KORN: Requiem (NEO/NU METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

The life of an artist is hard, especially when you are one of the bosses of nu metal with tours all over the world and labels that impose high production rates. This frantic rhythm, Korn will have known it for almost thirty years, until the episode of the coronavirus comes to break it. For the first time in their career, the Americans found themselves without a concert and without a contract with their record company. The combo from Bakersfield was thus able to offer itself the luxury to record its fourteenth album "Requiem", free from any constraint. This interlude of freedom came at the right time for the American band after an excellent "The Nothing", released three years earlier, and officially putting an end to a series of disappointing albums. Good news: "Requiem" confirms all the hopes placed by its discographic predecessor.

Nine tracks for thirty-two minutes, never a Korn record had been so short. Devoid of any length or superfluous, the three-minute tracks follow each other with an efficiency that the quintet has mastered for a long time. The mythical singer Jonathan Davis admitted in an interview that the recording of "Requiem" was "one of the best experiences he ever had", and this can be felt, as much in the writing as in the interpretation of the tracks, offering all the ingredients of a good Korn: low guitars, a fat bass (but less than in the past! ), melodies sometimes almost dissonant and dark (the riff of the chorus of "Lost In Grandeur"), a skillful vocals, excelling in the guttural and clear register, as usual.

The musical hooks are numerous, with rather melodic moments like the chorus of 'Penance To Sorrow', others more powerful like the thundering 'Forgotten' or 'Hopelesss and Beaten' and its allures of Alice In Chains by moments. In general, the American band manages to write new songs without really renewing themselves, but without ever provoking a feeling of weariness. After almost three decades, the performance is majestic. How to be insensitive to "Let The Dark Do The Rest" and its heady chorus, or not to fall under the spell of the excellent single "Start The Healing" and its riff à la "Coming Undone", released on "See You On The Other Side"?

The band has not aged a bit and confirms it with the last track, 'Worst Is On Its Way', probably one of the strong points of the album, with notably its amazing final putting forward the so characteristic 'Twist' vocal of Jonathan Davis. More than a tribute to its great hours, Korn extends his legacy and inscribes it in time by offering a fourteenth album fresh and inspired. With such a shape, the American giant of nu metal still has a bright future ahead of him! - Official website

KORN

REQUIEM

AUTRE LABEL

NEO/NU METAL