Reviews (page 4 of 8)
Not bad, not good, it's just there, has some really great tunes others are really meh
Better than I hoped
This was better than I expected
One of the biggest things I have learned while doing this is that year and genre doesn't mean I have listened to an artist or album as much as I thought. Early 00s were my teens and I consumed a lot of music back then yet I still find "new" music to me which I love. That being said I listened to Korn (along with P.O.D a lot) when this came out. I have listened to the album many times and I owned the CD. Great alt-rock album through and through. Its sometimes a bit strange but it works well as a coherent album that brings me back 27 years in time.
It's got everything Korn is infamous for. Filthy bass tone, hip hop inspired percussion, and spooky scatting.
Trip down memory lane, I was a little young when this came out, but ended up getting this album in Middle/High School. It's kind of an embarrassing period for pop culture, and just culture generally (really represented by the anti-gay slurs in "All in the Family" with an appearance from Fred Durst). But that doesn't mean it's not important from understanding music history and culture, and this is a good summary of late 90s nu-metal.
Put this on in the background while playing a quick round of disc golf and I started getting into it about halfway in. When Ice cube came on I was intrigued. Goes to show that people really didn't know how music was going to evolve and they were willing to throw some weird stuff on the wall to see if it worked. I enjoyed the track "Pretty" I also liked the song in the middle with some rapping and looked to see who it was and it was Fred Durst, who I only know from that eminem song, but I imagine he's not very cool. I was going to say I felt like there were Beastie boy influences, especially on that track but I don't know, kind of feels insulting to the Beastie Boys now. Overall I think that this project is a fully functional piece and it's a little challenging but it has high points. I remember thinking at one point that this is what Alice Cooper should have sounded like. Overall, it wasn't bad but I think the hardcore music scene was right to choose music like system of a down and death grips over sect.
3.5
Helt ok 5/5
Korn were never one of my bands since nu-metal as a genre really didn’t do anything for me (with the notable exceptions of System of a Down and Deftones) but “Freak on a Leash” is pretty undeniable. The problem is that nothing on the album really comes close, so it all feels pretty samey. Very bracing way to start the day, though.
It was alright, but I don’t i’ll listen to again
Freak On a Leash (that video!) & Got the Life are tunes and the author of this review enjoyed leaping around (dancing some call it) to these back in the day. honourable mention to Ice Cube on Children of the Korn dishonourable mention to Fred Durst on All In the Family, I'm marking this down for that track alone. fuck Fred Durst
Ganska spännande och varierade att men inte riktigt svängigt nog för mig. För mycket metall. Tre
Perhaps the weirdest band to come out of the '90s wave of nu metal. In fact, Korn was THE band to pioneer the genre with unconventional incorporation of hip-hop production in their otherwise heavy alternative metal songs. Follow the Leader is most notable here for Korn's biggest hit Freak on a Leash and the heavy-hitting features on other tracks: Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube from NWA, and Slimkid3 from Pharcyde all make appearances to lend a rap verse where vocalist Jonathan Davis only provides haunted ramblings. Most of the album revolves around Davis' traumatized lyricism and angst-riddled delivery while the band lays down heavy groove-driven instrumentation. This is cemented with unique production and tones that rounds out Korn's signature sound. Does it always stick the landing? No. It's actually a bit of a coinflip for me and I could probably cut out half of this album and get a much better product, but here we are. I think there's only so much Jonathan Davis I can take in one sitting, but most of the songs are carried by the excellent musicianship from the rest of the band. It's a simple-yet-effective approach, and the only reason we're here talking about it is likely because of Davis' infusion of personality on these songs so why not. My only hesitation is whether Korn's debut album would be a better choice for the list. Despite lacking the notable features and big hit of Follow the Leader, the self-titled album is generally better quality-wise and boasts the important achievement of being the first True Nu Metal album.
I was bobbing my head so hard I hit it against my car door and forgot what I was gonna say… But Korn is Korn. I don’t listen to this kind of music often but I respect the hell out of it. It’s fierce and it’s potent. If you haven’t already check out their version of Blind (different album but) during Woodstock 99, holy shit. Favorites: It’s On!, Freak On a Leash, Got the Life
one of the biggest bands from the “nü metal” movement, korn’s driving beats and introspective lyrics really set them apart from the crowd. while most songs can come across as pretty dark (vocalist jonathan davis had a pretty dark past and had experience working in funeral homes), some songs come across as kind of goofy. (to be fair, any song with fred durst is going to be pretty ridiculous). anywho, it wasn’t awful, but wasn’t amazing.
268/1001 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
Well that was a surprise 😮. It sort of was what I expected but wasn't at all like what I expected. There were bits that appeared to be strongly influenced by the likes of Dream Theater. Just not so polished. But I have to say I liked it. And this bit surprises even me, I would indeed consider buying something by them if the right deal arises. Now for the score, and this is really difficult, because I don't think they are quite worth a 4, damn close, but just not there. So it'll have to be a 3.
I mean they made a song for our boy Justin 2.75
It's 1998, I'm 14 years old hanging out at my neighbors house in the basement. We just finished playing Golden Eye on N64 and realize it's almost 4pm. Time to turn on TRL and wait for the Freak on a Leash music video to come on. Pizza rolls fresh out of the microwave and a mountain dew on the side. Life of good.
Though I don't listen to them much, I think I generally appreciate Korn. I think they have a sound nobody else has, and it definitely works. Not sure how fresh it feels today, but it works in my opinion. The first three songs on the record are quite good, with 'Freak On A Leash' standing out as a clear 5 star song to me. The rest is also decent, but I must admit I am got a bit tired of the formula and its was hard to find songs that stand out. I think in the end it's going to have to be a strong 3 for me. There are a bit too many songs that don't do it for me to warrant higher a rating.
I get it. They're angry and get to scream fuck for a living. I'm fine with both, but don't need to listen to the album again.
Fav: Dead Bodies Everywhere Least Fav: All In The Family (feat. Fred Durst) At its worst, it’s amusingly bad, but some of the songs do go hard af, a noticeable improvement from fellow nu-metal group Limp Bizkit and their tragic album that’s on this list
Brings me back to my emo adolescence.
ég hata þetta ekki. frekar einhæft.
It's OK. Rinsed it in the past so I won't go back again soon, but yea. Half is great, and the other half they're just phoning it in.
1998 angry rock Freak on a Leash All in the Family (with Fred Durst)
Nah. Even edgy angsty teenage me would've given this one a 3 at best
The first four songs are pretty good. Obviously “Freak On a Leash” is iconic, but this album would be nothing without it. That song is the perfect example of what their sound and style is. If they didn’t have it, everyone would be left wondering what they’re supposed to be doing. What are they going for? Is it supposed to sound like this? It would all be pretty annoying. It still kind of is. The lyrics are trying a little too hard to be edgy. Instrumentation and production fucking rock. Vocals are honestly alright by me. Unique and achieving what they need. Writing is original. I’d expect this to be better, but they seem a little too try hard. ‘Look at me! Look at me! I’m dangerous’ vibes. Get over yourselves. Also way too long. They did NOT have that much material. I believe I’ll enjoy this (somewhat) once, but will not be happy if I need to listen again for whatever reason. 3/5
As a whole, this is not as fun as i remember. That said, there’s still a few absolute bangers that hold up for me
Probably the best nu metal band. Might have got 4 if it was shorter and fresh durst didn't show up
Nu Metal nostalgia
Nu metal. Ni fu ni fa.
RAaa hramba uuooh rahaha rata. It's Korn. It sounds like Korn. They have 1 sound. What did you expect?
