Review Summary: First nu metal album which totally defines nu metal for you.
Some people tend to mislabeled certain bands as nu metal such as
Rage Against the Machine or
Faith No More who are instead more rap metal. This album (although nu metal was made with Korn's Neidmeyer's Mind demo) is the first album of nu metal with its mix of groove metal, alternative metal and hip-hop with some down-tuned guitars. This is some of Korn's most heaviest and most definitely angriest album to date. Some of the lyrics are about bullying, abuse, sexual abuse, alienation, fake people, demons, anger and drug issues. It basically is based a lot on Jonathan Davis' childhood. The guitars are really down-tuned and the riffs are extremely syncopated they even have a hip-hop rhythm to them as well as David Silveria's hip-hop drumming.
Shoots and Ladders: I guess you could call this "Scottish nu-metal". It first begins with Jonathan's bagpipe solo. Although I don't like a lot of Scottish music, he can totally prove that Scottish music can be pretty good. After a minute the guitars pop in and the bagpipes fade away. Then Jonathan Davis starts singing a bunch of nursery rhymes which represents the bad themes behind some of the nursery rhymes. Later on, he starts getting a little intense and starts rapping the line "Nick knack paddy whack give a dog a bone, this old man came rollin' home" and the angry yelling of "Mary had a little lamb".
Blind: For about 40 seconds or so, David Silveria just gently touches those cymbals with his drumsticks, then the guitar riffing comes in as Jonathan yells "ARE YOU READY?!?!?!". The verses are really melodic and there barely is a chorus. But then later in the song, the song goes loud again and then Jonathan Davis starts rapping. Later he sings a little then starts his growling. Then in the end, Fieldy's hip-hop bass line suddenly comes in.
Fake: First starts off loud and heavy with a typical nu metal guitar riff with some hip-hop-like noises in the background which is typical off this album for the guitars. Just like Lies, it is about people from Jonathan Davis' high school who tried to fit in with the mainstream crowd to be accepted while Jonathan had the balls to be himself. He then starts getting angrier in the song. The lyrics totally prove how much of a coward you are if you can't be yourself.
Lies: The heaviest track on this album. It starts off with a heavy nu metal riff, then comes to the dark, atmospheric verses of the song. Then, as the chorus comes in, Jonathan does some really surprising death metal growl while Head is yelling in the microphone. Later, Jonathan starts singing. Then they go to this angry metal part of the song where David Silveria starts doing blast beats instead of his funk drumming. Then the chorus comes in and the band starts freaking out, especially Head and Jonathan Davis. The growl off this song sounds like a typical growl you'd hear from a brutal death metal band from the 1990s.
Faget: It's the angriest song off this album. It talks about how Jonathan was consistently bullied in high school by his peers (especially the jocks) and his teachers and being called "gay" or a "faggot" or being pushed around because he listened to new wave music like
Duran Duran, wore eyeliner and worked in a coroner assistant's office. The angry riff starts then Jonathan later yells "HIV". which was his nickname in high school as a rumor he was gay and had HIV or something. The verses are really dark and atmospheric, while the chorus is all melodic but angry. Then Jonathan Davis starts rapping as he begins with the line "I'm just a pretty boy whatever you call it". He then continues his rapping only he's basically yelling with the "he had my gun but he had the body might anyway". This is definitely the angriest song this album has.
Clown: It first starts with the band messing around. Then the guitar riff pops in with some extremely hip-hoppy nu metal riff and extremely dark verses that must've been influenced by some gothic rock and some heavy choruses and bridges. Later in the song, Jonathan starts rapping with lines like "Hit me clown because I'm not from your town now, hit me clown" and "Clown you ain't *** turn around get yo face split". The song is about a skinhead with tattoos who came to an early show yelling "*** you! Go back to Bakersfield!" as he tried to attack Jonathan, then Jeff, the road manager stopped the skinhead.
Helmet in the Bush: The darkest track off this album. It's basically a dark nu metal song with extremely hip-hoppy rhythms only it doesn't have any rapping in it. The song is sort of soft, but later it gets heavier. In fact, at the end, Jonathan starts doing some vicious growling. The song basically is about speed and meth.
Ball Tongue: Although this song is about a guy the band worked for who was really mean and had a ball on his tongue, there isn't really any written lyrics. Jonathan Davis was basically just scatting in this song. It has some controversial guitar riff that was accused of ripping off Morbid Angel, then comes the hip-hoppy verses with Fieldy's funky bass lines and monkey noises played on the guitar riffs.
Daddy: The most controversial track off this album. It begins with a really sad a cappella. The song is about how Jonathan got molested by a family friend as a child when he was 7. He told his dad, and his dad didn't believe him. The song is pretty sad. In fact, later in the song, Jonathan starts crying. Then after minutes of silence, some random conversation comes up. The song is 17 minutes long.
Need To: The song begins with a nu metal riff that reminds me of this one riff I heard from Refuse/Resist by
Sepultura and Push It by
Static X. It starts with singing. Then has a bridge part where Jonathan starts yelling and freaking out. It is about when you're in a relationship with a girl, and you're afraid of talking to her and stuff cause you fear of what will happen in the end.
Divine: The fastest track off this album. It begins with a fast guitar riff and then Jonathan starts rapping. Later, the song gets all angry and Jonathan goes with his whole "You know what *** you, I'm fed up with you. You think you're good as me, *** no I'm better than you" and starts yelling. It's about a girl who basically ignored him and stuff and once he stopped loving her, she did the same thing, so he did what she did to him to show her how it felt.
Predictable: This song is the closest song off the album to NOT being nu metal. It doesn't have a lot of hip-hop influences. You can hear a lot of influences from
Helmet in this song.
