Korn III: Remember Who You Are

Old nu metal

Well, how long will nu metal remain really NEW? Is it going to be new twenty years from now? Since the times of the origin of this music, so many more newer genres and styled have been invented. Nu metal is definitely not an innovation any more and is presented in its primeval form on contemporary CDs very rarely. One of the style’s pioneers, Korn, know it better than most of us. These guys have been casting heavy and aggressive metal music for almost twenty years and throughout these years, Korn have implanted a plenty of modification and additions to what they once invented. Judging by the mixed reviews from experts and selling rates of the group’s recent records, the musicians are now into a recession period. Application of new tools and methods, particularly, wider usage of electronic sound, came to please far from all supporters of the band. Moreover, fans of the old-school sound were even about to bury Korn and nu metal altogether. As a result, the ensemble has entered a stage that is characteristic of the history of most rock-bands. After a number of years of experimentations and seeking better, the metal musicians decided to return to where they came from. That is why their new effort, Korn III: Remember Who You Are, features what may be called old nu metal.

Aggressiveness and roughness of early albums on Korn new CD

The first action in the frames of coming back to the roots was inviting Ross Robinson to the producer’s chair, the first in the last fourteen years. This is the man who will always be associated with the success of the band’s first albums. Robinson convinced the musicians of Korn put aside synthesizers, enhanced equipment and thoughts about industrial. Furious riffs, rough sound and brutal vocals on Korn III: Remember Who You Are are the credits of both the band and Robinson. Davis’s voice has again acquired what it lost for the years of massive voice processing – emotions. It sounds most penetrating on Lead The Parade, and Fear Is A Place To Live. Aggressive growing sometimes is replaced by screams and moans, like in the powerful track Holding All These Lies, which makes the song more tragic and desperate. The albums released before featured the voice put through layers of procession and thus could not produce such an effect. Guitar performance is more variegated because juicy metal riffs are now fused with soft plunks which, in their turn, send shivers down the spine with chilling death-like atmosphere. The new drummer Ray Luzier found understanding with the new partners so fast that he seems to have been playing with them before.

Korn III: Remember Who You Are meets all the highest standards of the genre

Korn III: Remember Who You Are is not free of flaws. Yet these flaws are for a number of reasons explainable and forgivable. Davis has been and looks to stay a poor poet. Probably, he would suffer from it worse should he work I a different genre, but this is the music where words are difficult to perceive any way, which makes lyrics a secondary matter whether they are good or bad. Guitar lines lack novelty, and this again can be justified. Nu metal by its essence has narrow borders for the range of six-string instrument performance. The musicians are not obliged to make up smashing melodious solos while finding a new riff becomes more and more difficult with each new year. But we have to remember that we compare Korn with… Korn again, and these guys once put the bar really high. The return to the sounding of the early releases will once more divide the following legion into two camps, which is inevitable in many cases like this one. Like it or not, Korn III: Remember Who You Are is a chance to hear new songs similar to those old ones loved by multitudes of headbangers all over the world.