KoЯn Album Review

Korn: Korn III-Remember Who You Are

The great KoЯn debate has been raging for as long as the band’s conception in 1994. The California quartet (now that drummer Ray Luzier has officially joined the Davis-Munky-Fieldy trio) has recently released its ninth studio album, KoЯn III-Remember Who You Are, which is sure to intensify any KoЯn dissention amongst fans. KoЯn preferences are as variable and plentiful as there are KoЯn songs. Davis and his cronies evoke reactions both passionate and extreme, and what else is to be expected from a band that pushes the limits pertaining to emotion, thought and music to the most severe of degrees. KoЯn is a band with a history and listeners cannot help but adjudicate each new record within the context of that history – by comparing it to the band’s previous albums rather than recognising it as a fresh and unique entity – although unfair to the band perhaps, it is inescapable.

The title of the new album is suggestive of the fact that KoЯn has gone back to its roots, its past, personally and musically. Title track Oildale (Leave Me Alone) is a reference to a town located a couple of miles outside of north-northwest of downtown Bakersfield (where the band is from) – a further reference to the past and to roots: KoЯn in the 90s. KoЯn III-Remember Who You Are certainly embodies a sense of ‘old KoЯn’; the likes of KoЯn, Life is Peachy and Follow the Leader. Fans will revel in the assaulting groove of Fear is a Place to Live, the brilliant discord of Lead the Parade, the abrasive heaviness of Let the Guilt Go and the gut-wrenchingly angst of Holding All the Lies. Are you Ready to Live stands out as the track that best epitomises the raw, neurotic internal angst of KoЯn, which has been translated into the welcomingly familiar sound of callous base thwacks, systematically violent drum rhythm and the tormented howls and growls. KoЯn III-Remember Who You Are is uncomfortable, and that is what fans want from a KoЯn album: to have their boundaries pushed, prodded and even destroyed. And yet the album just seems to lack a little something – that little bit of magic that is essential to the spark required to light the KoЯn fire of awesomeness. The ‘Fuck You’ is there but just not loud enough. Irrespective, the band continues to sell out venues worldwide and KoЯn III-Remember Who You Are is likely to sell, stimulate and aggravate.