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Korn reviewed by mim3@mim.org July 12, 2004 I agree with reviewer Vik Bansal that this is uncompromising heavy, heavy metal. It's backed up with vocals of that screaming, guttural Germanic tribe sound. All the songs are like that with occasional lapses into ordinary, clear vocals and even Scottish bagpipes. I played the CD one time right after Metallica and it sounded like a continuation of Metallica. It turns out that Korn's last track on the album was in fact a collaboration with Metallica. The critics are taking up an unholy alliance slamming a lack of "authenticity" and a surplus of nasty content in the lyrics. "Despite the grandeur of the music on offer, on first listen, one is tempted to agree with all the naysayers who criticise Davis for his consistent, vitriolic lyrics when he's now a millionaire with a porn-star partner. The misanthropy in Right Now ('I f**king hate you' repeated ad infinitum), Counting On Me ('you suck the life out of me') and Play Me ('Everybody's my enemy... Trust nobody... F**k everybody') is certainly uncomfortable to say the least. Perhaps some lyrical progression would be in order but it's difficult for anyone who hasn't been sexually abused as a child to judge what it takes to heal such wounds."(1) Sometime in the Clinton era the word "comfortable," became a signal of conformity. It is a term of the newly educated labor aristocracy meaning that it should face no turbulence or conflict in life--no "issues." It's probably connected at bottom to why Amerika faces an obesity epidemic. In contrast with what reviewers like Bansal would say, MIM would say that the lyrics are too contented and unfocused. Such anger does get to sound petty if it does not reach up to higher levels. On the other hand, the Korn sound was not meant to go with Jessica Simpson lyrics. The pressure on all the nu metal and grunge bands to take up lyrics fit for dentist offices is completely upsidedown. Hard-edged, discontented forms of music should go with discontented content. The problem with Amerikan metal is that the best it can do is brood. Psychology is a fascination with Amerikans and so there is a niche for those like Ozzy Osbourne, Korn and Slipknot who delve into what Amerikans call the "dark" side of the psyche, which despite the possibilities of racist overtones refers to "deeper" but unpleasant thinking. So Korn is a millionaire band with its choice of wimmin groupies/wives. That does not make it impossible for them to know discontent. We call it a typical individualist-subjectivist error to say that it is fruitless for people of different social backgrounds to communicate. Our objection is that Korn does not communicate its discontent "upstairs" all the way into society and its structure. In 1998, Korn was in the "Family Values Tour," which mocks ideas such as that rock music represents the devil and that God created wimmin to serve men.(2) Then in 1999, Korn also did a benefit song for the Kosavar refugees.(3) Even just these two facts justifies our holding out hope in the brooding side of edgy music like Korn's.
Notes: MIM has explained that one might even "like" this music while knowing rationally that there is something wrong with it, maybe even profoundly wrong and evil. Being a Maoist means being a revolutionary scientist and that means having the ability to question everything that we like.
See MIM Theory on feminism and gender issues. Read Mao on politics in all literature and art
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