A year after another experimental album(this being Untouchables), Korn decides to retreat to their hip-hop sound to record their sixth album, Take A Look In The Mirror. Untouchables had Michael Beinhorn, the producer of Soundgarden's well known album,
Superunknown, who literally turned the lights on bright for Korn after the production done on Issues. Issues had Brendan O' Brien, who literally wrecked the album's sound with his focus that could be better used with pop singers rather than rock bands. Beinhorn's production on Untouchables was rather well, Korn sounded like they should, with nothing noticably sludgy about his producing. But Korn trashes this with continued lyric irrelevancy, major repetitiveness, and lacking originality.
You would think that Korn would mature somewhere down the road. Not here. This time around, the production is done by the band and Jonathan Davis. At first glance, this choice isn't half bad; Davis did do a decent job along with Richard Gibbs on the score & soundtrack to Queen of the Damned. However, here's where I find the bump in the road: Additional Producing by Frank Filipetti. Filipetti was the one who recorded Untouchables, and in Take A Look In The Mirror, the production done is similar to the production on Untouchables. Furthermore, David Silveria's drumming is now unbearable in this album. Not only does Silveria continue the simplified cymbal overuse rather than using the skins like he did on Korn's first two albums, Jonathan Davis's production on his drums sounds like an attempt at an 80's revival. Other than that, Jon did a so-so job on the production, the only thing that barely saves him that I can be only half positive about is the production done on Munky and Head's guitars, such as in the soft guitar intros on opener
Right Now and the smash hit
Did My Time, and I can DEFINITELY be positive about the song transitions; it makes the album go by faster so that I don't have to listen to it any longer following Right Now.
While Silveria continues on with the simplified drumming, Davis continues with his terrible lyrical structure and lack of emotion/vulnerability. In Take A Look In The Mirror, his weird vocal has become quite annoying. You can add another thing that Korn has ripped off: how much like a third rate Corey Taylor that Davis sounds like in Take A Look In The Mirror! Everywhere you look in this album, with exception to the live cover of Metallica's One, Right Now, and Did My Time, Davis is constantly screaming in the choruses and bridges, the most notably in Here It Comes Again and Let's Do This Now. Korn even goes as far as ripping themselves off in Let's Do This Now. The lyrics in Let's Do This Now are basically like a fifth rate Thoughtless. In this one song, Let's Do This Now makes Thoughtless look like Good God Part Two, and makes the rest of Untouchables look like an original idea. Yeah, it's that bad. Counting On Me and Deep Inside are just laughable at best; Counting On Me shows mixed emotions of love and hate, and Deep Inside shows more hatred than depression. The rest of the songs are quite the same, but I'll get to what others aren't a little later on in the review.
The band's technicality is still lacking, with it being most noticable in the live cover of One, where Korn simply makes a nu-metal version of it; Munky and Head don't even play the solo, and the only riffs they took time on were the ones that repeat. But I gotta give credit where it's due; Munky and Head did give a nice intro to the song. Korn did an average job on this track, and I think it's a good cover, because at least Jon didn't write the lyrics to the song, and it's the only track I can listen to with some ease, aside from Right Now, Did My Time, Y'all Want A Single, and Play Me. But Korn did give some different instrumentation instead of playing the same note over and over again, like on Untouchables.
Now for the songs that are listenable despite Jon wrecking a song's listenable ability. While Right Now contains atrocious lyrical and song structure, the guitar intro is quite infectious. Personally, I like the instrumentation done on Right Now, despite it being typical Korn, known for repeating the same notes and rarely giving a guitar solo. To quote a reviewer's thoughts on Untouchables, the riffing goes together rather well. Surprisingly, Alive has a bass intro, and it's quite good. But sadly, Fieldy is the only member who does a solid job, but he is majorly overshadowed by just how disgustingly asinine the rest of the band has been since Follow The Leader. Y'all Want A Single is one of Korn's catchiest and now one of their more popular songs, and I just laugh when I listen to this song, because it gives off a mood of what goes through the minds of current hip hop rappers who only want fame and fortune rather than to just make music.
Speaking of hip hop rappers, the legendary Nas offers his services to Korn in Play Me. Whoever got Nas to do a song with Korn was either really stupid or they had a great idea. In Play Me, Nas delivers better lyrics than Jon could, and compliments the melodic structure of the song. Nas literally steals the spotlight in this song, while Jon's vocal is now bearable. Though Jon only talks the lyrics to the bridge out, the tension rising in Play Me is quite surprising, until Jon just bursts, screaming with gusto. It might be typical Korn in this album, but sometimes the formula works, but when the formula works is only a rarity.
Did My Time is one of Korn's greatest hits, and it is truthfully just: the soft, building guitar intro kills, due to the fact that while Korn may have given a soft guitar intro in Blind, it's quite refreshing to hear the band do something different for once that isn't the exact same thing over and over again, while Jon shows off a better lyrical structure and doesn't scream for once. Jon belts out a vocal range that's unheard of, and rather refreshing to hear Jon give stronger vocals than what he mostly displays. In short, this is one of the songs that Korn would have killed for to get an album full of solid songs like this as they did in their first two albums, especially with the lack of success that they've truly had since the turn of the millenium.
Korn HAS technical ability and can give some mastery-skill songs despite their major lack of guitar solos and playing skill, but the rest of the songs on here are just sickening. Korn wastes their talent and time on how messed up Jon's life is this or how Jon is ***ed up that. Proof of this would be in Munky and Head's soloing in Life Is Peachy instrumental Porno Creep. It shows that they can solo, but do they? No. Jon's singing in Daddy, the self titled album closer shows Jon's sweet vulnerability, but does he continue showing it? NO. David can give some excellent drumming, like in Faget, but does he continue giving the mastery drumming that he was known for? NO! The only person who's been able to stay solid was Fieldy, and that's not much for a band whose airtight coffin only gets sealed even more with this pitiful display and waste of talent.
Anyways, Take A Look In The Mirror is not a great album, but it does show some backbone and improvement from Untouchables. I wouldn't recommend getting this, I would avoid this at all costs, but I would purchase this over Untouchables, Issues, and Untitled: without a second thought.
Pros
-Riffing goes together well
-Some better instrumentation
-The "bearable" songs
Cons
-Stupid Lyrics
-Waste of money and talent
-Jonathan Davis & David Silveria
-80's production on drums
-Let's Do This Now
-Korn still hasn't matured
-Fieldy is the only member not wasting his talents(and that says a lot when your bassist is the better of all the members)
-Korn sounds like a fifth rate Slipknot
