The Path of Totality

Korn

Korn is a band on a mission. Just 15 months ago, the nu-metal rockers released Korn III: Remember Who You Are. Yet here they are now with their tenth studio album, The Path of Totality. Whereas last year’s LP took the band back to their nu-metal roots, here Korn takes a step into new territory by boldly fusing nu-metal with dubstep – two of music’s most polarizing genres – into one album. The result will no doubt lead an equally polarizing reception.

For The Path of Totality, Korn wrangled up a plethora of dubstep producers like the increasingly popular Skrillex, Noisia, Excision, Downlink, and 12^th Planet to produce individual songs. The problem with this is that too many of the songs sound the same, despite the numerous producers. I’ll admit I’m a little biased. For the most part I hate dubstep. I can only listen to a few tracks it before I get bored and it all sounds the same: just a guy on his laptop making reverb noises and bass distortions.

Another admission I’ll make today is that Korn has always been a guilty pleasure for me. The real draw for me here was the curiosity factor on how dubstep sound’s fusion with Jonathan Davis’s mostly dark, but occasionally uplifting lyrics would work. It turns out hey blend really well with the dubstep genre. Same goes for the powerful guitar riffs and bass lines - though the latter has been more toned down in Korn's last few albums. It allows tracks like “Chaos Lives in Everything” and “Narcissistic Cannibal” to reach their full potential.

Unfortunately about one-third of the way through the album, I had lost interest like I do with most dubstep music. Every song started to sound the same. In fact, it was solely Davis’ lyrics that kept me hooked. I’m not saying that this is what will happen to everyone who listens to it. I expect some people to really enjoy the fusing of these two genres. And I expect some people to really loathe it, especially purists of both dubstep and nu-metal.

Jonathan Davis has gone on record saying that this is the future of metal. A bold statement, but it’s much too early to tell whether or not this is how metal reinvents itself. Nevertheless, I admire Korn’s creativity here and their desire to experiment with new sounds. Time will tell whether or not we’ve stepped into the future of metal.

Recommended Tracks: “Chaos Lives in Everything”, “Narcissistic Cannibal”, “Let’s Go”