The Best from KORN

Same here, it was different at the time as was a lot of nu-metal. I haven't listened to them in a while, but ironically my favorite album from them 'A Thousand Suns' I remember having little to no metal. Would it be safe for me to move that?

There was a really funny incident on one of the music shows here on TV back in 2001 when Linkin Park and Pantera were in New Zealand at the same time. The interviewer who talked to both bands (not at the same time) was not a metal fan at all, and so was completely clueless about Pantera. First up, he had a very nice standard sort of pop star interview with Linkin Park, with lots of laughs and a bit of fun, all very nice and harmless.

Then came the Pantera interview.

He asked something dumb about Phil's near death experience with the herion overdose and got told it was ancient history and to move on to something else. He asked Phil Anselmo if they had caught up with Linkin Park or something equally as stupid. Dimebag was in the back of the camera shot and immediately started pissing himself laughing, and Anselmo just went off! There was a lot of bleeping and very angry yelling as Phil proceeded to explain to the interviewer that Linkin Park were in no way metal, that Pantera didn't care about shit like Linkin Park and would not associate with pussy assed mofos like that anyway. Having done the odd hostile interview myself, I've never seen a subject so angry or an interviewer so scared/humiliated!

The point I suppose I'm trying to make is Pantera didn't consider Linkin Park metal, and Linkin Park didn't seem to consider themselves metal either. I'm not suggesting they get removed from the data base or anything though.

And groove metal really is a shit name for a genre.

You're quite right about how some of those bands got labelled metal. What I really hate about Korn though is how absolutely clueless they have always been about metal. Bruce Dickinson was tipped to support them at one stage during his solo years, but the band didn't want him because his image was "too heavy metal". And Johnathan Davis once called Cradle of Filth an grindcore band.

The thing is, if you look at most nu-metal bands' influences, there's not much metal there. There are a couple of exceptions, like Deftones and Slipknot, but most of them got their rock influence from the likes of Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against The Machine, none of which are what you'd call really heavy. Scott Ian reckoned Anthrax had a bit of an influence with "I'm The Man" and "Bring The Noise", but I haven't ever read many of those bands proclaiming any great love for Anthrax.

Sorry, ranting again...

There are a lot of reasons why Korn wasn't considered metal back when they first came out, and why nu-metal in general wasn't considered metal either, none of which I'm going to go into now because metal has been redefined by popular usage. Pretty much every genre of metal faced the same thing as it developed.

I suppose I better own up and say I bought Korn's debut when it came out, but sold it for three bucks and thought I'd done well out of the deal. Did the same with Coal Chamber, Deftones and Slipknot. Luckily by then I'd learned my lesson and never bought anything by Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne or Disturbed. It did mean I missed out on System Of A Down until recently, but I've made up for that since. I gave nu-metal a fair chance back in the 90s. It just made my ears vomit, that's all.

These comments confuse me. If Korn isn't metal, what do you suggest them to be? I've heard their stuff and it's clearly metal. Do you dislike them and think that they shouldn't be here or is there a reason why you think this?

I and probably the majority of members on the site hate Limp Bizkit, and I wish they weren't on the site, but alas, they must. 

 If I was King Canute trying to turn back the tide I would have drowned about 20 years ago...

I hate the way MA tries to exclude stuff they don't consider "metal" by going into stupid, lengthy, nit-picky definitions which just makes a complete joke of things, and I'm all for inclusiveness, but I just really REALLY Hate Korn!

Actually, I once got kicked off the Korn message board (late 1990s) for suggesting they would sound better if the drummer stuck a stick up his ass and jumped up and down next to the snare drum. Childish, but satisfying.