Shock horror. The nu melodic
Korn. Issue driven rap metal with good tunes.
Must be the band's new production team, The Matrix - Lauren Christy, Scott Spock and Graeme Edwards.
Artists among the The Matrix's less distinguished but highly successful production credits include Hilary Duff, Britney Spears and Busted.
A potential credibility gap crisis there I would have thought. No danger. Compromise was clearly not an option.
Korn sound just as pissed off with the world, organised religion, politics and so on. The things that we all get pissed off at.
As usual, they dress their polemics in funked up, fuzzed up guitars, processed vocals and set them starkly against harsh industrial soundscapes. Not quite. There's an evolution going on behind the scenes here, and this is what the new production team have brought to the table. A Matrix evolution, if you will. Bolder, brighter melodic colours are bleeding through, washing through songs like
'Getting Off' and
'Love Song'.
The densely constructed 'Twisted Transistor' opens the album, hitting home a sharp, sinuous hook with a sledgehammer beat and awesome production values. Any
AOR / melodic rock fan looking for purity will choke on
'Throw Me Away' and '
Liar', but any with an open mind will love this stuff. Listen to these songs and Winger's new album (or the
Neurosonic album) back to back. They're not a million miles apart.
Elsewhere, the album is lit by the hooky '
Seen It All's dissonant strings and thick cut riff;
'Open Up's hip hop stadium rock, and
'Coming Undone's bulldozing groove.
Only on the closing track, '
Tearjerker', the nearest thing to a ballad here, can they be accused of mellowing out. Davis's vocal, cast adrift on an ocean of computer generated sounds, rails against almost everything in an unattractive, self pitying way, but at least he keeps to a whisper for most of the track.
It's the only stumble on an album that's otherwise sure footed and self possessed.
Written by
Brian Monday, September 4, 2006
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