Haha we were dummies for liking this at one point 2.5 stars
É um pouco estranho no começo, mas me vejo ouvindo mais vezes. Algumas músicas que eu gostei: * Children of the Korn; * B.B.K. * Pretty
Diferente do álbum do Nine Inch Nails, esse álbum do Korn é um barulhento "legal" e, apesar de algumas musicas ainda soarem meio iguais, as faixas mais voltadas pro hip hop se sobressaem e deixam uma boa impressão pra mim. Recomendações: "Children of the Korn", "All in the family", "Dead bodies everywhere" e "My gift to you"
I listened to this album to death back in the day. It’s so nostalgic for me. But it’s their debut, that really stands out in my book. That one is a genuine masterpiece. This is not up there, but still very enjoyable
This has the definitive Korn sound, but some of the songs have not aged well
It were alright
Not soothing during a time of crisis. Otherwise good.
While enjoyable as most any other Korn album I purposefully listened to, Follow The Leader begins to wobble a bit the longer the album plays on with its 67 minute run time. There are certain elements of their particular music style that I absolutely dig, whether it's the strange unhinged rawness, the slapping bass that feels like it's being drug along the ground, or Jonathan Davis's feral vocals. But this album never really elevates past a 3.5 for me as I feel some of the work they've released after Follow The Leader is significantly better.
Good Korn album, though the 1hr runtime felt like 5hrs. There are some classic songs here, including one with possibly the heaviest breakdown I've ever heard (Freak on a Leash). I get chills every time I hear it. I had never heard this one in it's entirety and it wasn't anything groundbreaking, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
This is a hard one! It is unique, well-crafted, and the guys can really play. But I absolutely loathe the aesthetics of this — visually as well as sonically. So a subjective 2 and an objective 4 gives this a 3.
I definitely could have done without cameltosis and the banter before earache my eye, but I am a sucker for freak on leash.
I was getting a massive Deftones vibe, which is a good thing (I'm not super familiar but really like the album "White Pony"). But this started out with a bang and then sorta held check in the same space throughout. There wasn't much of a journey. It sounds cool, there were interesting elements in just about every song, but nothing differentiated one from the next.
I never paid these guys much attention when they were popular. And I wonder if this is the maybe the first time I’ve ever listened to them. I never cared much for speed mental or thrash metal (Hence, my review of Pantera ) but I do rather like nu metal. I don’t know that this is a great album. The singer’s schtick wears a little thin after a while and the Fred Durst cameo is definitely a minus, but I dig the energy and the weirdness that these guys bring. And the production is first rate. I don’t think Korn is destined to be one of my favorite new metal bands, but this was more interesting than I expected it to be.
I like a few songs on this album, but good god All In The Family is trash. I was going to call people out for rating this album so low, but... okay, I get it. Jesus.
Weirdly I kind of liked this album
Ok
This is some perfectly fine nu metal. I never got into Korn at the time so there's no nostalgia here for me beyond the singles. I liked it well enough in 2024, and I thought the song with Ice Cube held up pretty well, but I'll never listen to this again. 3.4
A very good album that this list confirmed that I cannot listen to at the drop of a hat, sort of like medication. I didn't NEED this yesterday so it sounded like a, well produced, temper tantrum, but I know it is there when I need that precise product.
Balances out somewhere in the middle. There's some really cool tracks on here, but they are balanced out by the number of similar sounding forgettable tracks and downright uninteresting one. Doesn't justify its runtime too well.
had to use the restroom while listening so some of the last seconds of this album were overrun by the sound of a urinal flushing. i have to believe this is what any nu-metal band would want
Real time and place kinda album
It is possible to see several elements of what would become Linkin Park in the 2000s on this album, no wonder Korn is one of the giants of Nu Metal. It's not my type of music but it's not bad.
was ok
Unashamed to admit I like this album. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but I genuinely think there are some great songs on here, in particular the first three tracks. Definitely a mixed bag with a few duds, but overall I do like the album. It’s not Korn’s best (their debut gets that crown for me), but I understand why it was the one that was picked.
I find this album musically somewhat interesting and at times even innovative, but lyrically, aesthetically and maybe even spiritually embarassing. The songs are exuberant and misguided in equal measure. Still, I do appreciate how they ‘go for it’ on almost every song, even if what they are going for ends up being terrible. All in the family is probably the worst song I’ve ever heard, but freak on a leash rocks. The abject unholy awfulness of the former almost makes the latter feel like it must have happened by accident - or from another lens, by miracle? I dunno man. All I know is I respect an earnest, authentic disaster more than an aloof, pretentious one, which is to say I have to rate this higher than sonic youth. Fuck sonic youth.
Freak on a Leash and a full album of average and underwhelming nu-metal, or just rock/metal. I'm very disappointed, all the other popular nu-metal bands from the late 90s have inspiring albums full of singles and bangers. Korn has only few boring songs, where vocal and specific bass style only gets more and more annoying. With a very heavy heart I'll have to give it only 3/5 rate, Freak on a Leash is not enough.
I like the singles, but the rest of the album is a drag.
I love Korn...in spurts. 67 minutes of Korn got to be a little much. But still, some pretty personally important songs to me on here, so I have no choice but to rate the album pretty highly. Favorite track: Freak on a Leash
I used to pretend not to like this, but never changed the channel when it came on MTV. There's something deeply embarrasing about this (the over-wraught teen angst, the scatting), but they're probably the most (top 3 at least) original metal band of the 90s and this is them at the top of their game (the riffs are deep and hard as hell, yet have a real groove to them) and working with a producer who knew how to make them sound good (it's thick, heavy and intense, with layer upon layer of down-tuned distorted), the propulsive . They broke open a new sonic palette in metal, following the loud-quiet dynamics and ultra thick guitars of grunge, but going as hard as possible. That's probably mostly for the worst in terms of their followers, but this album undeniably captures a mood, an embarrasing mood, but a real and widely felt one.
5/10…trotz Ohrenschmerzen
An alright album but not something I'd listen to again. I did like Dead Bodies Everywhere and Justin.
I hadn't listened to much Korn before, so I definitely learned a lot on this album. It felt very dirty to listen to, and there were a few bops. Don't think I'm really a fan though.
Is this objectively good music? No. Did this album change the course of music history? Actually, yes. When this album came out it was groundbreaking. Korn helped create nu metal and helped define the genre with this album. Also some songs on here are bangers lol. Personal enjoyment: 2/5 Relevance to this list: 5/5
I enjoyed this one more than expected. Good three stars album.
Better than expected
Not the best Korn album but them at the peak of their powers.
Korn is a very influential band, and directly has inspired a generation of metal and heavy music. The band specifically was foundational in the creation of Nu-Metal. This record is when they became huge. My parents had this CD, and I definitely liked a few songs. That being said, it never was a super important record for me. It’s important for Nu-Metal, but that’s a genre that I don’t particularly enjoy. Listening to this as an adult was tough honestly. I will give the record its props for being influential, and delivering a few solid tracks, but it’s just not for me. It’s way too long, and the lyrics are super cringy at times. I know Jonathan Davis really poured his heart into the lyrics with most being about childhood trauma, but some are just hard to listen to and take seriously. All respect to Korn, but I was too young to really enjoy this when it was popular, and I feel like it’s too dated to enjoy at my current age.
This wasn't good but I laughed at one point so that's something
OK, if I must... oh wow. I don't hate it. Did NOT see that coming.
Typical korn
I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea but I don’t mind Korn. They were part of my teenage years so I get the nostalgia hit from listening to this. That being said, this isn’t their best album (imo) but I did enjoy listening to it again. Some songs are a bit of a drag so it’s a low 3
It’s interesting. Some of it is even good. Overall it’s a bit exhausting.
a song with ice cube is fucking iconic tho
Not the most notsble album by Korn.
#278. Bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit are the reason why nü metal went the way of disco. Because like the dwarves in Moria, they delved too fast and too greedily into the cringe, and the public backlash was like the Balrog that came and killed them all. This is where a half star rating would come in handy though. Because 2 stars seems a bit harsh, bit 3 stars seems entirely too generous. Fuck it, I guess, I've given a bunch of mid ass albums 3 stars already, so I guess this isn't worse than those. 3/5: ok-ish
Nu-metal is best consumed in small doses. That said, “Freak on a Leash” was the only bright spot for me on this album, for obvious reasons.
