Korn "Follow the Leader" (1998) - got it
When I was in high school, Korn were a big deal. They, along with a number of angry, shouty, down-tuned rock bands that made up the nu-metal scene seemed to be everywhere in the late 90s and early 00s.
Even
though it was supposed to be a movement of outsiders pushing against
conformity by mashing up genres and kicking against 'the popular kids',
the genre became trite, commercialised and obsessed with its own image.
Korn in particular made a thing of wearing ADIDAS and, when offered a
shit-ton of money by Puma to wear their stuff instead, jumped ship.
After two albums of their growly, low-end focussed metal, Korn injected
this album with a bit of variety in the shape of more of a lean into
the hip-hop side of their sound. Guest spots by Ice Cube, the Pharcyde's
Tre Hardson and (meh) Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst are featured. This
last collaboration is on the now definitely dated battle track where
Jonathan Davis and Durst throw homophobic slurs at each other.
The album opens with a minute's silence made up of 12x 5 second
tracks. When I was at school there was a story going around that it
was Korn demanding a minute's silence for themselves as the progenitors
of the nu-metal genre, but apparently it's more humble and less cringeworthy than that.
The minute of silence was dedicated to a fan who died of cancer. He had
been able to meet the band as a dying wish.
The album is a tad overlong as are many of the songs, though "Children of the Korn" (with Ice Cube); single "Got the Life"
with its disco beat and slap bass; and closer "My Gift to You" with it's
slow, epic, bagpipe backed groove are still good, even now.
I enjoyed Korn at the time, haven't really revisited them much in the
last few years. It's not that I don't still like aggressive, loud rock,
I just think that their particular brand of it sits best with you when
you're adolescent, angry, and not thinking too hard.
