KORN

[Thorngrub]

[Thorngrub]

Funny how tWisteD tRanSister has inexorably grown into one of my all-time favorite korn singles. "A lone - ly - Life, where no one understands you..." , I mean . . . that shit is seriously infectious . . .

[Thorngrub]

I am going to be straight up front stage center for this shit, and I'll be damned if I don't come back w/some seriously dazzling close up pics of Majesty's Voice . . . that is, if my cellphone survives it . . .

[Thorngrub]

[Thorngrub]

Majesty's Voice is reminescent of another Giger sculpture called the "Nubian Queen", here is a pic of it:

[Thorngrub]

Here's Jon and Giger, in Zurich. Below is a transcript I copied & pasted from a Giger site. You can read in Giger's own words about his experience being commissioned to do Majesty's Voice for Jon:

"Since I stopped painting, entirely, in 1990, and have been concentrating mostly, on sculptures, my collaborations with musicians seemed to be over until Korn came along. Usually, I become aware of new band only when someone calls them
to my attention or if I am sent their music, for some reason. I first heard the name KORN when I was contacted with the proposal to create a special microphone stand for the lead singer, Jonathan Davis. The idea was suggested to him by one of his friends who knew that Jonathan was
a fan of my artwork. Since the music has always been the most important thing for me and I must, absolutely, like it before
I can work with a band, or even agree to
let them use one of my old paintings,
first I listened to all the Korn CDs they
sent to me.

The same day I decided to accept the project, I started making many sketches,
at first, in the form of plantlike snakes and vertebrae mixed with technical elements. Meanwhile, Leslie, my agent, went to film the Korn concerts in New York and Philadelphia to show me how Jonathan performed. They called me from his dressing room and I talked to Jonathan for the first time. He told me I had complete freedom to design the microphone stand as I wanted and his only concern was that it had be totally functional and as movable as possible. He also wanted it be Biomechanical and very erotic. After the concert, Jonathan gave Les the microphone stand he was using to send to me in Zurich. It was very useful for me to have it handy to help assure that my sculpture will be the exact height, to have an idea of the approximate weight and feel. In the meantime, the more I listened to the Korn music and watched the tapes, the more amazed I was by the intensity and seriousness of these musicians.

In July 2000, when KORN was touring Europe, Jonathan and several of his group members visited the H.R. Giger Museum in Gruyeres, and then came to my home. Since it was still very early in the project, I only had some sketches. We didn't talk much
about the designs, maybe Jonathan was too polite to make any criticisms.
He is a very nice man and a good singer with absolutely unique music. After the visit,
I continued to make more and faxed them to Les. Before becoming my agent, he had been an art director for many years. His opinion is always helpful to me and, from a practical standpoint, he is very good at seeing what will work best for everyone. We discussed my drawings and, with his constructive critique, the figure
got thinner and thinner.

When Jonathan gave his approval, I started with the first 1:1 clay model with Roni, my assistant, and we emailed photos of our progress to the USA. Over the next weeks, we also started a second, even thinner, clay model, keeping the first one for comparison.

Only after I was, finally, very happy with the figure, we proceeded to add the Biomechanical elements. We integrated it with bullets, tubes and wires. When the clay model was finished, we took it to the foundry without waiting for anyone’s reaction so I could see what it would really look like after the wax model was done. I liked it so much that I requested an aluminum cast to be made and sent to Jonathan immediately.

After testing the prototype, Jonathan decided that my original idea of a pop-up stand, balanced and weighed to spring back when it is pushed over, could become a problem in live performances because of the extra weight it added. Otherwise, he was very happy with the mic-stand and asked for only some minor adjustments, to cut away some of the back-head to expose the clip, so he could grab it more easily. After the stand was returned to Zurich, I made the changes and also cast the second one for him. I hope Jonathan will be able to can work with my microphone stand with the same intensity as before without being limited by it."

HR Giger, Zurich 2001

taken from www.hrgiger.com/music/korn.htm

[Thorngrub]

[Thorngrub]

Right now I'm stuck on I'VE SEEN IT ALL, the penultimate track off the album.
It is the singular achievement that elevates their art into a wholly new realm,
yet again, (they've done this w/out fail on practically each & every album),
only this time, it really does transcend & push the evolution of their sound
through several genres all at once: industrial & gothic primarily. It is the
upthrust turret from their castle of disrupted dreams from whence we are
allowed to view the upcoming fields of growing up into adulthood & maturity.

The fucking song says it all .. .

...and my hat comes off to Jonathan for penning those lyrics.
They were dipped in his own heart blood with a quill fashioned
from his own finger bone, their significanse forever stained upon
the digital traces of their CD for future generations to ponder.

That pic of Jonathan in the booklet, where it shows him having wrenched
out his heart from a slit in his chest, and where he's playing the stretched
tendons with a violin bow, is the most perfectly captured graphic representation
of what it is he has been doing with KoRn since the very beginning.
It is fucking beautiful.

[Adam]

Any idea on what else will be on the single?

[Thorngrub]

what?

[Adam]

Info on any other songs that will be featured on the single?

[theladyofthelake]

I haven't heard anything about it, Adam.

Thorny, the mic stand's name is actually Majesty's Voice, not Majesty's Grace.

[poseidon]

KORN!

[Thorngrub]

theladyofthelake said:

I haven't heard anything about it, Adam.

Thorny, the mic stand's name is actually Majesty's Voice, not Majesty's Grace.

I knew that.

ha! somewhere along the line I fell off track and ended up with . . . .grace(?) ha!

*thanks for pointing that out m'Lady*

[theladyofthelake]

Adam, check out Pyramid Head from Silent Hill... they did a great job; he looks AWESOME!

Posting a link because the picture itself is kinda gory and might offend some.

img141.imageshack.us/img141/6876/ph3ut.jpg

I've heard reports from people who attended WonderCon that they saw a clip in which PH strips some woman naked and then rips her flesh off and hurls it at several other screaming, fleeing people and blood spatters all over them and the rest of the scene is filmed through blood spatters on the actual camera lense. They said it looked great.

As happy as it made me just knowing that the filmmakers didn't wimp out on us, I hope they don't turn it into a total gratuitous gorefest. Because that's not really what SH is about. It's not about seeing Pyramid Head rip someone's flesh off. It's about seeing the sumbitch in the hallway before you blindly duck into a room that's miraculously open and realizing it's his rusted, decaying lab complete with blood soaked table with ankle and wrist straps and bloody scissors and a knife bigger than you are and just what exactly is that hanging from the ceiling, because you can't quite get a good look at it because your fixed viewpoint near the ceiling is obstructed partly by the blades of an eerily slow oscillating ceiling fan. And the bastard is after YOU. It's the BEST, man. Gotta go play it now.