Wonk
A tough listen but moments of true enjoyment
Ihan passelia musiikkia, mutta ei ihan ominta juttua.
Alright
You have to admit there aren’t many albums that sound like this. It’s a work of art haha
I have Freak On A Leash on my workout playlist so I thought I might like this, but that song basically took the best things about the album and distilled them into one decent song. The rest of the songs all blur together and there are way too many slow interlude-y parts with just drum and bass and weird synthesizer in the middle of otherwise heavy songs that break the flow. I do appreciate the metal take on scatting, it's weird and I love it.
Wait why does this go kinda hard?!
I give this 2 star album 3 stars only because I was in high school when this was popular, and there are a lot of memories tied to many of the songs. Without those memories, it's just a boring nu metal album.
Kinda groovy, kinda interesting but at the same time I think listening with ears of an +40 to a music style of his -20‘s.
I really feel like this album/Korn is over-hated. Yes, the gra-a-a-a and the growling was cringey, but the music itself wasn’t the painful noise I was expecting. This was an interesting and unique listen — something I appreciate from this project, even if I won’t return to the album anytime soon.
Yes ok. It’s fine. They have a big but niche following and are representative of that type of thing. So yeah. Ok.
Favorite Track: Freak On a Leash
En terme de métal, ça pourrais être vraiment pire. J'aime beaucoup quand le chanteur imite le cri du babouin en chaleur, ça amplifie la qualité instrumentale que je trouve par moment diminué par le mixage qui rassemble toutes les sonorités des instruments dans un pain. Bref, c'est correct
It probably helps that I've not been in contact with this album or band before. So listening to it I expected to hate it but to be honest I quite liked it in places. I don't think it's quite as bad as some make out and there is an energy to it with interesting passages.
I’ve always loved Freak On A Leash and that still stands. The rest of the album was fine but I feel that Korn is very much one kind of sound. Listens: 1 Fave Track: Freak On a Leash Rating: 3
Innovative, but only partially good metal. Tendency to 2.
Korn amuses me, but I couldn't listen to it long-term.
Some good riffs with a lot of bullshit in between. Soft 3
Though from 1998, it really helped define what would come in the 00s. Unique sound.
I remember watching the music videos for this album on MTV when I was about 12. I loved it then and surprisingly still like it today.
Best band name ever, very cool drums & guitar
First half is great. Goes a bit south once Fred makes a guest appearance. 3.5 stars.
I didn’t hate this, and I thought I would.
da-bum-na-da-uuuum-umnamaima
Korn added rap to metal's vocabulary. Their sound has the bass driven rhythms of metal, with down-tuned guitars to add weight. The brooding, articulate lyrics wander from the scream of death-metal, through rap to scat in some sequences. Follow the Leader is their third album, and perhaps their most successful. Driven by a a few hit singles, like "Freak on a Leash," Korn became one of the biggest bands of the 90s.
it was interesting, I had never listened to Korn before this, probably not gonna listen to this again, but there were definitely some parts I liked
It's Korn, all right. A classic, and as with most of the nu-metal genre, I suppose it's kind of a guilty pleasure for many. It's not bad, but quite repetitive after a while. And again, way too long. The last ten minutes were quite a stretch
Yikes, I can not believe I listened to this as a child
It’s on! 2 Freak on a leash 3 Got the life 3 Dead bodies everywhere 3 Children of the Korn (feat. Ice Cube) 3 B.B.K 3 Pretty 3 All in the family (Feat. Fred Durst) 2 Reclaim my place 4 Justin 3 Seed 3 Cameltosis (feat. Slimkid 3) 3 My gift to you 3 Earache my eye 2
A bit of an unfair review as I didn’t finish the album. I liked most of what I heard so it probably deserves a cautious 3*
Too raw and too hard rock for my taste. I did like some of the cartoon videos.
Much better than I would have anticipated. Got me hyped to go into the office today.
Solid Nu Metal record but not overly cringey (it has its moments tho). It doesn’t rely as much on rap as other Nu Metal albums. Maybe a little overly edgy but not too bad. It was just too long. The CD era produced so many bloated albums.
Wow. I added a few points because of... nostalgia, and maybe the fact that Korn were some kind of precursors, but this album has aged. Some good riffs, maybe two good songs in total, but the rest is disappointing. This should be considered as a stepping stone, that gave birth to new, nice things in metal, but this also should stay in the past.
I recognize this for what it is, but nu metal was never my thing. It's too long at over an hour. 35 to 42 minutes is a better length in my opinion. Over that and listening becomes a chore.
I grew up with freak on the leash constantly shown on Kerrange and Scuzz music tv channels. Listening back now just confirms my view that NuMetal really is just angry music for teenagers. Hasn’t dated well and now as a man with a wife and kids in his mid 30s, I really struggle to relate to it. The album is far too long, repetitive and chaotic. It’s made worse by appearances from Fred durst and Ice cube. I listened downward spiral last week, which I rated highly and in comparison this album just isn’t anywhere near that level of focus and atmosphere. Follow the leader is probably one of the best Nu metal albums and a pioneer in the genre but let’s face it, it’s not up against much stiff competition. Just scrapes 3 stars given its genre defining and freak on a leash.
Oh boy. There's certainly some things to be said about this album. Nu-metal is quite possibly the most polarizing music sub-genres out there. Some people enjoy it, but a lot of people hate it. So, would you be surprised if I told you that I don't hate "Follow the Leader" by Korn? I know, right? I think Korn's sound, at least instrumentally, is actually pretty interesting and I kind of like it a bit. It has this dingy feel to it all that isn't present in a ton of popular music. I think Jonathon Davis is also a fairly interesting vocalist. The weird grunts are not painful to listen to and his actual singing aids that aforementioned dingy tone. The writing could be better, but it's not the worst thing in the world. There are some decent songs on here. There are also some terrible songs on here. Namely, "All in the Family", which is just not good. The features are weird. I wasn't the biggest fan, but they weren't all bad. Overall, while I can absolutely see why others would despise this album and avoid it like the plague, I don't hate it. I find it to be a very interesting album that isn't the worst thing I've ever heard. It was somewhat enjoyable at times, and given how this album, for all intents and purposes, brought nu-metal in the mainstream to reign in the late 90s and early 00s, I can also see why this album was included on this list. Light 3/5.
Great example of nu metal era. Some highs but overall lacks quality across the board. Still enjoyable high 6.
Some of this is woeful (the Durst collab, Earache my Eye), but when it's good it hits hard. Not my favourite Korn but glad I revisited
This album has some great songs and some meh ones. Korn has such a unique sound. Most of this album still holds up today. Cameltosis is the major exception - it’s shit and the misogyny brings this down for me. Earache My Eye is pretty bad too. 3.5 Favorites: Dead Bodies Everywhere, children of the Korn
Not my type of music, but at least it has substance, depth and really goes in deep to those icky feelings we all have sometimes. It doesn't just talk about F the dude who hurt me and I don't care. It goes deeper and focuses on the real impact. Probably won't listen again but can give it credit for having depth.
"WHAT THE FUCK" - Korn. 3/5.
Not really my thing, but better than I thought it would be. Liked the rap element
Emo vulgarcore. What a blast from the past. The last time I saw this album it was probably in a cracked CD case on somebody's brother's car floor.
3.5
The S/T album is the one and only Korn album that belongs on this list and somehow it isn't. I mean I absolutely loved Korn in middle to sophomore year of high school but I'm pretty much over this. Got The Life is a great song. I will ALWAYS bob my head along to it.There's some other okay to pretty good songs. Some of this shit aged poorly particularly All In The Family. I can give this a generous 3 for the good songs. It really doesn't deserve to be shit on, but it truly has no place on this list.
