i have a soft spot in my heart for korn. the first album i bought on my own when i was eleven years old, was "follow the leader". over the times i lost track about what the band was doing. i stll don't know much of the stuff in between "take a look in the mirror" from 2003 and this new album and we will see if i will spend some time with it anyway, but when music on vinyl re-issued the first six classic korn records on vinyl last year, i was on a huge korn kick again. so when i saw the video to "rotting in vain" i felt thrown back to those glory days.
the song sounds a bit like "falling away from me" to me and it was the spark needed to light my passion for this band anew. the next single "insane" made me confident that "the serenity of suffering" would be cool again and when i saw a light blue vinyl version going up for pre-order at emp, i didn't need a second thought to secure myself a copy. listening to the whole record, i am pretty satisfied. the band managed to show their strengths in such a focused way that this album easily stands among "issues" or "untouchables" (which i have listened to again for a couple of times and am now beginning to love as well).
of course, korn doesn't sound like fifteen to twenty years ago. how could they without being a bad copy of theirselves? they took their trademarks and made it work within the context of today. a great modern metal album, which i am happy to call my own. i am really looking forward to see them live next year in march in hamburg with some friends. the presentation is pretty simple. slip sleeve with insert, black dust sleeve and nice opaque light blue vinyl. it is an exclusive emp edition out of 500 copies. roadrunner records. 2016.
