![]() ![]() Of course, this has nothing to do with their music, but it was a significant factor in why the band started to fall apart, and why Head-spun out on methamphetamine and booze-quit Korn in 2005 before they released their seventh album, See You On the Other Side, and sought salvation through religion. But like most bands that become huge too quickly, Korn embraced the extracurricular perks of touring: drinking like Pantera, doing lines like Sabbath in their heyday, and committing any number of outrageous acts with groupies. When Korn formed in Bakersfield, California in 1993 they sounded, original, angry, and innovative, and part of their inventiveness had to do with the way guitarists James “Munky” Shaffer and Brian “Head” Welch layered crushing rhythms with galactic sounds generated with a wide array of effect pedals and studio gizmos. ![]() They used seven string guitars to make their sound more booming, drew from the staccato riffs of Prong and Helmet, and incorporated them with funk slap bass, hip hop beats, and vocals that veered from quasi-rap to pain stricken howls. In reality, Korn and their kin (Deftones, who developed into one of the best rock groups of the ‘90s, and Coal Chamber, who didn’t) were the natural spin-offs of alternative rock for those whose hunger for volume wasn’t sated by Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots, and Korn most visibly brought a new vibe to metal. They didn’t say, “Make shitty, misogynistic music that will discredit everything we’ve created in the eyes of the public." Korn named their third album Follow the Leader. In my mind, what they did was present a simple, accessible form of brutality and’s that’s far more of a blessing than curse, regardless of their impact on Limp Bizkit, Staind, and dozens of other shitty bands. Some have accused Korn of dumbing-down metal, being wannabe rappers, having stupid nicknames and tragically misinterpreting the intent of great hybrid bands like Faith No More and Bad Brains. As pioneers of the so-called nu-metal movement, they receive both praise and blame for spearheading the style of music that brought metal back into the mainstream after grunge and alt-rock killed off hair metal and thrash. Few bands polarize the metal community like Korn. ![]()
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