KORN — Issues (review)

Album · 1999 · Nu Metal

4/5 · 2013-04-21
Doomster

At the stakes of risking my reputation, I must admit that I do like a few nu metal bands - and Korn is one of them. Personally, I believe that Korn gets an undeserved amount of bad rep amongst much of the metal community, and as their discography progressed, this claim was further added on to by people who disliked the band.

Now, I'm not going to say that all nu metal haters are elitists - it's just that many of them seem to despise the genre for it simply being a, well, genre, and I can safely say that that is rather low, especially if one considers themselves dense enough to completely disregard a band or an artist merely due to the category the band falls under.

Though many claim that Korn got stale after their first two albums (and while I do agree with the fact that their third album wasn't great, I did like a few songs, most primarily the singles), I beg to differ for the main part. "Issues", while different in style, was also a turning point for the group.

"Issues" is possibly my favorite Korn album (and the last one that I really enjoyed, to be honest). This isn't a "typical" Linkin Park style snoozefest nu metal album. It is actually genuinely dark, grimy, and is quite possibly the most disturbing nu metal record I have ever heard. Even if you are a devout hater of the nu metal genre, it is nearly impossible to deny the sludgy, filthy, and hopelessly lethargic feel of the record. This album was probably where Jonathan was at the peak of his depression, and it shows in both the lyrics and the music.

Aforementioned lyrics follow a pattern of sex obsession, alcoholism, feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, and various mental...well, issues. There is little to no hope to be found in this album - much like Khanate's self titled album or Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral", it's a look into the broken, shattered remains of a diseased, infected mind. The music itself compliments the lyrics - creepy, lethargic, and overall incredibly paranoid sounding, useless (in a good way), tortured, and even somewhat...fragile.

My favorite song here would probably be "Trash", the third song, and besides the final track on this album ("Dirty"), it is probably where the record is at it's highest (err, lowest?) peak of hopelessness. It's heavy, angry, fucked up and covers heavy themes such as alcoholism, sex obsession, pedophilia and self loathing. When I hear this song, I feel like I've just been dumped out into a back alley in the middle of nowhere, lying next to a destroyed garbage can with scattered, rotting remains and a rainstorm thundering down miserably in the dead of night. And the smell is unbearable, too.

It's obvious Korn stopped fucking around with this album. It was probably the closest Korn came to being a "real" metal band, and any lack of seriousness or care-freeness is gone with this record. Even if you consider yourself a nu metal hater, I'd still try and listen to a few songs here. It might change your mind. I know it did for me.

Oh, the cover art is pretty neat, too.