Review Summary: Why did Korn suck so much with five members after Issues, start coming back with four members, then really come with an excellent album with only three members? I'm scared to see what happens if another member leaves...
So let's recap Korn in the 2000s. Korn releases Untouchables and hits the lowest point in their career. Then they follow up with Take A Look In The Mirror and release their biggest hit in my opinion, Did My Time. Then Korn FINALLY turns their career around with See You On The Other Side minus Head. Now in 2007, drummer David Silveria decides to take a hiatus from Korn, and Jon makes an announcement stating that Untitled will be released as a three piece(to be specific: just him, Munky, and Fieldy).
I must say, I wasn't expecting quite much with Untitled being a three piece. However, Korn catches my attention with this one. We start with the circus like Intro, but Starting Over changes what you would think is coming next. A very nice and unexpected surprise. As for surprises, Untitled is quite full of them. The first surprise would have to be the relevancy in Untitled. Better lyric choices have been made, and it's about time that Korn had written better songs. Korn even shows off some of their Nine Inch Nails influences, combined with their new industrial sound they have been using, and some death metal influences as well(such as the end of the circus like Intro and Killing)
One of my favorite songs would have to be Killing. Jon's vocals sound good, there is better drumming, and Korn takes time to show some death metal influences at one point after Jon finishes the first part of the traditional Korn bridge. Some other favorites would have to be Kiss and Hold On. Hold On really caught my attention after Evolution, but save Evolution for later. Anyways, Hold On has some of the strongest singing I've heard from Jon. Nothing more, nothing less. Kiss is an excellent song. I actually think Jon isn't trying to be a chauvanistic tough guy in this song, and it is a good follow up from Hold On.
Now the only complaint I have about this album is with the musical unbalance left after Evolution. Evolution is a perfectly decent song until Jon start growling "Take a look around!". Combine that with a riff Munky plays, and you get an annoying cachophony. After that, Korn doesn't tend to the balance to redress it completely. They tend to it somewhat with Killing, but it doesn't fix it completely.
In conclusion, Korn's Untitled is an excellent album, and it's just unfortunate that it had to take 3-4 albums and three members to do it. I recommend getting this, it's worth a listen.
Recommendations
-Starting Over
-Hold On
-Kiss
-Killing