Korn review First off, when I was 12, I was a huge Korn fan. It was the perfect successor to grunge music. It had that raw angst that I loved, mixed with metal. I had to listen to this in sessions as I didn't want nostalgia to play a role in my rating/review. If you had purchased the cd, you would be baffled why the songs keep skipping... Does this cd have music on it? Not until track 12 or 13, does the first song play. I think it was supposed to be a continuation of the previous album. This album starts off heavy and continues to follow suit throughout its entirety. It's On introduces the album and it's typical Korn fashion that fans would want. It ends and seemlessly goes into Freak On A Leash. In FOAL - we get to hear that Johnathan Davis classic "Metal Skat" that was introduced in their previous album Life Is Peachy in the first song Twist. Hearing this as a kid, I thought it was cool as hell. It's accompanied with heavy drop tuned riffs that hit you like a brick in the face. Got The Life has to be my favourite written song as it has a sick intro and a memorable guitar riff. There is a part right before the chorus, where the drum fill hits hard and you think it's going to get super heavy, and then out of left field it had this random, almost musicless part with Davis singing "Get your boogy on" - on paper is sounds lame.. But it just makes this song come with an unpredictability. After that part, back into the verse followed by the chorus that we thought we were going to get but instead we got the get the boogy on part. It's just a cool structure that I forgot about as I haven't listened to this song in years.... I'm not going to go track by track with this review, just adding some notes along the way. The song Children of the Corn is shit... But gets saved by Ice Cube's part. Hard hitting gangster raps that dominated the 90s. Rap and Metal = Nu Metal. And it is safe to say that Korn put the genre on the map. Davis does a lot of cool things with his voice. As he uses it as an instrument to add layers to the songs. It gives emotion and depth. Davis often is screaming, at times doing death screams,and almost comes off as this "I will Fuck you up" tough guy... But in the exact same song, he will have vocal parts that sound aggressive and then go into crying and whining... It gets old fast... And listening to it now, it's kind of embarrassing. It worked in the late 90s. And Korn is definitely aimed at angst IDGAF teenagers. Unfortunately, they still try that approach... And they're in their 50s (or close to). The bass guitar is very important to Korns sounds. Tuned low... And slapped hard. Usually, the bass is the structure of the song, while the guitars mimic DJ scratches and sound effects. Along with heavy doomy riffs. Which was new to mainstream music and oddly enough, James Schaffer and Brian Welch were credited as guitar God's in some magazines. Dave Silveria (Sp?) on drums has some tasty fills and parts but otherwise pretty standard drumming that accompanies the band well. The song with Fred Durst might be the worst thing ever written. And if written today, given our woke society, they'd be black listed. Seed is forgettable. And so is B. B. K. The final song almost is a carbon copy of the final song Daddy from their previous album, Life Is Peachy. It's dark. Lyrically (as most of this album is). But it ends as you'd probably imagined, if you're a Korn fan.... Jon Davis crying, once again. I get being vulnerable and true to your music is admirable. But Davis does it in a way where it comes off pathetic... It worked in the last album, let's do it again. I hate thwt. So, if it is a sequel... It sure feels like one. I do remember liking this album a lot when I was younger. It would've been a 5/5. I even thought, while listening to this, it was going to be a 4/5. But as it dragged on... And the second half was incredibly weaker than the first, it lands at a 3/5. I still enjoyed it. It was nostalgic. It pushed boundaries. It pissed people off. It was protested for its lyrical content. But it didn't age well. It was best kept as a memory. I don't need to revisit this aside from maybe one or two of the singles... But even at that, I would be happy to just leave it alone. Oh! I can't forget the cliche 90s trope of ha ING a secret song... But of course if you just listen to it on spotify, it acts as a final song.. The secret song has a cringe worthy conversation between two people. They both sound high as Fuck. Given the now know history of drug use in this band... It was two guys on meth having a conversation between recording songs on this album, I'm sure. followed by a heavy song that is clearly made as a joke. It goes on too long. It's borderline racist and homophobic. It's not serious... But again, it didn't age well.
Nü-metal is definitely a nostalgic thing for me. I was way more into Linkin Park and thought Korn was a bit too silly at times. I can still appreciate Davis’ manic vocals (when he’s not doing monkey sounds) and the at times bonkers instrumentals. There’s even the singles to back up this album. There’s also a feature from Fred Durst though. It’s despite of that this still lands on the number of stars that it does.
Close to a 4. Added a couple of these to my playlist.
This album has some interesting tracks and I can see the impact it made on music today. I will never listen to this again. Docking a point for the foolish hip hip skits.
Nu-metal sucked. Korn didn't, but this isn't a very good Korn album 7/10.
Over produced shouting. Not unwelcome in a playlist but tiresome after three or four in a row.
Heh, cameltosis. Honestly, "freak on a leash" and "got the life" barely pulls this into 3 star territory. And this coming from somebody who actually likes Korn.
My friend Spizzy makes a tasty drink called a Tough Guy Coffee. 1 cup of coffee. 3 shots of Ezra Brooks bourbon cream. Whip cream as desired. Mitchels sprinkles for the W. The coffee is a stimulant, gets the heart pumping. The Bourbon is a depressant, slows down messages from brain to body. That's two different drugs. This is dangerous! It's even called "Tough Guy." But it doesn't take itself seriously. It's got whipped cream. That's playful! And sprinkles? OK, is this for kids? But it's boozy/buzzy, so it can't be. Is it really for Tough Guys? If so it probably wouldn't be called Tough Guy. It'd be called Slayer or something. And some people hate coffee, so no amount of whipped cream is going to make it palatable. Some people like all the ingredients of a Tough Guy Coffee and will enjoy one every now and again, but would never drink 2 in a row. It's a once in a while type thing.
I don’t mind the nu metal sound and this album has held up surprisingly well, 25 years removed from its release.
Some rager songs but the vibe is majorly off for me
Heard it before?: Yes Enjoy it?: yes Favourite song: Track 2 - Freak On A Leash
More to enjoy than I thought (particularly uptempo tunes had some cool hard-ass grooves), but gets exhausting, then intolerable as it goes on.
uh ohhhhh another metal album. i can't cope. it was good enough i suppose for metal.
"Dead bodies everywhere, Dead bodies everywhere, Dead bodies everywhere, Dead bodies everywhere, Dead bodies everywhere, Dead bodies everywhere" Korn is kind-of a meme of a band, on the level of weezer, and nickelback, so I was excited to get to experience some of the genius that goes on in their albums. I was actually surprised at how listenable this album was, and I enjoyed some of the songs. T9- "Reclaim my place" has a dope ass beat drop off of "What the fuck!!!" so it's going in the playlist. T2- "Freak on the leash" has a funny ass scatting moment. Decent album, didn't hate it, didn't love it. 3/5
Has some great, creative tracks on it, with some unusual ideas and chord progressions. After the first few tracks it does get less interesting though, and the lyrics and intentional weirdness can get too much at times.
'Korn is wel leuk, maar al die baspartijen zijn hetzelfde' vertelde een kereltje Arie en mij ooit tijdens onze vakantie in 1999. Niet helemaal mee eens, maar het lijkt allemaal wel veel op elkaar ja. En waarom staat hun eerste plaatje niet in deze lijst? Veel rauwer en beter.
Ik vind dit stiekem toch best lekker
For old times sake wel weer geinig om te horen, maar het doet me nu echt amper nog iets. Vroeger was dit stoere shit.
Soundtrack to child abduction. Creepy in a scary way, like a dark figure waiting around the corner to grab you with long bony fingers, whispery/whiny vocals, funky grooves, lots of talk of rape, edgy, korny, and absurd in an unironic way that has aged like fine wine within the view of shitpost humor. Plagued with a considerable amount of mid, tracks without distinguished melodies, grooves, or subject matter show up throughout, though the korn style is present they can feel like dollar store versions of better work.
