### Korn: Remember who you are

#### 24/09/10 || Lord K Philipson

Do not expect me to deliver fireworks with this review. I’m not inspired enough to do that today (either). You know how it is; even if you feel like doing something else besides writing – one needs to make sure the site stays alive. Therefor I thank my staffers for doing sexcellent work. The rest of you lot, you can all go fuck yourselves.

Now when the buttering is over and done with, let’s head into the latest offering from the mis-spellers of the origin of popcorn (this sentence actually turned out even better than I expected when I think about it).

KoЯη‘s been riding the Rollercoaster Of Suck the last few years. It’s obvious that the collaboration with fucken hip hop producers and whatnot sure had the band moving away from the sound that initially made them a name in the world of metal. “Remember who you are” is a title that implies KoЯη‘s going back to basics. And at a few occasions they are. I don’t need to go too deep into details, you all know what KoЯη used to sound like (and you also dig it more than you are willing to admit), so let’s see how the material stacks up on this here recording:

Pro’s: “Let the guilt go”.

Middle ground: “Never around”, “Are you ready to live”, “Pop a pill”, “Fear is a place to live”, “Move on”, “Oildale (leave me alone)”, “Are you ready to live”.

Cons: “Holding all these lies”, “Uber-time” (it’s the completely shitty intro, but hey – I’ll count that one too), “Lead the parade”, “The past”.

So… 1 excellent track, 7 decent ones and 4 shit songs (including mentioned intro) is what KoЯη give us this time. The production is excellent as always with (corn)Field(y’s)* excellent bass sound being up front and lovely. It wouldn’t have hurt had they had a more brutal guitar tone, but then again – KoЯη never had that. Jonathan Davis can still write catchy choruses and he pulls off another solid effort with croons and the usual whatnot. Munky churns out a few fantastic riffs but he also brings us a ton of rehashed shitty ones. “New” drummer Ray Luzier is a great addition and he really pulls off some fine shit all over the place (but let’s not forget the true words of staffer InquisitorGeneralis: “The new drummer for KoЯη is pretty good, although he looks like a total fucking toolbag”. “Pretty good” is an understatement though).

“Remember who you are” is ofcourse not a new “Follow the leader”, but it’s a step in the right direction at least. They seem to do better without the christian nutcase now too. Then again, they claim Head wasn’t involved much in the earlier work (scroll down and read). Weird how Head’s solo album of Jesus-loving music with piss poor lyrics sounds more KoЯη than the last albums by KoЯη themselves if that’s the case.

As a whole this album is more reminiscent of the old sound, but they still have a long ways to go before they are able to re-capture it completely, if they ever will. I doubt it.

One question remains though: what’s with the fucken cover? That guy in the car is too old for that chick.

*That joke was incredibly… yeah… (forgive me for this) corny.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Roadrunner
- Website: KoЯη MySpace
- Band
- Jonathan Davis: vocals
- James “Munky” Shaffer: guitars
- Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu: bass
- Ray Luzier: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Uber-time
- 02. Oildale (leave me alone)
- 03. Pop a pill
- 04. Fear is a place to live
- 05. Move on
- 06. Lead the parade
- 07. Let the guilt go
- 08. The past
- 09. Never around
- 10. Are you ready to live?
- 11. Holding all these lies