Follow The Leader
Korn
1998
Album Summary
Follow the Leader (stylized as FOLLOW The LEADEЯ) is the third studio album by American nu metal band Korn. The album was released on August 18, 1998, through Immortal/Epic. This was their first album not produced by Ross Robinson. Instead, it was produced by Steve Thompson and Toby Wright. The album peaked at number one on four charts, including the Billboard 200 with 268,000 units sold in its first week of release, Follow the Leader is the band's most commercially–successful album, being certified five-times Platinum by the RIAA. Its singles, "Got the Life" and "Freak on a Leash", both charted on more than three charts, and their music videos are considered to be the first music videos retired from MTV, most notably the MTV show Total Request Live. The album generally received positive reviews by critics and sold around 14 million copies worldwide. Korn was praised by AllMusic saying the album is "an effective follow-up to their first two alt-metal landmarks."The Family Values Tour promoted the album, along with its five singles. The song "Freak on a Leash" was nominated for nine MTV Video Music Awards, and won for the Best Rock Video award, as well as Best Editing. The music video for "Freak on a Leash" won Best Short Form Music Video at the 2000 Grammy Awards.
WikipediaThis album is every bit as enjoyable as I thought it was when it was originally released. Which is to say - not very. The longer the album goes on the more it becomes something akin to an aural military endurance test. About half way through I’m tapping out with the same ferocity as I would if I found myself in a Ronda Rousey arm bar inside the octagon. I love the concluding statement on the write up from the book… “So did this angry, twisted music do anything positive? It certainly made a truckload of money.” If that is your take - why the hell put it in the book? If I am being completely fair - Freak on a Leash is definitely a unique sound that lended itself to a lot of other music and I shouldn’t discount that simply because that particular sound is almost certainly the soundtrack in my own personal version of Hell. Still - the “beat box/scatting” is atrocious and I’ll die on that hill.
Oh no. Nu-Metal. Sweet Gary. Call me a freak on a leash because this is prison. This has "Edgy, Weepy Teen" written in neon green spray paint all over it. It's like they took all the cool parts of metal and then added all the worst parts of industrial and goth rock. I blame southern California for this. Plus, the lead singer is using that weird nasal tone that everybody used in the 90s. It's like Dave Matthews got put into the Microwave and then was forced to watch The Crow over and over again. Not a fan. Trent Reznor probably regrets inspiring these guys. How the hell did they get Ice Cube and Cheech on this turkey?
What appealed to this 14 year-old, hidden beneath his Korn hoodie on the bus to school? Where to start? How about: "I cannot every love another cunt / You trick ass slut / Look twice and you'll get fucked"? Truthfully, no. I didn't hate girls, didn't actively enjoy them being brutalised in the music I liked. I even skipped Kim back then, not yet able to parse its brilliance. I knew Korn (probably, hopefully) didn't mean it. But 50% of their appeal for me was simply that they said things my parents wouldn't approve of. You know that adolescent itch, the one that has to be scratched. So from a personal point of view, this garbage is defensible. And so too from an artistic one... in theory. Flirting with danger and taboo is an important function of art. There are too many great examples to name. This just happens to be a shit one. So why did I latch on to Korn's danger dance and not the good ones? Simply, partly they did it with no subtlety and I was almost as dumb, partly the other 50% of their appeal: dick bick energy riffs, creepy gimmicks, occassional breakbeats, basslines that spend most of the time building up to a letdown--I mean breakdown--and, of course, Davies' spastic yip-yapping. But those two elements, 100% of the appeal to me, are only 50% of KoRn's sound. The rest is characterised by emotionally-stunted morons who've chosen the hinterland between self-pity and self-aggrandisement because they don't have the... I don't know what... to grow up. Teenagers get a bad rep for being intolerant, so fair play to me for putting up with that side of a crappy bargain for so long.
Not for everyone, but one of the best examples of its genre. Also helped popularize extended range guitars in metal.
Holy crap this is terrible. Literal sonic garbage. I would rather go completely deaf then listen to this album again.
