastated" me, m'k? ok then

for Ever Be to follow this triad of overpowering songs is . . . just . . . well, fuckit.
this album takes SYOTOS and wipes it all over the dirty road, stomps its ass into the woods, laughing maniacally while doing it.

I couldn't even tell U which is my favorite. But let's cut to the chase shall we and admit it:
"hold on" . . . . this song immediately starts with one of the most sickass heavy fuckin riffs I ever heard from korn. And it just keeps kickin it out in your face the whole way through. the most amazing thing is, before you can recover from it, "Do What They Say" comes along and fucking just floors me.

[Thorngrub]

the truth is this album straps me down and rapes me,
filthily, repeatedly, and makes me like it. innocent bystander
is fucking heavy ass korn riffage, and then it goes up a notch
w/killing, i mean. . . yeah you could say the 3 of them are
'back w/a vengeance' lol ... *shakes head 4 david & brian*

I've got it on headphones right now, blaring... "It's a trained response!", and now i don't know wtf is happening, it just got so heavy i'm cowering in my corner here frightened out of my wits

oh yeah - lol -its the end of 'killing', korn gone deathmetal its like Jon gets possessed there for a moment.


~

ok, now this beautiful mandolin is playing... holy shit, it's HUSHABYE ! ! !


here it is, after ALL THAT badass stompin shit, THIS comes along... pure korn classic
WHY WHY WHYYYY HUSHABYE ? :b

I like how it fools you into thinking everything's alright (after killing) . . . . ;b

[pattentank24]

Korn
Untitled
(Virgin)

by Andrew Blackie

Evolution Devolution
Since losing guitarist Brian “Head” Welch to Christianity, Korn have embarked on their most productive musical spree since their nu-metal heyday. Commencing with 2005’s not-all-that-bad See You on the Other Side, they’ve squeezed in three compilations, a DVD, revived their Family Values tour and played at countless festivals around the world. Perhaps it took the loss of a member to motivate them, or maybe they just want to remind us all they’re still here. Less than two years after their last, their eighth studio album is ready for release.

Such extensive touring obviously has a toll: David Silveria missed his family so much that he understandably decided to take a break from the band’s rhythm section. Everyone else in the Korn Kamp, though, dominated by the persona of singer Jonathan Davis, seems to have no time for a family, not when they’ve been trying so hard of late to develop their rap-metal formula and remain relevant (it’s 13 years since their classic debut), so they’ve soldiered on with a replacement and recruited a new session member, keyboardist Zac Baird.

Korn never were much concerned about melody, and whenever they try to convince us otherwise it generally falls flat ("Alone I Break”, this year’s MTV Unplugged), always focusing their efforts on an extremely heavy, bludgeoning sound and twisted, deranged vocal antics to get their rage across. However, on Korn (a declaration of evolution in itself -– the self-titled), a.k.a. Untitled, it’s as if they signed off Nine Inch Nails’ tight, pneumatic beats and have gone about merging it into their own down-tuned, explosive nu-metal. The album plays like a deformed MTV mash-up.

Which presents a simple problem: Korn shouldn’t sound like this. At its heart, Untitled is really quite a heavy record –- more than, say, Linkin Park’s Minutes to Midnight—but is boring-as-heck and doesn’t suit the band at all, bogged down in multi-layered experiments that come and go in unpredictable dribs-and-drabs, but without a shred of atmosphere or surprise to personalize it, meaning that it still winds up an erratic, powerless and paper-thin exercise in futility.

Producer Atticus Ross, who first collaborated with the outfit on See You on the Other Side, must be commended for his understanding of the electronic ‘beat’ and how to best apply it to their dark, malevolent churn. His labors fit the group up with a cold industrial credibility, and steers them away from The Matrix’s pop songwriting and hip-hop fusions, although it’s ultimately difficult to consider that a positive, as it’s already been done with considerably more skill by the very band Korn is aping—a few months ago on Year Zero.

Most egregious of all, Davis sounds tortured for all the wrong reasons. Digitally processed to a shiny, double-tracked edge to hide that he’s no longer young, he can no longer scream “WON’T YOU GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY FACE! NOW!” ("Good God”, 1996) and make it sound both marrow-chilling and like he’s having a nervous breakdown. His lifeless voice commits any number of atrocities all over the disc, and it’s worst when he’s trying to carry a tune on one of Untitled’s many downright ridiculous choruses: from falsetto mewing, to an off-pitch, wobbly baritone, sandpaper-coarse croaking and his unique but horrendously out of place here gruff, adenoidal, squared yap (Come take me (may)!").

