Korn - The Path Of Totality Review

Posted by Wyatt E. on 12.12.2011

The controversial new Korn album, mixing the classic Korn formula with dubstep galore. A fixating blend, or an ugly contrast?

"I want to trail-blaze. I want to change things. I want to do things we're not supposed to do. I want to create art that's different and not conform to what's going on. We didn't make a dubstep album. We made a Korn album."

- Jonathan Davis





1. Chaos Live in Everything (feat. Skrillex) - 4:02
2. Kill Mercy Within (feat. Noisia) - 3:16
3. My Wall (feat. Excision and Downlink) - 4:34
4. Narcissistic Cannibal (feat. Skrillex) - 3:14
5. Illuminati (feat. Excision and Downlink) - 2:58
6. Burn the Obedient (feat. Noisia) - 5:05
7. Sanctuary (feat. Downlink and J Devil) - 4:23
8. Let's Go (feat. Noisia) - 3:10
9. Get Up! (feat. Skrillex) - 3:42
10. Way Too Far (feat. 12th Planet, Flinch, and Downlink) - 8:15
11. Bleeding Out (feat. Feed Me) - 3:05





For all the criticism Korn have gotten over the past few years, they've done quite nobly in their cause to further their own artistic development, especially since they pretty much had to after the bottom fell out for nu-metal in 2002-03. The problem is, through all the new attempts to refresh their palette, they've been coming up dreadfully short over the past few years. For one, there's the Unplugged album, which was what this reviewer likes to call a "fascinating trainwreck" - it's kind of ridiculous, and even downright bad, but it's got its charms in some weird way. Then, their trademark approach - hip-hop informs a primitive approach to metal to create something that once was incredibly cathartic - went through endless tweaks, emphasizing the hip-hop, adding electronics, stuff like that.

And then they did the obvious thing, which was to drop all that in order to create a sort of "back to the core" record that sounded like their old-school 90s work, the result being Remember Who You Are. The problem is, despite the fact that they've done everything possible to refresh their music, none of it really worked. Somewhere along the way, the band lost their ability to craft riffs with the same punch they used to have, and getting back to their roots only made it all the more obvious.

The solution? Do the opposite of getting back to your roots and embrace the new world of dubstep - half-time rhythms, monstrous bass, the whole whack of it. By the time of late 2011, thanks to the right people keeping its name out there, dubstep is still seemingly all over the place, to the point that it's even more of a buzzword than it is a subgenre (Justin Bieber of all people recently mentioned wanting to experiment with it). The fact that Korn of all people have decided to embrace the style is either a testament to how far-reaching its influence is, or how desperate Korn have become to reinvent themselves. Or both. So since we're all familiar with the sound of dubstep by now - by this point, that aforementioned buzzword is actually bigger than the artists specializing in it - to listen to The Path Of Totality is to examine whether or not Korn integrate, or simply trace over the blueprint.

The whole concept is Korn bringing in some of the big up-and-coming producers that work heavily on the new sound, and let them tweak each song as they see fit. As usual, this is a hell of a risky proposition, threatening to alienate the people that have supported you all these years (how many original fans of the band are even left, by the way?). A cursory listen is admittedly a bit alien if you're a fan from way back, and that could probably apply to both the band and dubstep itself. Make no mistake, everyone goes into this one with guns blazing - the beats hit as hard as you can imagine, and the band run through their usual attack with decent enthusiasm, especially considering the production threatens to swallow them up, including Jonathan Davis.

The best example of the merging of these two styles is the awesomely-titled "Narcissistic Cannibal." Jon sounds just like he always does, and it's easy to discern that so do the other members of the band. But the track actually works, because the veritable hailstorm of electronics actually enhances the song instead of eating it alive. In fact, open-minded fans mind find the combination to be an interesting extension of the band's sound that expands on their past decade of experimentation. Of course, the producers deserve a lot of the credit for this working as well as it does - these are producers, not songwriters, and they're mainly here to give a new gloss to what Korn have been doing for the past what-feels-like-forever anyway.

Feed Me gets extra points for having the balls to chop and screw Jon Davis' bagpipes, but the award for bang-up job goes to a young man by the name of Skrillex. Among all the producers, his beats hit the hardest, and he's the one who manages to flesh out his prototypes into powerful statements. Impressive, since lyrically Korn are still mired in the same old wangst they usually do. Unfortunately, as this is one formula powering the album, it should come as little surprise that the album gradually becomes tiring. There's very little beyond its one trick, and the songs themselves aren't really strong enough to sustain that trick throughout the running time. Quite simply, some time before the album is over, one gets the feeling of "anything else?"

The 411: It's a neat little trick Korn have attempted, and for a while it's certainly a fun diversion, but in the end, The Path Of Totality is just the same Korn we've been stuck with for the past decade: going to great lengths to redefine themselves, or at least grab our attention, and inevitably coming up short. You're not surprised, are you?

Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]