There is only one Korn album that should be anywhere near this list and buddy, this ain’t it. They are so sonically limited as to sound no different from song to song, album to album. The stuff they’re peddling now aged 50 is the same as they were peddling at the start of their careers, same as here. Whatever way you cut it, it’s all self-generated angst, pseudo-hip-hop stylings with zero comprehension or cohesion and (of course) bagpipes. There is a song on here called Cameltosis - these songs written by men in and around their 30s - which tells you all you need to know. Truly stupid.
Collectively, we are all dumber for listening to this record. Unequivocally, you don’t need to hear this before you die.
Not my favorite Korn album but was definitely groundbreaking for it’s time and was super influential in molding modern metal.
I had a thoughtful review written about this album and how while we may not like it, we have to reckon with the fact that Korn and bands like them made it onto mainstream radio in this era, but it all got deleted and i'm crestfallen. || Its easy to dunk on, but this sound changed rock and metal. Thank god it has continued to change and we're past it though.
I don't leave many reviews but I wanted to say that I definitely did not need to hear this before I died. I'm glad that the list is exploring different genres but isn't there better nu metal out there? I particularly found the vocals and lyrics very annoying. And the instruments weren't doing anything interesting to hold my attention.
Dreadful. I'd rather peel my own skin off with a broken bottle than have to sit through this again.
Surprisingly enjoyable in places, the drums are lively, the tunes are catchy. But some of the lyrics - especially the hip hop cameos - have not aged well. It also gets very samey by the end. Absolutely non essential, but better than I expected.
Would have liked it when I was 13, but I'm in a better place now. Or at least I have better taste in music.
An interminably long album featuring lots of growling, vocal-fry singing, whispering, gibberish, and bagpipes. It's not just that the music sucks. The lyrics are inane, and I feel like I'm being generous with that description. A low point is "All in the Family," where Jonathan Davis and Fred Durst trade stupid insults that are variations on "You're a fag lol" for five very long minutes. I had successfully scrubbed this song from my brain, but here it is again, tormenting me. I don't hate this album as much as I fear having to hear it again. That may not be true; I do hate it as well. Best track: Freak on a Leash
Gave up halfway through, Limp Bizkit pushed me over the edge lmao. There are some moments where my Lizard Brain takes over and I find the grooves trashy in a fun a way but then when I pay the slightest bit of attention to what I'm listening to I'm like, "Hey! What the fuck?" This Aussie breaks their long streak of 5/5s and gives Follow the Leader their first one Starbucks latte* out of five. *The joke here is that Starbucks performed so poorly in Straya that the only remaining branches here are at touristy spots where visitors who know nothing about our coffee culture go to.
No. Just no. This almost makes me wish I gave Slipknot a 2 so this could inhabit it's own tier of awful.
My senses were in less pain than in the case of Slipknot, yet my sensibilities were all the more injured for it.
This does not deserve to be on the list for any reason. What the f***?
Oh man. You know what... I'm not going to even listen past the first song. That's right. I'm not even going to give it a chance. I just can't stomach this right now.
I had Slipknot earlier in this list and I ended up enjoying it; so I went into this with an open mind. It's awful, they try so hard to be edgy but I'm not buying it, just a bunch of try-hards acting like they're hard. Dropping some slurs in All in the Family totally lost any lingering respect I might have had for the fact that they can make chords happen on their instruments. I'd give this a 0 if I could. Garbage.
I once saw Korn at a music festival when I was fifteen. My mate threw a bottle of piss and it hit the drummer right on the head. That's the best thing about them. Best Tracks: Freak On a Leash; Got the Life; Children of the Korn (feat. Ice Cube)
I made it through! Imagining they were singing “old Macdonald had a farm” on every song helped.
Simply magnificent album, the best of the band. Powerful, with many hip hop influences....magnificent.
