Album Review

Korn - The Path of TotalityKorn – The Path of Totality

After 2005’s “See You On The Other Side”, Korn have been stuck in a bit of a downward spiral - not aided by 2007’s “Untitled” album not being received in such a positive way - and the band were at risk of fading away. 2010 however saw the band re-emerge with a much needed return to form with their original writing style on “III: Remember Who You Are”, due to lots of promotion and a built up hype the band appeared to be back on winning form. Apparently that wasn’t enough for them and this year they decided to really shake things up by collaborating with renowned dubstep artist Skrillex on a single “Get Up!” which had mixed receptions across the board, a lot of people loved it and a lot of people hated it. The controversy has skyrocketed the band’s name right back into the public eye, since the band announced a full album of dubstep collaborations entitled “Path of Totality”.

This move I feel is to ride the “controversy rollercoaster” milking if as much as possible to assert themselves back on top in the charts, I was a fan of the“Get Up!” single but I had very low expectations of the album because they were at risk of every song sounding exactly the same, even using numerous different DJ’s I’m still really sceptical. I’ve now thoroughly listened to it now and have sufficient knowledge to comment on it. The first song is anotherSkrillex collaboration called “Chaos Lives in Everything”, very groovy but with a sinister tinge about it, just some of the ominous tones andJonathan Davis’s distinctive frightening vocals. As well as that you can feel more of Korn’s style rather than being overwhelmed with electronics, I like the Skrillex collaborations they’re quite true to Korn just with large electronic presence, there’s 1 more Skrillex collaboration on here alongside artist Kill The Noise which is the second single called “Narcissistic Cannibal”, you can definitely see the difference that Kill The Noise brings to the mix, Skrillex’s style is deep and thick where as Kill The Noise’s is more atmospheric and distortion related.

So far so good then, but there’s still 8 more songs with a range of different DJ’s, I don’t feel the rest of the songs are as strong as those 3. I first looked at“Sanctuary” featuring Downlink; here the balance has shifted from being heavy to more of a depressing dance track, it’s not the only one like that thought the same can be said for “Way To Far” featuring 12th Planetand “Let’s Go” with Noisia, those 2 tracks might be quite depressing and lacking compared to the other 3 but I don’t hate them, I still enjoy them.

It took me a long while to make up my mind on this album, hell I don’t think I’m 100% sure to this day but what I do know is that I really enjoy the 3 Skrillex collaborations even though I’m not a fan of his own music, I still am not a fan of dubstep and I really don’t like many other songs on the album. Do I think this album should have been released? Yes. Do I think it’s going to be the bands next big direction? Dear God I hope not. Only time will tell how they will incorporate this into their live show and as to what future material will sound like but I’m not going to hold my breath for something spectacular.

3/5

Review by James Webb

 Band Members

Jonathan Davis
James Shaffer
Reginald Arvizu
Ray Luzier
 Track Listing
1. Chaos Lives in Everything (Ft. Skrillex)
2. Kill Mercy Within (Ft. Noisia)
3. My Wall (Ft. Excision)
4. Narcissistic Cannibal (Ft. Skrillex & Kill The Noise)
5. Illuminati (Ft. Excision & Downlink)
6. Burn the Obediant (Ft. Noisia)
7. Sanctuary (Ft. Downlink)
8. Let’s Go (Ft. Noisia)
9. Get Up! (Ft. Skrillex)
10. Way Too Far (Ft. 12th Planet)
11. Bleeding Out (Ft. Feed Me)
 Band Related Links
Korn MySpace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?