There’s a lot I like on this album and some cringy elements as well, for sure.
Kind of let down honestly. I thought maybe if I revisit this for the first time in almost 25 years I might dig it. I can’t deny their musicianship. These boys had a sound nailed down.
Yikes
Not my favorite Korn album. Self titled much better. Cleaned up their sound but not as good. Got the Life and Children of the Korn (with Ice Cube!) stand out. All in the Family with Fred Durst is awful. End of the album drags
It's Korn, so of course it's heavy, but it is much more groove driven, accessible and fun to listen to than I had imagined. The lyrics are apparently brutal, but it is mostly difficult to make out the words even though the vocal is closer to singing than it is to screaming. I liked this overall. Korn stand apart and above the early 2000s nu-metal scene. They give the impression that they make the music they do as it's their art, which may not be true of the vibe chasing acts that followed in their wake. Rating: 3.5/5 Playlist track: Freak On a Leash Date listened: 02/07/23
I was pleasantly surprised as I started this album. The first half was pretty good, with even a dance-y track (Got the Life) that had me grooving! The lead singer's gravelly scatting opened my mind to an interesting cookie-monster-heavy-metal-jazz-scatting thing. The album took a turn somewhere in the middle and started to lose me as it turned darker and more unpleasant.
When I was about 11, my friends and I thought we were so cool for listening to "Freak on a Leash" and "Here to Stay". We were not, but we had a good time anyway. Not nearly as good as I remembered, but not nearly as bad as I expected.
I do admit that I left today's album too late as it's past 1am the next day, which admittedly isn't getting the most of my attention as im trying to stay awake, but i'm still thinking it's a little too much and too samey. Maybe if it caught me on a better day with a drink or two in me I might rate it higher but today isn't that day.
I like corn growing up they were my best friend's favorite band but damn I forgot how much homophobia and self-loathing there was in this album
I’m pretty neutral about this.
Aldrig riktigt lyssnat på korn men några av låtarna va ganska banger.
Nu metal. Ni fu ni fa.
I have always enjoyed odd Korn song but not listened to a whole album before. There's something about those down tuned guitars that just hits right. I thought it was overall alright just a bit too long. Don't think I'd listen to the whole album again but I really enjoyed the below tracks. Highlights: Freak On A Leash Got The Life Dead Bodies Everywhere Children Of The Korn
Not bad, bit too much by the end.
At times sonically interesting and enjoyable but oof has not aged well
Good ol angry middle school music. 3.5
Way more interested in this than I thought I'd be - clearly not an album I'd ever play again, but I can completely understand why my then-teenage cousins were so into it at the time. Being slightly younger, it seemed very illicit, something that was neither for the adults or the kids that gave the teenagers their own little world. There's some definite talent here, and I have respect for how they carved out something new and hugely influential. ⭐⭐ on personal preference, but ⭐⭐⭐ for clearly deserving it's spot on this list.
heavy metal that incorporates rap is interesting.
There is some solid metal somewhere in there, but it is intermixed with emo lyrics and terrible hip-hop tracks.
There is a real dip in the middle of this, but damn this takes me back and I love it.
Not really my style but I can tell this is a good album
da-boom-da-da-mmm-dum-na-ee-ma!
ATTENTION ALL PARENTS
Some great tracks but some shite on there too. The song with Fred Durst is bizarre. Overall enjoyed it tho.
Foi uma surpresa, porque realmente essa onda nu metal nunca me pegou. Reconheci algumas músicas, culpa ainda da MTV, outras só escutei mesmo. Não daria uma chance, mas o material foi realmente inovador para a época.
Though I had never heard Korn before, I knew enough to stay away from them, since they were lumped into the new metal category. The 1st few songs were a pleasant surprise. They were more melodic, less heavy, less pompous with less predictable riffs than I was expecting. The singer has quite a range and at times I thought they may have brought in a guest on some of the quieter sections but I was wrong. This type of music benefits from the introduction of a rapper or two – Ice Cube worked but that Limp Biscuit guy made me cringe. The song “Got the Life” is a keeper. It reminds me a bit of Dinosaur Jr.
Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Freak on a leash
I never did much like Korn. This affirmed that notion.
So this album was way better than I would ever have thought it would be. I'm actually pretty shocked as I had heard it when it came out and thought it was way too hardcore for me. All these years later, it sounds reasonable. Would have gone four, especially with the rap star cameos, but for the overuse of 'faggot' throughout the album which makes them sound like a likely bunch of bigots. So 3.
I liked this more than I thought I would. Sadly no mosh pit here.
Very good, unique but dated in some parts
This was definitely my favorite album! But then I was not 11 anymore lol. Well the album has some good moments that hit hard, and some other fun/cringe moments as well. Thumbs up for the metal that does not jerk guitars off. I was considering buying this on vinyl for old times sake but, well, upon this listen I think I’ll pass on that
Ah, my teenage angst years! I would say Korn was my early introduction to heavier music, and although I prefer their earlier stuff, this one is a banger! Quite a dark album, some of the songs go to very bad places, but I feel they were done in a good way, they're not cheap or exploitative. (Pretty) The songs with Ice Cube and Fred Durst are terrible, they were back in 1998 and still are. Drags on a bit towards the end, long songs that all sound the sound. 3 stars.
favorite - its on!, my gift to you, earache my eye least favorite - freak on a leash, children of the korn (feat. ice cube), all in the family (feat. fred durst),
Was a slow burner for me, I really wasn't feeling it in the morning...vocals felt too artificial and self obsessed, overly compressed guitars making metal sound too neat and tidy as with a lot of nu-metal and similar...but I warmed to it as the day went on and was listening to it as background...my office sound system makes everything a bit muddy at low volume and it may have accidentally benefitted from losing a lot of vocal definition.
I'm not a metal fan, but I was able to listen to this album without too much trouble.
There's dark and melodic and then there's dark and demonic. Sometimes this album is the former (cool) and other times it feels more like the latter (not good). All in the Family was truly F'd up. I was never a big fan of Freak on a Leash though it's ok (not F'd up, but a little too heavy or too much distortion for me). I prefer their other big single Got the Life. Ice Cube adds a nice contrast to the regular vocals on Children of the Korn; I dig the sound overall. In the end, it's a lot to take on listening to this album (heavy? intense? abrasive?) but I did not hate it, which is more than I can say for other nu metal bands like Limp Bizkit.
For me this record is just decent, but objectively it is quite solid.
Goofy ass album.
I initally groaned when I got this because its an hour plus nu-metal album, but Follow The Leader surprised me. The opening stretch of songs were really good, especially Freak On a Leash and Got the Life. Even the Ice Cube collaboration was pretty neat. I do feel that the first half is much stronger than the second, although that could just be me having enough. The Fred Durst collab was entertaining though, even if it was pretty dated.
Classic
OK I guess, didn't really do it for me Pretty standard example of the genre, not bad but not special
Some of this is really good stuff; nice riffs, fun songwriting, and I even enjoy the parts where Jonathan Davis sounds like a masturbating gremlin. Unfortunately, some of this is really bad... that Ice Cube feature should be an embarrassment for all parties involved. Quite a mix.
Metalrap, I liked it Could go hard in the gym
Le simple fait qu'eltrapeze apprécie la musique de ces joyeux gueulards me donne une raison suffisante pour les rouler dans la boue. Passez votre chemin.
