Korn refocus their energies after the turbulence of The Nothing

Requiem

LOMA VISTA

Bakersfield’s nu metal pioneers get back to basics in style

IT’S MORE THAN a little unusual for a band of Korn’s standing to have to approach an album at this point in their career – the Bakersfield legends’ 14th studio record – as the follow-up to a genuinely essential piece of work. But 2019’s The Nothing was a fantastic, if heartbreaking, record, detailing themes of loss, grief and depression in a manner as starkly effecting as anything the band had put their name to since 1994’s legend-creating self-titled debut. To add to the pot of pressures, this feasibly could be beloved bassist Fieldy’s last recorded outing with the band, with Korn confirming he had gone on hiatus from the group in November.

“KORN HAVE NEVER BEEN AFRAID TO CHANGE AND ADAPT”

But Korn have never been a band afraid to change and adapt, and Requiem skilfully returns to the very essence of what Korn have been superb at for the last couple of decades into sharp focus. In a tight, taut, careering and propulsive nine songs over a mere 32 minutes, Korn remind their followers of what they do and how well they do it. Gone are the ambient, gothic or electronic experiments of The Nothing and 2011’s divisive The Path Of Totality. Instead, we get monolithically hulking grooves, mud-thick guitar riffs that hit like a steel toe-capped boot to the cranium and Jonathan Davis’s always recognisable crooned yelping turning on a sixpence to either a wounded wail or a deathly guttural growl.