Très bon album, la bass est vraiment novatrice, les vocales sont pesant mais émotifs. On y retrouve des gros hits, par contre quelque tounes ou interludes inutiles. Je trouve que c’est de la musique pesante mais accessible et c’est vraiment ce que Korn fait de Mieux! Un groupe qui a influencé beaucoup de groupe de nos jours. Je lévite; Got the Life, criss the chef d’œuvre ça même Pierre va aimé ça. Freak on a leash, its on, BKK, my gift to you Je l’évite; Children of the korn la toune n’a pas rapport et c’est très moyen, le battle entre Davis et Fred durst aussi c’est pas nécessaire (all in the family)
Really like the album as an intro to metal. Favourite songs are "Freak on a a Leash", "Children of the Korn" and "Seed"
Didn't expect to like this but I did. It has a nice grooves some heavy guitar riffs and is innovative. Too long though
Interesting intro to Metal for me. This is apparently "Nu Metal" which is a good entry point to metal for people that are interested. I still feel metal is quite boring in it's composition and melody, but I also thought the same about hip hop until I found good hip hop. This could be the same for metal. Korn is certainly a good intro for me, but I still feel there could be more to be done to make this interesting.
Parfois le monde décrive le métal comme du ''criage'', et ça existe certainement, mais j'ai vraiment pas trouvé que ça s'appliquait à cet album. J'ai même trouvé l'album assez lyrical et intéressant. Beaucoup de chansons que j'ai adoré et c'est pourquoi ma note est élevée. Par contre, je ne peux pas donner 5 étoiles à cause du vibe du groupe. Les chansons sont hargneuses, fâchées. C'est des émotions importantes mais je n'ai pas nécessairement le goût de me faire mettre dans ce mood là quand j'écoute un album. Même dans le featuring avec Fred Durst, ils font juste s'envoyer chier tout au long de la toune. Je suis trop de bonne humeure pour leur donner un 5.
125 albums and we finally get a decent metal band 🤘 This album massively reminds me of university days and "Freak On A Leash" is an undisputed banger 🤘 Some cool guests on this too: Ice Cube, Fred Durst, SlimKid3 from The Pharcyde. That said, it's not my fave metal album. It might not even be my fave Korn album. Still worthy of 4 stars tho. 7.5/10
Je suis vendu d’avance, j’adore leur style. C’est heavy mais ça me fait méditer. Ils font une recherche incroyable pour les mélodies, aweille la cornemuse!
Brought back lots of teen angst memories. Really liked the hip hop collaborations on this album. It kinda loses its lustre towards the end but it opens about as strong as you could expect.
Stor överraskning hur bra även alla icke-singlar var. Bästa skivan so far
Forgot how much I actually listened to this album when it came out. Few forgotten belters. Opening 3 tracks are all time. Glad I got the chance to go on a journey I never knew I needed.
Solo conozxo una cancion y me gusta mucho, no me dio tiempo a escuchar las otras :(
Amazing record. Good mix of metal and some rap parts. Some songs can get really dark while some other songs can be more "fun".
Oh, middle school edginess. I can't hate it. It's unironically cheesy fun.
Very aggressive, I like it. Favorite track is either Freak on a Leash or Dead Bodies Everywhere.
Korn was one of those metal bands I never really got into because I only liked maybe two of their songs. I never listened to any others except when I did I didn't like them. Hearing them in the context of this album, which I know some of these songs came on in the football locker room, I have more appreciation for them. I really liked Freak on a Leash and the rest kind of just flowed. I still wasn't a fan of some of it, but the ones I liked I really liked. And that's a fantastic album cover too.
Was going to give 5 stars except for the noises in the songs that made me worried my car was going to fall apart.
Look, Nu Metal gets a bad rap (ha, pun unintended). And it deserves most of it, being deeply emblematic of the aggressive edginess of the late 90s and the aughts. But damn if it doesn't still go hard at times. 4 stars for the iconic Freak on a Leash
Voi juma! Itse olin Kornin suhteen myöhäisherännäinen ja sen aikaisessa kaveriporukassa tämä oli kovaa kamaa. Jykevä basso ja voimakkaat kompit yhdistettynä ruumishuoneella työskennelleeseen ördäilyyn kykenevään laulajaan sai erektion aikaiseksi teini-ikäisessä nuoressa.
