MUSIC REVIEW: KORN : Requiem

Korn is back on the scene with an album that runs a little over half an hour. “Requiem” is chaotic with ideas that appear as if J. Devil and his crew are vying for a radio hit but still find themselves held down by the grunge that their core audience can do nothing more than love them for.

Every song J. Devil drops in this LP is either self-depreciating rhetoric or a lament of loss. This is common ground for the Korn discography, and no new ceilings are broken here, but the album doesn’t even feel like they are even jumping up to hit anything. The band just sounds bogged down, even by emo standards. There are no aspirations here in “Requiem” no matter how positive songs like “Start The Healing” sounds on paper. That single epitomizes the entire album : though sometimes the guitars may be synthesized to sound uplifting, J. Devil’s lyrics sound mired in regret for the most part and turn “Requiem” into a bright light surrounded by sludge.

“Let The Dark Do The Rest” is a catchy standout with plenty tempo and vocal changes as well as a killer pre-chorus that sounds inspired by a Terror Tape Two-era Sick Jacken. The only other song on the LP that could rival it’s radio-friendly potential is “Penance To Sorrow”, but given it’s position on the track-listing, there is a reason why “Let The Dark … ” is in the lead.

For an audience itching for the God’s of Nu-Metal to callback on the movement they spearheaded, “Lost In Granduer” is the record – filled with turntable cuts that substitute for riffs on the heavy track. Similar to the Ross Robinson-vibe is album closer “The Worse Is On Its Way” starting with eerie carnival sounds and a guitar begging to be tuned featuring Devil scatting all over the track and being as negative and bitchy as possible while the drums hit harder than ever throughout the entirety of the tape.

There are a few missteps on the record that keep “Requiem” from reaching the heights of “Serenity of Suffering” or even their last LP,”The Nothing” : “Disconnect” sounds like a RATM throwaway and though “Hopeless and Beaten” has a standout drum break and Devil constructing a refrain revolving around suffering, the progressive tones just don’t sound fitting over a track where Davis is belting out that “The Pain Is Divine”.

Requiem is a Devil’s confession. Inviting listener’s to the “hell he made” not just on the track coined “My Confession”. The man behing the Devil, Davis, and the band as a whole are just too hard on themselves and it can be heard on this record here that lacks playbackability.
These Nu-Metal Gods have had “the life” and without them now in the chase for it, “Requiem” sounds like a loose collection of thoughts that Devil and crew could have best kept to themselves.

As a person who’s suffered the loss of relationships that I still recognize as important, I understood and emphatized with the themes of “The Nothing”. Devil has always been an emphatical autobiographic, but with the range painted all over the group’s discography, from their highs and lows, Korn should have considered going back to the drawing board before dropping this underwhelming sequel.

Score : 2/5