Jon Davis and crew - also known as American nu-metal/heavy metal/thrash band KoRn - make the kind of music that young adults listen to when they’re ready to throw things through a wall because of the rage that simmers just underneath the surface of our collective psyches.
KoRn produce such hard-hitting metal tracks as ’’Blind, ’’ ’’Chutes and Ladders, ’’ and ’’Twist’’ - songs that are overloaded with screaming guitars, thrashing drums, clanging cymbals, and a fast-paced bass line that makes your walls shake. You could crack your jaw headbanging to this stuff! All of it is fronted with Jon Davis’ vocals. He was once an extremely tormented young man, having suffered sexual abuse combined with the fact that his family did not believe him when he brought it to their attention. Because of this, self-esteem issues, inner demons, and other factors, Jon Davis used to write great songs that tore your soul apart. They made you angry. They got your adrenaline pumping. They made you want to cry for their beauty. For ’’Follow The Leader, ’’ I believe Jon’s inner demons gave him a break. This is sort of a featherweight version of the KoRn that we are all used to. ’’Got The Life’’ - one of the most popular singles from this record - falls short of heavy, instead tending to border on lighthearted. It’s almost as if Jon does not take the tormented lyrics seriously anymore. ’’Dead Bodies Everywhere’’ is another attempt to re-create the thrashing, soul-slicing metal that KoRn created with their first two records. Instead of hitting the mark, it too falls a bit short.
Apparently the band relied on graphic verbal images of corpses versus the plagued and troubled mind that Jon boasts - the driving force behind the earlier albums and their success in the States. I bought this record because I wanted new KoRn to slam dance to. (Slam dancing, for those of you who are not aware, involves slamming the body into a solid object - such as a wall - in time with heavy metal music). Instead, I found myself sitting on the edge of my bed, guitar in hand, wondering what in the world happened to the KoRn we used to know. Did Jon find healing through the earlier, gritty work that he did? Has he gotten it out of his system? Will the band revert to the older ’’trama metal’’ that they became famous for, or is it destined to be like this forever? Personally, I am glad that Jon is apparently learning how to better deal with his problems, but at the same time, I miss the old-school KoRn. They were some of the heaviest hitters in the metal industry, even better than similar acts Limp Bizkit and Crazytown. They were destined to become legends: Our children would ask, ’’Who was KoRn?’’ like we say ’’Who were the Doors, Mom?’’ I still recommend this record if only for the chance it gives for listeners to peer into the new-and-improved KoRn. You will get a glimpse of Jon’s soul, as usual, but this time you will be tempted to smile instead of gritting your teeth and sympathizing with the man who fought his demons in the recording studio and on the stage.