I think it’s safe to say that the underlying theme of these articles has been nostalgia and the focus has been retrospective. “Oh no! Mike, is this going to be another article where you rag on a band you don’t like for 3 pages?” First off, no…… well, kinda, and it’s only 2 pages. Second of all, go read my review for Mayhemfest. Anything I have to professionally say about the event or artists is in there, but this column is collection of personal meditations and reflections, mixed in with a buttload of personal anecdotes. With that in mind, time to talk KoRn. Did you noticed I posted a YouTube clip of Beavis and Butthead (look up)? Only reason that’s there is because I can’t find the appearance from South Park where they ended on “Falling Away From Me” (the title of this article, aren’t I clever).
Well, all of you who are looking for a repeat of Limp Bizkit can breathe a sigh of relief because this isn’t it. Actually quite the opposite, I fully realize KoRn is a group that has a purpose to still exist, but one I don’t particularly care about, or more accurately, am not very invested in. The spark to write this came when a friend questioned my hostility toward KoRn and couldn’t wrap his head around the answers I gave him. Writing is a great medium for me to meditate, and since Something Wicked is my written escape for this kind of thing, it makes sense that I use this time to answer this.
“So, Mike, you had a bad time seeing KoRn?” Surprisingly not. KoRn is a relic from a previous generation. It’s locked into place, it is not evolving. I was never fully invested with KoRn, but there were bits I liked, as well as a bunch I didn’t. Realistically it’s a mainstream outing of adolescent rage. When I was a kid in high school, before the days of Myspace and Youtube that informed me of independent artists, KoRn was balls out insane shit (days before I found Cannibal Corpse, how quaint). The songs were loaded to the brim with pure Angry. Anger at family, anger at peer culture, anger at women, anger at life. Johnathan Davis this is one pissed off guy…lyrically and aesthetically it is all targeted at white suburban youth in their adolescent years. Subject-wise, it is all supposed to revolve around the dark nightmarish landscape that haunts the suburbanite kid, and a lot of songs center around the idea that the most evil thing one can face is a dark repressed anger he has hidden away.
Take a second to review KoRn’s music, this theme accounts for a lot of their material, wouldn’t you agree? Even when the tormentor or oppressive force is external, the songs tend to center around his own inner demons reacting to them. I mentioned anger towards women earlier, and there definitely is some element of hostility towards the other side of chromosome town and a conflated sense of sex and violence, and a certain readiness to regard the act of lovemaking to a disease. I can’t speak for Davis’ private life, but grab a lyrics sheet it’s spelled out in almost every other song when he weaves the word “rape” with words referencing female flesh or anatomy (start with Trash or K@#0%!). Sadly still, this notion and festering idea was really expressed more concisely from the other perspective by his half-brother in the song “Giving In” by Adema (the only good song that band ever had). Even sadder, Limp Bizkit’s “Eat You Alive” did this better. Ok, I’m not going to act like I care about feminist issues, but KoRn had a way of making sexual imagery vulgar, unsettling, cold and even ugly. Sex, women and Rock and Roll have had a mixed past, and say what you will about Motley Crue and the like, but sex seemed fun to them, not the disease KoRn marketed it as.
While I may have found some fascination with KoRn in my youth, it faded fast. I was never completely entrenched in their body of work and as I began to see through the bullshit world of high school, I felt myself disconnecting with them as well. In high school I was definitely more introverted and quiet, but wasn’t prone to any destructive behavior, self-inflicted or otherwise. I didn’t cut myself, I wasn’t angry at my family for any reason, I didn’t abuse any extra-curricular substances, and I never truly fantasized about harming my peers or those closest to me. KoRn’s angst-filled-messages may as well have been transmissions from Mars. The metal I gravitated towards back in those days generally had a more unreal quality to it. Bands like Black Sabbath, Metallica, Black Label Society, and System Of A Down all had an edge and bite about them that wasn’t cemented to one particular time or circumstance.
Linkin Park, who seemed to be channeling anime during this time, resounded with the underdeveloped and unappreciated artist in me. Slayer was RAGE on stilts. Slipknot was an invasive assault of dehumanized aggression. Realistically, that band was more of an animal in a cage than a kid troubled by life, and that’s why I can still look back fondly on them. The year I left for college was the same year Purevolume and Myspace were gaining some speed, and connecting to new and different music was now an actual possibility. Keep in mind, high school for me was in Miami; we got an occasional show in West Palm and that was still an hour and a half a way for a high school student with a learner’s permit. Then I moved to Boston where music was not only close but also flourishing. I didn’t lose my edge, but I did lose any sense that I was alone.
College had no peer structure in place to dictate my or anyone else’s behavior. The bullshit of high school had died. In it’s wake I found comfort in the underground Hardcore scene Boston had fostered. Messages of tough guys rising to their feet to face challenges and adversity head-on were in direct contradiction to KoRn’s woe-is-me victimization. Guys like Death Before Dishonor, Hatebreed, Blood For Blood, Guns Up, Righteous Jams, and especially Madball weren’t wallowing in their anger or darkness, they mustered it up and threw it back in your face. As Metalcore came into its peak, singers bread out of the vein of Fear Factory and Slipknot created new blends of aggressive vocals and drove out the hip-hop infused motif metal had come to know. Bands like Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, Lamb of God, and All That Remains brought back some fervor to Metal vocals, and suddenly Jonathon Davis looked tired and whiney. These bands also replaced thunderous riffs with hard-hitting leads. Instrumentally, guitar proficiency was now returning in stride, and oddly enough solos were cool again. As Death Metal and Thrash found a new resurgence the imaginative landscape of hostile fantasies flourished with the heavy aggression the music was bred on. KoRn’s self-loathing temper tantrums were pale comparisons next to the raging destructive forces that these bands played to.
My conclusion: I grew up, and they didn’t come with me. Not just them, but a lot of artists from that time. Maybe it was never meant to change. Maybe things are only relevant for as long as you make them relevant. I use the song title “Falling Away From Me” for this article title because it seems to fit the phenomena. KoRn continued to do what they did, only more so, and I decided I wasn’t going to be a part of the ride. I could point out the good moments, and seeing them live last week channeled a little of that in me. But as I grew up, I changed, my values changed, the person I was and now am changed. My taste in music reflected this shift. If I ever muster the energy to form a band and create my own music, perhaps it will mark a new change in me, or even inspire the next metalhead to rethink this world and the experiences it has in store for him.
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