Speaking of which, Davis needs some hooks. There are plenty of potentials here, but they’re buried beneath mirk and Reznor-worshipping chromatic warp riffs, or poorly timed delivery. Other Side’s “Twisted Transistor” had a biting, radio-ready catchiness to it. “Evolution” shouldn’t even be a single. It runs its course as a time-shifting, key-modulating junior commentary on global warming ("Why? Do I deserve to die? I’m dominated by/ This animal that’s locked up inside!"), a melody so sparse its atonal and as much charisma as a bedpost.

Untitled even bears some unwelcome similarities to Metallica’s St. Anger in that it beats an already-overused phrase into exasperation through rep-rep-repetion. They contrast “It’s starting over” with “Nothing much has changed”, which is kinda like Kid A-era Radiohead contrasting “This isn’t really happening” and “This is really happening” only, you know, Korn doesn’t have the artistic index to make the connection. Sure, Davis was diagnosed with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) last year, very nearly killing off one dreadlocked headbanger, and it’s all very well to translate your harrowing, near-death experiences into your writing… Except when introspection is expressed this banally, you wonder why you should care. “I’d rather be dead than carry on”, Davis moans in “Do What They Say”, an example of a line worthy of Korn’s depressed, nihilistic beginnings. But it’s roared listlessly over a thudding backdrop, destroying its potency. It’s misery for misery’s sake.

The album begins with an intro of creepy carnival-after-dark music, a motif that recurs throughout. The effect is possibly slightly unnerving, but everywhere else, the huge production and engineering team jump in to make the record’s tracks sound more like strict, droning machines than the soundtrack to a B-grade horror movie. The only flash of auditory dissonance in Korn’s faux-industrial-metal swipe is the lamely titled “Bitch, We Got a Problem”, which kicks off superbly withn a squealy guitar line and unusual time signature under Davis’ uneven flow, and loses its momentum upon reaching an irritating sing-songy chorus that falls into self-parody: “Which one, which one of you is into me? Which one, which one of me is into you?”

Other songs like “Hold On” and “Ever Be” bring back the guitars, but highlight how much Fieldy’s scratchy bass heaviness and the band’s brutal rhythmic grooves are missing from the proceedings. Rarely if ever do the tempos lift above a perpetual mid-slog, draining the performance of all its catharsis. Let’s not even get started on the abysmal “Love and Luxury”, beginning with Davis busting out a laughable Right Said Fred impression (remember “I’m Too Sexy?” Like that). It makes even See You on the Other Side’s stinkers look delightful.

Davis needs to ease off the smothering dominance he splashes over the record. It was acceptable for him just to belt it haphazardly on Korn’s earliest outings –- it fit in with the notion of exploring his psyche. Untitled is a different story. This work needs to breathe if its bold experiments could ever work, and he insists on lavishing his over-dubbed whining all over the thing, at the expense of his other band members (Munky’s seven-string guitar, once sounding so cool, is given the back seat).

Still they keep up the pretense in the name of progress ("It’s evolution!” as he gulps during “Evolution"), and with a total count of 13 cuts to wade through, most of which range from bad to awful, it’s easy to skip over the interesting or tolerable. A drill of concentrated feedback and drumming tears up some rather blah piano arrangements on “Kiss”, while only “Killing” rubs off genuinely menacing, a rumbling deathmarch that packs a real punch. It’s no exaggeration to say this is the heaviest the band has been in quite some time. Finishing on a series of impressive death-metal growls, “Killing” is still somewhat detracted by the babbling chorus about ‘killing them with lies’ (Korn’s anti-war statement?). And that’s forgotten by the time the unforgivable “Hushabye” rolls around, once again a case of a perfectly promising verse overrun by the one of the stupidest choruses in the history of nu-metal: “Why, why, why, Hushabye?” How could anyone sing that without a guilty conscience?

Korn really do want to evolve. That much is obvious. That said, going by Untitled it’s hard to believe they’re anything but a rich, less-than-smart band who are stumbling for a new foothold now that their adolescent traumas no longer carry weight. According to Davis, the album is influenced by the Cure and the Beatles? Yeah, right. This self-titled sounds like Korn trying to play watered-down nu-Korn, or Nine Inch Nails, or, if such prestigious tie-ins really do exist here, it’s in such a heavy-handed and amateurish way that the former artists would probably run a mile from it. Though not as bad an album in itself as the spineless Unplugged, Untitled still offers us nothing to remember and isn’t even particularly accessible in spite of its stiff, softer-around-the-edges polishing. It sounds like Korn has lost the will to live.