Parts of this album still rocks as hard as it did when I got a preview copy of it back in early `98. The fury, the fear, the intensity. Too bad half of the album is just dated and some of the lyrics are majorly (as the kids these days say) cringe. No quite a 3, more of 2.5
Good stuff from my childhood. Besides the hits, the rest of the album was ok
I might be being generous with a 3 but I'm honestly not even completely sure of my feelings on this album yet. It's kind of weird but this album feels like it's on the cusp of being something that I could really enjoy but it never really gets there for me and there are aspects that hold it back. I like a lot of the tones and riffs on this album and some of the lyrical subject matter is just disgusting in a way that I can't look away from (i.e. "Pretty" or "My Gift to You"). I even enjoy the vocal timbre of his voice which I know some other people don't but something here just pulls me out of fully enjoying this album. Maybe it's some of the really cringy lyrics at times taking me out of the music. Maybe it's none of the features really jiving with me all that well despite me enjoying the artists involved (aside from Fred Durst). Maybe this is just the type of record that I need more time to settle how I feel about it but I'm just going to go with a flat neutral rating right now so I can stop thinking about it for awhile. Anyways "All in the Family" and Fred Durst are complete trash.
Nice
Korn are the most important bands I've ever had the pleasure of watching. They moved me to tears with their eyes and knees. Their hands and teeth were a little bit warmer than I had anticipated, but that made my ankles weak and my thighs swollen.
17th August 2022 Listened the day after while working from home. Was in the office and out for book club - in order to live. I like that you can feel the rock and roll rhythm throughout this album. It swings back and forth like a pirate ship.
An band that I enjoy and an album that is pretty decent. Reading some other reviews it’s evident that if you don’t like nu metal then you despise it. I enjoy it and find the hard rock style a good blend between metal and grunge alt rock. It’s a step before all the goth/emo music that came in the early 2000s. This album has a few solid songs and a majority of them are ok. The lyrics are a bit harsh and I’m sure some people can’t stand them. For me it’s a decent album. 6.3/10
Pretty good, and the Cheech & Chong cover is epic.
I owned this once, briefly. I have absolutely no idea why. Remarkable to think that this entered the Billboard Top 100 at No 1. I wonder what happened to all the unhappy young men who bought it at the time? Anyway...
Music for angsty teens in the 90s. A lot to like in this but some of the themes haven't dated well over the years.
Thought I was going to hate this but it was ok(ish). Liked the distonal guitar sounds, production is quite tight. Vocals are bearable. Its aggressive and heavy Will I play it again? No. This stuff always feels like its listened to by high-school shooters. I know I'm not the target audience. 3
Gave it a full listen but it doesn't do anything for me. Seems like guy is trying to be angry but it's not convincing. Likes some of the rap that came in at the end
Freak on a leash is a classic to me - the rest are a bit too intense
Music is a 4 or 4.5. Lyrics are a 2 on so many tracks.
There's so much to say. In terms of how this music has aged, it's so a 1. It's such an album from the turn of the millenia, and it just has that sound, but similar to my review of Devil Without a Cause, there's personality here. Something just draws me to this. I was going to rate it a 2 because of this and the fact that I like the song with Ice Cube, but I have to bump it to a 3. "All in the Family" with Fred Durst is very funny. There should be more of these kinds of diss tracks where the featured artist shits on the artist and the artist shits on the feature. That's absolutely wonderful. It has a lot of homophobic language, but as a gay man, I still think it's pretty funny. It feels very 2000s xbox live public chat lobbies and all around childish which made me snicker throughout it. The lead singer, Jon Davis, was also bullied a lot in his younger years because people thought he was gay (which I couldn't find to be actually true, he was married twice to women, and has children. Some names include "Pirate" and "Zeppelin" which is cool and funny in its own right. I apologize for this slight tangent). Korn is not my least favorite nu metal band either, I think they relied on hip-hop influences a little harder, and that personality improves it a lot. Korn knows what they are, and they play it well. The sound is dated, and it definitely doesn't feel like something that is going to make a resurgence. Highlights: 5, 8, and 11.
Если честно, музыка не моя, альбом не зацепил. Единственная композиция, которая меня позабавила, это Earache My Eye. Она весело звучит, драйвово и качово. В остальном - альбом не мой.
Metal legit never fails to put me in a good mood. I have a major character flaw in that I CANNOT take metal seriously and just imagine the band yelling and making strange noises, and hence, I smile and giggle my way through each song. I highly enjoyed this album, though I recognize not in the way it was probably intended 😃
I like the instrumentals and the drive most of the album has but honestly, the vocals take away from the songs to me. When he's not doing weird shit I like it but to me it takes away from what else is going on. I know they did a ton for the genre but it's not my favorite metal subgenre.
Korn was really popular when I was like 7/8 years old so I grew up scared of them. I think I’m still scared but they are definitely a very musically inclined heavy metal band and that, I appreciate.
Other than the 2 major hits I've heard a million times, nothing really stood out at me as worth listening to ever again. Wish the song with ice cube was better.
Really not my thing, but was surprised by how musical the music was. Like it was a really well put together album but I’m just not into shouty gravel vocals.
It's fine. In my early teens I really liked Korn but never listened to a full album, and eventually moved on to Deftones (the best band to ever, at one point, wear the "nu-metal" tag). It's a rough, full listen. I love the bass playing, and the singles, but it really starts to blend together after a while. Ice Cube really sounds like he phoned in his verse (his ad-libs are fun, though), and "All In the Family" is...uh... "dated". Favorite tracks: "Got the Life", "Freak on a Leash"
It starts phenomenally well... the first 5 tracks are super strong, rowdy and energetic. All in the family is a clever idea but i think it pretty much fails, and the homophobic slurs don't age here. By the time it has gotten to cameltosis and eararche, I was ready to move on. Definitely had some good points though.
I'm not a big fan of Nu Metal or Korn. But their cultural impact cannot be denied. I often think of the band before I think of the grain and I have never lived more than a mile from a cornfield. That backwards R is iconic as well. "Freak On a Leash" is definitely the best track and probably the only Korn track most people know. It's not a bad album by any means just not something I vibe with very hard. Its impact is a 5/5 but personally I view it as more of a 2/5. Factoring both of those I'll give it a 3/5
I thought there could not be anything more annoying than the Hair Metal music of the late eighties and than a decade later, comes this Nu Metal combining metal with rap, funk and just about anything. For me this music defined the whole ridiculosity of the MTV/Spring Break scene at the time. But, just like the Hair Metal Era, there is some decent (very minimal) music to come out, and, I guess for me, this album falls into the something decent coming out of the Nu Metal Era category. For as much as I wanted to hate this album, when the band and their lead singer, Jonathan Davis, kick in full throttle, it does rock. The music overall pretty much sticks to a heavy metal riff throwing in sampling every now and then. I do like the eerie and scratchy guitar sounds. An all-star list of guests (Ice Cube, Fred Durst, Tre Hardson (The Pharcyde)). The song subject matters are all over the place: peer pressure, record companies, rebellion, suicide. The record is long at 70 minutes. If you were to get one album in the Nu Metal genre, this might be it.
This album starts out SO strong - "It's On!" is an excellent opener and gets the listener pumped up for the album's best two tracks, 'Freak on a Leash' and 'Got the Life'. After that, you can stop listening to the album and not miss all that much. 'Children of the Korn' is interesting, what with Ice Cube's cameo, and there are some worthwhile moments in the other songs, but for the most part, it just feels like filler.
Can't say a dislike this badass heavy snoring. It really brings me back. But listening to it now, the songs really sound so indistinguishable from one another. I remember distinguishing them so clearly when I was younger, though. I can see what my dad saw when he listened to my generation's music. I wonder if I just can't pay attention to the sounds anymore because I just can't no longer relate to the angsty and angry feelings they convey. It's still powerful as fuck, and I remember this album was already old when I listened to it back in the good old CD/mp3 days of the 00's.
A lot of this didn't age well, but I enjoyed some of the grooves. I'd still rank this higher based on its influence to the genre.
