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And Korn have experienced quite a few dark things over the past couple of years that have inspired the cathartic rhythms and wrenching melodies of Untouchables, which comes out June 11. There were romantic woes and stints of drug and alcohol recovery, but first and foremost, drummer David Silveria had to overcome a severe wrist injury that left him out of commission in March 2000 while the band was on tour. Since Korn are a true and loyal gang, his bandmates were determined to wait out his recovery.
"That's the main reason the album took so long," Davis said. "They went through tons of different doctors, acupuncture — all kinds of different methods and they could not figure out what was going on with his body and why his arm was giving out. They finally figured out that he had an extra rib and it was pinching some nerves. So he had to go through some crazy surgery where they had to cut his arm open and remove his rib."
Following the surgery, Silveria underwent a period of grueling rehabilitation. During the downtime, Fieldy worked on his Fieldy's Dreams hip-hop album, Rock N Roll Gangster, and Davis started penning songs for the "Queen of the Damned" soundtrack, which indulged his theatrical muse and gave him new avenues to explore when Korn returned to the studio in January 2001.
"This new album took a little less than a year to finish," Davis said. "We had to wait because we wanted to do it all together. The five of us really put 100 percent of our heart into it, more than on any other album."
The effort shows clearly throughout the disc. Versions of songs from Untouchables that were leaked over the Internet are raw and dynamic, invoking the neo-metal sound the band helped conceive, while updating their music with a more dramatic and tuneful flair. Album opener "From Your Heart" rides a surging down-tuned guitar riff, then slides into a brooding rhythm and ominous, moody vocals. The first single, "Here to Stay," hisses and chugs like a greasy, possessed locomotive, and peaks with one of the band's most infectious choruses to date. And "All My Hate," which summons aspects of goth and new wave like a less depressed Marilyn Manson, trudges through a dense, groove-laden rhythm then extricates itself with a poppy vocal and background harmonies.
"We've raised the bar on this one," Davis said. "There are new elements that come from working on the movies and a lot of different flavor to Korn. It's a little bit mellower ..."
He cut himself off and changed his tune, as if sensing he may be accused of going soft by uttering such a statement. "It's heavy, but it isn't the [usual] Korn definition of heavy," he continued. "It is not heavy like Morbid Angel or some death metal. It is a different kind of heavy, but it is very, very heavy."
Davis also called Untouchables deeper and more thought-out than most modern metal discs. In part, that stems from Korn's ongoing effort to better themselves, in part it derives from a desire to carry on a rock legacy other groups seem not to care about.
"I think the record makes you think and takes you somewhere," he said. "It's an album that has a soul and substance. I think a lot of music out there now has no substance to it and no depth. It is just churned-out corporate rock. It seems like bands have stopped making timeless, great rock albums like they did back in the day. So we really took our time, but it was well worth it."
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Photo: Immortal/Epic
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