**ducks from thorn***

my response to the new album is

not great not awful will see as time passes

[Thorngrub]

see, statements like "korn never were much concerned about melody" come across to me like some jaded airline critic stating "Delta never were much concerned about flying", it just flies directly into the face of contradiction, and I do not get it ! HOW ! Can ! someone ! say ! THAT ! ! ! ROADKILL is not much concerned with melody ! Your lawnmower is not much concerned with melody ! ! MELODY IS KORN'S BREAD AND BUTTER !

*vented*/ cont. reading above review...

[Thorngrub]

korn is ALL ABOUT hooks . . .

*shakin head*

[Thorngrub]

*koff*... er, korn were obviously NIN-influenced since their debut. *psst, patten: U're not this 'Andrew Blackie' guy, are ya... ? If so, no offense meant, mate. I'm just knockin' down each point he makes which I feel necessary to, well, knock down...
... so, yeah, anyone trying to say anything about "NIN ripoffs" or "Atticus Ross has brought in a NIN copycat sound, yada yada yada", is more than a tad off base.

I'll clear it up 4U here. Korn's original sound was extremely NIn-influenced, but not the 'fragile' or spooky/creepy ambient toy piano interlude shit; rather, original Korn shared the catharsis and raw, blocks-of-concrete-smashing-down-repeatedly-onto-your-head RIFFS which paralleled the original Nine Inch Nails live performances during pretty hate machine [performances which in and of themselves sounded a HELL of a lot more like debut korn than the ALBUM 'pretty hate machine', I'll tell U that much].

So, fast-forward *11 YEARS* into Korn's career, and they FINALLY ACTUALLY HOOK UP WITH THE REAL DEAL: Atticus Ross; and NOW (that is, 2 years ago), the Nine Inch Nail affiliation which was already stamped in korn's Genetic Code has received a Super Deluxe Polish Wax Job from one of NIN's actual producers.

See: it's a "come full circle" thing, and IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM *should* be misconstrued as some "pale NIN appropriation", no sir. (Of course, many clueless folk will jump to that mistaken conclusion, but they don't really understand the nature of either band very much, if you ask me).

*continues reading review*

[KooL]

Andrew Blackie writes for Popmatters. I'm pretty sure it's not patten.

ThoRns, you can find links to a bunch of reviews for the new KoRn album here. I'm warning you though, they're mostly negative.

[Thorngrub]

"Most egregious of all, Davis sounds tortured for all the wrong reasons. Digitally processed to a shiny, double-tracked edge to hide that he’s no longer young, he can no longer scream “WON’T YOU GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY FACE! NOW!” ("Good God”, 1996) and make it sound both marrow-chilling and like he’s having a nervous breakdown. His lifeless voice commits any number of atrocities all over the disc, and it’s worst when he’s trying to carry a tune on one of Untitled’s many downright ridiculous choruses: from falsetto mewing, to an off-pitch, wobbly baritone, sandpaper-coarse croaking and his unique but horrendously out of place here gruff, adenoidal, squared yap (Come take me (may)!"). "


#1. Who in their RIGHT MINDS would even WANT Jonathan DAvis to scream GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY FACE today, like he's having a nervous breakdown? It's captured on tape forever, it's called their 2nd album, put it on and push PLAY and shut the fuck up.

#2. His "lifeless" voice ?/?! ! 'atrocities', oh, I read your little review there, and HA HA HA HA, is all I gotta say. The "Come Take Me!" refrain sends chills into my heart, all I gotta say is the guy who wrote above review and I are on such different pages, it ain't even funny. He should stick w/his mopey emo or whatever it is he enjoys, and I'll stick w/my deathmetal, eno, and korn thank u.

My own 2 cents: I personally think Jon's vocals on Untitled are carried beyond extremes he's ever reached. It's hard for me to nail it on the head, but when hear him sing "Bitch we got a problem! Yeh!" during that one moment in that song, I think "Mick Jagger" in a flash-second, and I DO mean the charismatic, frontman pied-piper leading a generation when I say that. Highest props, in other words.