Although not my usual go-to stylistically, I hear some really great playing and creativity. I think I'd heard of this band before, not really sure, but definitely had not listened to anything by them in the past. Hard-driving gritty stuff but not too messy and not so overdriven and distorted that it crumbles into static, as can happen (at least to my ear) in metal. The screamed vocals are at times too much for me, but it makes sense for what I think they're going for here. As always, kudos to this project for making sure I open up my listening ears to music I don't usually hear.
first half is pretty good
A bit korny, innit? I like Korn, at least in doses. Going into this, I wanted to understand why metalheads hate nu metal, and it seems to be about bastardizing/popularizing metal elements without respect for the genre's core tenets (I don't fully understand what this means, bear with me). With appearances from the likes of Ice Cube on here, I think I get where they're coming from. It's metal-ish, with more accessible, and at times hip-hoppy, beats and vocal delivery. The anger feels a little aimless and vacuous sometimes (how about the "WTF" chant on Reclaim My Place?). But as someone without that historical metal fandom anchoring my perspective, I find this decently enjoyable. The music is heavy either way. I don't need an entire album of it, but there are a handful of tracks I'll hang on to. None of the Korn hits I know, but I think this is pretty good if you're looking for this sort of thing. Favorite tracks: It's On, Freak on a Leash, Pretty, Justin, Reclaim My Place. Album art: Whoaaaa trippy, follow the leader off a cliff????? A bit like those instagram posts like "most people won't understand the deeper message." I like the art style though. 3/5
"Issues" and self-titled are better but this is still a solid album. "All In The Family" is complete trash tho
enjoyed this much more than I expected to. Truthfully I did not know what to expect. Of course I had heard of Korn but I don't think I've ever heard a song. I wasn't even sure what style their music is. It's still hard to pin down; there re elements of heavy metal, rap, grunge, progressive. I don't like all of it, the vocals are generally a miss for me with some exceptions, the guitar sound is a little heavy and plodding in spots, but all-in-all an enjoyable listen. 3.5 stars
Hard to rank. I wanna go Higher for the music and lower for the vocals.
Ok I guess. Not the kind of hard rock I enjoy. 2.5 stars, and rounding up for the genre.
When I was a teenager I listened to a little bit of Korn and found it scary. Now, it sounds, not as scary, and maybe better than I thought it would sound. But I don't need to listen to Korn every day to say the least.
This was another surprising album. It was much better than I thought but some of the songs are comically edgy and the lyrics can be very dated at times. However, it’s about as good as nu metal gets. Fav songs: freak on a leash, bbk
3 Nice surprise in the disco hi-hat and vocal whimsy in "Got the Life."
If you asked me which album's bass would push the limits of my Sonos 1s, I wouldn't have guessed it'd be a Korn album. Yet here we are... I was also surprised by how enjoyable revisiting this album was as a 40 year old.
Starts strong, but I can’t maintain that energy for the full 67 minutes. Cut ‘All in the Family’ and everything after except the top notch Cheech & Chong cover and we’ve got a 4 star album.
An incredibly strong start to a good album
Liked most of the songs, the rapping felt out of place to me. Heavy guitars, great vocals
Lot of solid head bangers. Started out strong with it’s on, freak on a leash, got the life. Less convinced with some of the raps/ monologues/limp bizkit beef but overall enjoyed the album.
Not as screaming as I imagined. Actually kinda liked it, to my surprise.
Lyssna inte så länge, men det var bra det.
Decent pump up music but gets old pretty quick. Best things about this album: 1) Got the Life 2) Hardcore Scatty Breakdowns 3) Ice Cube 4) "It's a little fucking toot."
It’d be very easy for me to say I hate this. But I get it. They’re certainly an original band. There are some cool grooves and guitar tones. Also, Got The Life is a certified banger. All In The Family is ridiculous as fuck though.
probably a 3.5 for me. Like the general sound, but the lyrics are definitely crude at times.
I didn't hate it. Ice Cube was the last person I was expecting to pop up after those opening few tracks.
Production: 9/20 Songwriting: 8/20 Innovation: 12/20 Bangers: 5/20 Emotional response: 11/20 =45 Much better then I though it would be
Not my vibe but enjoyed more than I thought I would. Quite accessible for non-metal fans and was a welcome accompaniment whilst making Remy’s birthday card late last night
Kinda interesting, the vocalist definitely needs to grow on you.
Reminds me of Finchley in the late 90s. Can appreciate the musicianship and like most other bands in this genre I like the odd song here and there but ultimately not an album I’d choose to listen to. But this album felt pretty accessible and there were parts of it that were cool.
Not my vibe, but substantially better than The Young Gods so gets an extra star for that
Enjoyed it a fair bit, and it got the lid head banging.
All In The Family is puerile but mildly amusing
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...
MTV nos engaño... En realidad no traen mucho.
RUNGAVIMBIYAWTA
Dos rolas aguantan... si tuviera 15 años
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.
i like korn but that one didnt land as much
Ah... Nu Metal digs
It was ok. Like someone just got a new stomp box.
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
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.
Way too long, or how I came to tell my aunt I like Korn now.
Some great tracks but I was always more of a Limp Bizkit fan
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.
1.5. It was a bit intense for me but “All in the Family” really took it down a notch for me and it never recovered.
4/10 I listened to this while enjoying the beautiful train journey from Paignton to Exeter. Although the down-on-their-heel townscapes of Paignton and Newton Abbot could in some ways be suitable for the teeny angst of Korn, for most of the journey the music jarred badly with the sun-dappled sea in the gentle early morning of midsummers day. The skibbidy-ba doo wops were odd. The music wasn't as impenetrable as I feared, but it didn't amount to much more than it's chugga-chug, chugga-chug, chuggady-chugga-chug dropped tuning riffs. No thanks
For the first 3 tracks I really had myself convinced we didn't give Korn enough credit and that we were too fast to throw them out with all the worst nu metal bands. I was contemplating a 4/5 star rating. Riding high! Then the rest of the album happened. Freak on a Leash and Got the Life saved this from a 1 star review at least.
Some music, mostly a bunch of shouting. One track was interesting, "My Gift to You". It had a bagpipe intro that lead into the piece, however the tune went dark then had the typical shouting. Too bad thought there was some hope.
Absolute trash. The Ice cube feature was ok
Low 2. The music is interesting, but the lyrics I think we can aspire to a higher quality.
65
jesus christ
a productive album for moving in day! also quite silly
Pas mon style
not for me
Gran ejemplo de por qué me gusta esto. Son esas bandas que me daban mucha curiosidad escuchar a ver que onda, pero nunca me mandaba. Hoy lo escuché, me di cuenta que no me gusta, pero con fundamento jajaj. Freak on a leash está buena la verdad, la escucharía, las otras no creo, y menos el disco entero. Me sentí raro escuchandolo en el bondi, como si estuviera ocultando algo.
No apto para todo el mundo, te tiene que gustar el heavy y la música oscura. De lindo no tiene nada, es ruido y una voz del inframundo. Algo me gustó, no sé bien qué pero no suena mal. Hay un tema sacado de contexto que es el de Ice Cube que me gustó el Feat más Rap. Esto se escucha para entrenar y levantar pesado en el gym, no le encuentro otro contexto jaja. No pongo top Picks, me cuesta encontrar 3 canciones outliners, suenan muy parecido muy monótono. All in the Family es el que más me gustó, es más hablado y se escucha claro lo que transmite la letra. “Check you out Punk, yes i know you feel it” muy buenaaaa letra.
Could not even finish it
I never did like this game.
As a millennial there's a certain level of nostalgia tied to this album as the roots of the Nu-Metal subgenre. Their sound is truly one of a kind. But honestly there's only so many songs on this album that are enjoyable. The songwriting feels too loose in that a lot of the songs don't really go anywhere.