Korn have always been one of those bands where I like a handful of songs, but never really fell for any of their albums. Of course this has Freak On a Leash, amongst a few other hits.
I was a metalhead at this point in the 90s and I kinda liked that Korn was heavy, but I also hated that theyv drowned out stuff like Metallica and Alice in Chains. These days it still has an oddly nostalgic sound to it - most of my friends were into nu-metal and Korn being one of the biggest bands I was exposed to it a lot. Plus a few tracks from this were huge radio hits. I listen to it every now and then. It's a bit long but I do have to give it a 4/5. Also, amazing production.
There’s just no one like Korn. FTL holds up as some of their very best work, even with thirteen tracks of silence. 4
Absolutely bangs. Korn wasn't my go-to nu-metal in my teens but I still appreciated them and still very much do. The rap song with Fred Durst is complete garbage but luckily that's the only big stumble for me on this album.
This album was way better than I remembered. Back in the day, I disliked this album for not being as good as Life is Peachy and for, I dunno, the rap influence or whatever. It's actually really fun in general though.
One of my first experiences with "heavy" music was this album. Don't quite remember All in the Family being as bad as it was, but still a good album.
I don't think I've ever listened to this album in full. I like metal and I like Korn, so +1 here. I'll probably listen to all of their other albums! It just never seemed like a right time, but why tf not?! Either way has some weird rappy bits but overall a solid album.
Maybe I'm being generous because of nostalgia, this album was formative for me, but while I admit alot of the "nu-metal" I was into is cringe and hard to listen to now I can still throw this on an get into it so that has to count for something.
Je suis fou ou j'ai adoré, on dirait que ca me rappelle tellement ma jeunesse. Ca brasse et il y a juste assez d'agressivité ahah. On écoute pas dans le système son avec les enfants . 3.85
the year was 1999, the location was woodstock. Nah, like fuck i was there. Korn passed me by, i was more in to the knob jokes of blink and limp bizkit. listening to it now i realise it was a bit harsh for them to get lumped in with the nu-metal crowd of retards as this is serious music for serious people.
J'ai adoré cet album, seulement voici son problème: l'ombre de Mc Fly et Carlito plannait au-dessus de moi tout au long de l'écoute. J'étais effrayé à l'idée d'entendre un "je suis une tik-tok girl" rententir, et suis donc resté sur le qui-vive pendant les 1h10 de metal proposé par nos joyeux gueulards de Korn.
Honestly a really strong work, but a few pieces detract from the overall experience enough to lower it for me.
My first concert was KoRn in Amsterdam in 2008. It was amazing and they played a few of this songs too ofcourse. Nostalgia!
Definitely over the top at times but these first of tracks are straight bangers
2.5/5. It wasn't bad, but it sure wasn't good. Is this what Nu Metal is? It was like metal with some rapping. Very interesting but by no means enjoyable.
Nu-metal's haters and defenders have all had their say, and I can add nothing. Mostly because I listened to it not at all (essentially, let's not talk about Skillet). Don't really like it, and this album is no exception to the rule that I have zero interest in relistening to it. On the other hand, nothing (except maybe the Durst track) is something I find actively bad, so I wouldn't mind if someone wanted to put it on. Certainly wouldn't mock them for it. It's still great that the genre had a short life. Bagpipe points go to Korn and not nu-metal.
This is nostalgic for me, even if it's not my favorite Korn album. There's definitely some Korny (har har) lines, but Freak on a Leash still goes hard
Wie tief kann man Saiteninstrumente stimmen? Korn! Das bratzt Anfangs ganz ordentlich, trägt aber nicht über die ganze Platte und ist schließlich einfach ermüdend. Gerade so 3 Sterne wegen Rumms! und 2-3 guter Songs.
pas mon style mais j'apprécie le talent musical tres solide .pour les oreilles pointus j'ai une sugestion .c'est black napkins de franck zapa . 18 minutes mais il y a de la viande sur l'os...
Not my vibe, but substantially better than The Young Gods so gets an extra star for that