Korn - Unplugged Review [2]
Posted by James Munson on 03.10.2007
Nu-metal pioneers get in touch with their softer side with help from members of Evanescence and The Cure. The whole concept is daring, but the results are so-so as their music doesn't transfer well acoustically.
The MTV Unplugged franchise has made its mark for over a decade of showcasing artists that want to present their music in a stripped-down, almost entirely different format (LL Cool J, Nirvana, Pearl Jam). It has also featured a few performers whose music isn’t so out-of-place in an unplugged setting (The Cure, Sheryl Crow, Dashboard Confessional). That said, when I first discovered that the band KoRn would give their songs the Unplugged treatment, my first thought was “They’ve got to be kidding, right?”
My feeling after a while changed to skepticism, especially after thinking how good down-tuned guitars, growly vocals, and a six-stringed bass would sound in a bare-bones setting. Plus, what motive would KoRn have for putting out an acoustic record after all this time? Is it because they’ve run out of ideas for making the same album (except worse each time) for the past ten years? Or is it because they’ve become more sensitive following the loss of guitarist Head to Jesus or the most recent departure of long-time drummer David Silveria? Either way, my curiosity got the best of me when I decided to give it a listen.
Consequently, it’s not as terrible as one would expect. It’s brief (at a mere eleven songs) and it contains a few obligatory covers, which is a must for any acoustic set. Here, KoRn butcher The Cure’s “In Between Days” as a mash-up with their Issues single “Make Me Bad”. Jonathan Davis prefaces the song by telling the audience what an honor it is to perform with one of his favorite bands and, sure enough, Robert Smith’s cathartic yelp is soon heard in the background crying “Make me bad!” The second verse in, the song switches gears to The Cure cover and Davis sing/growls along with Smith to this interesting, yet turgid, version of one of The Cure’s classics before going back to “Make Me Bad”.
Davis also dedicates another cover (Radiohead’s “Creep”) to the kids who feel inadequate and says it gave him strength growing up. What follows is a take on the song that doesn’t sound like KoRn at all. In fact, if anyone were to hear this not knowing who the performer was, KoRn is the last band that would be guessed. In fact, it reinforces the strange idea that Davis can actually use his singing voice when he really tries instead of mumbling, snarling, or shout-screaming.
Unfortunately, the surprises end there. The rest of the songs sound just like you might expect KoRn tunes to sound transposed into an acoustic setting. “Twisted Transistor” features dreary, tango-like strings and bongo-style percussion but there’s nothing drastically different when the distortion is gone. Opener “Blind” is an interesting version of its usually chaotic slow-fast-slow progression, but the rapping at the bridge sounds out-of-place and awkward. “Freak on a Leash” stars Amy Lee on back-up vocals and isn’t half-bad with its symphony of strings, but it’s also completely unnecessary.
One issue I have with the performance is that some of the material transposed sounds terribly out-of-key and dissonant (see the freak-out bridge of “Falling Away from Me” or “Blind” or “Got the Life”). Plugged in, the way KoRn does it best – if you actually like their music in the first place – fits their style much more than a dissonant acoustic session. When Davis’ voice begins to wear on the listener, it’s much more easily covered up by Fieldy’s slap bass lines and Munky’s chainsaw-like guitar. Here, KoRn’s flaws are exclusively out in the open for everyone to see/hear. Then again, that perfectly coincides with the image of the band: naked and flawed.
The 411: Unless there are fans that love the band KoRn but grow tired of their sound and wish they would try something different, I have no idea who would subject themselves to this performance more than a handful of times. Guest stars, string instruments, and interesting percussion make this an admirable exercise, but in the end, this album is nothing more than a small footnote on their already lengthy, bland career.
