Korn : " the Serenity of Suffering"

While I have not listened to them in over a decade, I like the first three Korn albums. Now that we have that awkward moment out of the way we can talk about the matter at hand. Much like Meshuggah they know they have to have the obligatory down tuned stomping bounce to their sound. The first thing I notice and this has been the bane of many Korn albums since 1999 is the weird production. It sounds like this is Jonathan Davis doing karaoke over an album playing in his bathroom. "Rotting in Vain" doesn't go into dub-step, so it sounds more like them some of their previous albums. There is even a scat growl section. But it just doesn't feel heavy. They are still haunted by the pop ghosts of when they were freaks on a leash. I can almost respect them more when they go for the big radio pop hooks on "Black is the Soul", but I think it would be pushing it to call this metal. Even when they are growling for you to give them back their life.

"the Hating" is an improvement, but calling it a good song might be an exaggeration, it is more tolerable than many of the moments on the first three songs, the melody is stronger. "A Different World" is an duet with Corey Taylor, and while it will please legions of glue sniffers with Corey Taylor as their profile pictures on Youtube think this is the year's best album, the pairing is not needed. In fact "Take Me " is a better song even with it's hip hop influenced nu-metal silliness. "Everything Falls Apart" the first song that on the first listen I'll say is pretty solid. I don't mind the Disturbed influenced cadence of "Die Yet Another Night". Though the chorus strikes me as kinda cheesy.

You can hear they still have their songwriting chops on the verses, though I 'm not sure about the anthem like  choruses on songs like "When You're not There" , but at this point I am surprised these songs are not as offensive to my ears as I went in expecting. We are back to foolishness on "Next In Line" . Then as far as this kind of suburban radio pop goes, 'Please Come For me" is pretty good. Who ever produced this album needs to be shot as the guitars are dialed away too far back in the mix. So they escaped being on the years worst list, I'll give this album a 6 and use it as the measuring rod of what you have to at least be as good as to not get thrown on that ill fated list. If you love Korn after all these years then you one step away from being a juggaloo anyways, however if you want to hear what heavy should sound like in 2016 I'll refer you to either Nails, Fistula or Oathbreaker.