I do actually like the first three tracks. The rest I could take or leave, and All in the Family has got to be in the running for worst song of all time
Maybe my 13 year old self enjoyed this, but was not a fan this time around. “Freak on a Leash” still has one of the coolest music videos, but the rest of the album just doesn’t hold up. Highlights: “Freak on a Leash”
Kad sam bila klinka i u toj nekoj fazi sam ih voljela, pa sam očekivala da će mi ovaj album nakon toliko vremena puno bolje sjesti nego što je. Ne volim kad me počne hvatati anksioznost dok čekam da završi album, nije dobar znak 🤣 ipak zbog nostalgije bit će 2/5, 3/10
I’ve never really loved Korn even though I really was the target age, etc. I remember when everyone got super into them. Overall I’ve generally just found them a bit too weird in an unpleasant way and a lot of their tracks felt too monotonous. Anyway. For this album I can’t say my mind has really been changed. Songs like Children of the Korn or Dead Bodies everywhere sound like something a parody metal band would write and are almost laughable to me. I like a good amount of metal and definitely understand that all metal has a measure of theatrics to it but they seem to me like a group that takes themselves very seriously. Some tracks aren’t bad at all (It’s On!, Freak on a Leash) but overall I’d just really rather listen to most other bands.
There’s only so many time I can listen to drop A slap bass parts and Jon Davis sounding like Scooby Doo before I get tired
too messy and angsty in a cringe way
Better when I was 14
It makes me want to smash things
Não é a minha cena
284/1089 okay good start, it’s a type of metal that’s accessible enough for me to enjoy pretty easily which i sort of expected from what i’ve heard of them before also this album was released a week after i was born, i guess it must be the album closest in age to me on this list so that’s fun All in the family is ROUGHHH meh this album was okay but it dragged on quite a bit and i’m generally not a huge fan of some of the aggressive types of lyrics etc in here (i think aggression can be well aimed, eg in punk music but this just felt a bit vulgar imo) that said it has some sounds i like and that i find nostalgic so that’s a positive faves: It’s On!, Freak on a Leash 41/100
I liked a few songs but none of them enough to listen to it again, and it's a little TOO intense for me, i believe. And it gets a liiitle repetitive too
I liked Freak on a Leash on highschool, but other than that this is mostly forgettable nu metal. The tracks with Fred Durst and Ice Cube were especially bad. 2/5
I guess this deserves a spot because there was a time when nu metal was huge. And to know your popular music history you should probably at least know what it sounds like. That being said, I lived through nu metal’s popularity and I wasn’t thrilled to have to relive it. This genre just does not appeal to me. I can dig some of the heaviness, it’s not awful for metal instrumentals, and the bass guitar on some songs was cool. Just as a whole I don’t like it.
oh my godddd. jonah was right they CANNOT reclaim. barely limped through this lol
You know what? I did have some fun with this. I can see why this launched nu-metal into ubiquity. I was excited to hear Ice Cube. I hadn’t looked at the tracklist very closely before starting my listen so all the features were surprises. I even got a kick out of Fred Durst! I unironically enjoyed (most of) his verses on “All In the Family”. The Waco lyric had me slapping my knee. It still suffers from a massive runtime, edginess, and some truly bananas misogyny, but it’s harder and not as self-serious as some of its peers. Makes it easier to digest. Consider this a lightly affectionate two stars.
Production is great, I enjoy Freak on a Leash, but man it hasn't aged well at all.
I’ve probably seen Korn live more than any other band despite never listening to an album. In high school all my scumbag friends loved Korn and I’ll never say no to live music. That being said I thought this album was bad. Freak on a Leash is undeniably badass, but All in the Family is where I had to tune out and just let the album exist in the background. Holy fuck what a bad song. I should’ve stopped at Children of the Korn because that was terrible too.
It’s not really my genre. It’s not horrible but it’s just not something I enjoy for the most part. There are similar or adjacent bands that I like (SOAD, Deftones) but overall it’s not something I’m into. The music has an aggressive and depressive nature. The most enjoyable tracks for me are the ones that are more melodic or have some hip hop lyrical delivery.
This was a tough listen. I used to own this album back in High School when I was full of bad decisions and depression, so I know all the songs. The lyrics did not age well. The teenage angst is tangible. Plus, the album is really long! I remember trying to share this with my mom back in High School and she (rightfully) gave it scorn. The longer the album went, the more I disliked it.
Nu-metal? More like ew-metal!
There's a weird thing with numetal where the vocals don't have much variety. There's the standard shouty vocal and there's the higher pitched melodic vocal. Sometimes there's a whispered bit and sometimes there's a grunty bit. The funniest bit is where they sling Vanilla Ice as an insult with zero self awareness.
Bad but not quite *as bad* as I was expecting. I really don't like it when he does the weird scat thing where he sounds like Beavis from Beavis & Butthead. A common thread on all these nu metal albums: they're always too long.
Oh boy, some more edgy shit. I've been listening to my fair share of albums like this lately. I'm assembling pre-written reviews for all of the albums which were removed from later editions of the book, of which just about every single angsty teen boy album has been snubbed. The second Slipknot album was pulled. Limp Bizkit was axed. Linkin park got obliterated. This album is one of very few to have survived, so forgive me for getting my hopes up just a little. I quite like the illustrative style of this album cover, so I'd be getting my hopes up either way. I think I can very safely lock in nu metal as my genre prediction. Here goes. Bleak listen. I had completely checked out of this album by the time the final quarter rolled around - absolutely nothing could get through to me. This music is dull, though I suppose there are moments of competence peeking through. I appreciate the strange, arrhythmic songwriting. It's pretty decent at points. The vocals don't do it for me, however. It sounds like this guy is singing in a hushed, subdued voice because his parents are in the other room. Maybe that's the point - so parents can't make out the lyrics from the other side of the dry wall. The nu metal instrumentals are similarly dull to me. The grungier-sounding instrumentals are generally the more competent offerings, whereas the blown-out, buzzing guitar tracks all blend together into an unsatisfying, unremarkable mush. The hour-ten runtime wasn't as intolerable as some of the other albums of its ilk, though it left a mark on my enjoyment all the same. Overall, this was a boring, if manageable listen. Book time. Set the standard for nu metal. Diversified their sound by adding a "...more sparse and groove-based sound". Ice Cube, Fred Durst and one of the vocalists from Pharcyde appear on here. "So, did this angry, twisted music do anything positive? It certainly made a truckload of money." I've read better closers to these entries, that's for sure. Wikipedia says this album peaked at No. 1 all across the West. The only country to miss out is the UK, where it peaked at No. 5. It's also the band's most successful release and had two popular singles, the music videos for which were banned from MTV after viewers kept requesting that they be played (the network wanted to give air time to other artists). It brought nu metal into the mainstream, received a modest, if polarised reaction from critics and charted all across the West and Europe. As I've said in some of my prior reviews, it's difficult not to view a lot of 90s music as subversive, even if I do get along with this decade of music way better than the ones which came beforehand. Promoting images of squalor, dysfunction and decay through your art is socially corrosive as it normalises such a state of being. Before too long, the people who revel in this music will seek comfort from it and become increasingly complacent with the atrophying state of the West. Obviously, we should try to rehabilitate the individual to extent where it's possible, but having art like this in the mainstream is counterintuitive when viewed through the traditional lens of art and culture (i.e., as a testament to human accomplishment). I don't respect this album, though I won't let personal feelings cloud my judgement. I'm favourable to the music history picks of this list and this music is, fortunately, historically significant. Furthermore, all of the points I've laid out from the book and Wikipedia are solid qualifiers, so I think I can let this one through. I cosign this inclusion
2.5 - ok
I can maybe at least respect the effort and artistry applied here, it's obviously well thought out and professionally made. It just isn't a sound I enjoy hearing much of. A couple songs here and there will do it for me, but 67 minutes in a row is way too many. I was fully over it by the time All In the Family started. I listened to the whole thing anyway because I committed to it, but it really only got worse. 1.7/5