Fourteen albums in and its heartening to note that the members of Korn remain as committed to the sound they pioneered as ever. While the band have indulged in mild digressions (the scattershot dubstep of The Path of Totality, the gothic melodrama of Untouchables), that core groove has remained intact, resulting in a remarkably consistent body of work. Back with their fourteenth album, the band have worked hard to follow the emotionally wrenching The Nothing with a shorter, sharper album. With lockdowns providing the band with more time to toy with the fringes of their sound, the pressure of mounting a major tour in support of the previous album dispensed with, Requiem does have a more experimental feel than previous efforts, but it is a Korn album through and through, and follows neatly in the footsteps of its predecessor.
Kicking off with surprising vigour, Forgotten, certainly makes good of the promise that the album has a more expansive feel. With electronic flourishes, Ray Luzier’s typically immense percussive assault and an airier production than the rather more claustrophobic The Nothing, it makes for a hell of a start and Jonathan indulges his full vocal range in response. Eerie sound effects lead us to the elastic riffing of Let The Dark Do The Rest and, again, it seems that the band poured all of the frustration of the various lockdowns and cancelled tours into one of their heaviest albums of recent years. Nevertheless, despite the weight of the riffs, there’s a strong sense of melody here, and Jonathan Davis deserves credit for one of his most complete performances to date, delivering a powerful mix of heavily layered harmonies and blistering rants with consummate skill – not least his closing roar of “you make me sick”, which sets the hairs on the back of the neck aquiver. Next up, the band nod back to breakthrough album Follow The Leader, with the twisted groove of Start The Healing, this is Korn at their melodic best and, despite the tough riffs, there’s a catchiness here that is entirely irresistible. Next up, Korn deliver one of their most leftfield cuts with the scratchy Lost In The Grandeur, a track that combines the melodrama of Untouchables with the guitar noise of Rage Against The Machine. It’s a compelling track and it shows that the band are not afraid to tinker with the formula, even some fourteen albums in. The first half of the album hits a peak with the slinky Disconnect, all airy processed guitars and stuttering percussion leading to a suitably epic chorus.
Maintaining the impressive energy levels, Hopeless And Beaten may have a title that speaks of surrender, but the band conjure up a remarkably dense soundtrack over which Jonathan unleashes his entire vocal arsenal. While emotional honesty has long been the hallmark of Korn, the depth of Davis’ delivery here, multi-tiered and impressive in its range, is utterly immense, and it stands as one of Korn’s finest songs to date – no mean feat with such a catalogue in place. Kicking off with a typical Korn riff, Penance To Sorrow does much to wrongfoot the listener, with a calmer, goth-infused verse that stands at odds with the hulking riff that opens proceedings. Stripping things down to the bare essentials, My Confession has a sweet, breathy riff that writhes around the vocals on the chorus, offering a different sense of dynamic to the other tracks on offer here, before the album concludes with the watery effects and intense, down tuned sludge of Worst Is On Its Way. It builds, as so many of the tracks here, to a suitably memorable chorus, but it’s the latter stages, where Jonathan Davis scats with all the bug-eyed insanity of old, that the track really takes shape. It provides the album with a suitably epic finale, and it also casts a welcome nod back down the years before collapsing into a mire of feedback and bass noodling.
Korn’s recent output has been of a high standard and Requiem is no exception. For sure, this is Korn and you already know if this is for you, but the album stands proud in an impressive catalogue, with the band giving strong performances and sounding utterly committed to the project. With the focus very much being on quality over quantity, it’s a short album that steadfastly refuses to outstay its welcome, and there’s that intangible sense throughout that the band were really enjoying their time in the studio, for all the catharsis of the lyrics. Another cracking effort from the Bakersfield boys, Requiem really is an excellent album. 9/10
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