Happy 30th Anniversary to Korn’s eponymous debut album Korn, originally released October 11, 1994.
More than almost any band or artist to emerge over the past half-century, Korn has endured to become one of the most distinctly recognizable voices in all of rock and metal music. Their heavier style of musicianship, dark lyrics, and jarring imagery connected a broad base of young listeners which helped form the heavy metal subgenre of nu metal.
When taking your first glance at the now iconic cover artwork of the band’s eponymously titled debut album, you think you’re looking at a soundtrack to a ‘90s independent slasher film. A little girl sitting on a swing with what appears to be a catholic school uniform, nearly eclipsed by the shadow of a man appearing to be holding blades or a hooked object. Even your heaviest bands prior to Korn chose animation to depict their scariest imagery. So right from the start, Korn showed their intention of revealing how life’s complexities are sometimes stranger than fiction.
Korn’s opening song and lead single “Blind” perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the album, and Korn’s historic catalog that followed. The opening guitar riffs by Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffar, which follow the drum cymbals, build tension like a movie villain stalking his prey in a fast-paced action-horror. By the time the bass kicks in and Jonathan Davis adds the opening “Are you ready!” Korn most likely owns you, much like everyone who has seen them perform the song live in the 30 years since its initial release in 1994.
For Korn’s longest fans who witnessed the impact in real time, the legend of “Blind” lives on in bars and living room folklore, as the birth of a moment that shifted metal. “Blind” takes you to a dark place but picks up the pace, inviting you to release your own angst along with Davis’ vocals and the band’s synchronized chaos.
By the Spring of 1995, Korn was already carving their own path within the music industry with the success of their first single and intensity of their live performance. When “Need To” was released as the sophomore single, it further solidified the band’s distinct sound. David Silveria (drums) and Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu step to the forefront to add the signature funky sound that Korn has grown to be loved for.
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“Shoots and Ladders” is another broody classic, encompassing nursery rhymes like “Ring a Ring o’ Roses,” “This Old Man,” “London Bridge” and a few others to create a metal mashup lullaby. Davis’ incorporation of bagpipes really made the song one of a kind, as the band continued to push boundaries within their genre. Davis would later explain in interviews some of the irony of the nursey rhyme’s back stories, which date back to the black plague in some instances.
“Clown” embodies not only the unorthodoxy of Korn’s musical chemistry, but also the spirit of the band’s musical philosophy. Over the years, naysayers have critiqued Korn and other bands that they inspired within the nu metal subgenre for creating such hyperaggressive music. Korn has gone on to have some of the most interactive live shows, particularly back in the late 90’s and early 00’s, which have resulted in some volatile mosh pits. Songs like “Clown” prove that Korn helped create a musical outlet for the bullied kid, otherwise looked at as the proverbial outsider.
In some ways, Korn is the evolution of earlier ‘90s grunge, with a heavier sound like Nine Inch Nails or Rage Against the Machine. But in so many other ways, they are something entirely different. If you were a kid who didn’t quite fit in with a particular music community in the mid ‘90s, like hardcore, thrash metal or grunge, you found your home at a Korn concert. Their music expressed the anger you experienced over that high school breakup, not just the sorrowful heartache. If you wanted to lash out against the neighborhood bully, you got the temporary release by blasting Korn in your discman earphones or moshing when the band came to play at a small venue in your hometown. This aggressive style of music was so needed at the time that other bands began to follow suit and form what became known as nu metal, the subgenre that went on to dominate radio and television by the late ‘90s.
Korn are authentically one of a kind and the first of their kind. They are distinctively proficient in every musical aspect which helped create a sound that defined an era. Their first album is the initial chapter of a chilling psychological horror franchise that fans still line up to stream and see live now, 30 years later.
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