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Photo: Bob Berg/Getty Images
Notoriously controversial and received lukewarmly by fans at the time, Korn's fourth album, Issues, may not seem like much of an achievement in a band that reached heights the 99% musicians would never experience, but looking back two decades later, there's plenty to admire in it.
If every album represents some kind of personal growth, then Korn's classic, self-titled debut album is the raging, screaming, primal roar of a newborn, the commercial giant of 1998. «Follow The Leader this is an overly horny teenager, and «Untouchables »"2002 is about the confidence and self-assurance that comes with adulthood. "Leaving Issues» or - these are the awkward pangs of growing up during puberty.
After redefining heavy music in the first half of the 90s, Korn, thanks to their incredible success, album Follow the Leader , became real rock stars with all the ensuing excesses and attributes.
For a band known for its wild music and dark catharsis, it was a difficult position to now share chart spots and magazine covers with Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.
How Korn managed to combine commercial success with maintaining their quirky, outsider aesthetic was a mystery that clearly irritated them.
Photo: Mick Hutson/Redferns via getty
It was 1999, and heavy music, with its combination of naked honesty, painful, caustic catharsis, and a guttural, heavy sonic rumble, was beginning to raise the bar.
That same year, the debut nihilistic punk rock album of the band Amen was released, as well as the album The Dillinger Escape Plan's Calculating Infinity, which literally destroyed all genre boundaries, and, most importantly, just five months earlier, Iowa's nine-piece Slipknot had swept everyone off their feet with their self-titled debut album.
For the first time, Korn, with their Billboard-topping hits, shiny tracksuits, and expensive videos that played constantly on MTV, looked like the establishment and a band vulnerable to the outside world.
Ahead of the release album Issues Drummer David Silveria told MTV that the new material contained "heavier grooves" and was "a little stripped down," adding that the album "feels more like the beginning." A statement that should have raised alarm bells.
At that point, Korn seemed to hate repeating itself, stagnating, or looking back. The arrival of producer Brendan O'Brien, better known for his work with artists like Pearl Jam and The Black Crowes, also raised some eyebrows.
Korn at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards | Photo: Carl Feile/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
After the release Issues album performed well commercially, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200, keeping Dr. Dre and Celine Dion off the chart, and selling 575,000 copies in its first week of release.
However, the reaction to the album from critics and fans was not so positive: «The band began to search for its formula,» wrote Jon Pareles in Rolling Stone , and many fans seemed to agree.
However, the subsequent Sick And Twisted tour in support of the album was a resounding success, and the band finally returned to the UK in May 2000 after a three-year hiatus to headline Wembley Arena and the Manchester Apollo. But only after the aforementioned Untouchables It became clear that Korn were indeed back on track.
Over the years, and given what we now know about Korn and their entire career, Issues album began to acquire a slightly different meaning.
It's easier now to look back on the peak of their commercial success and remember how great it was to see one of our bands dominate in that way, and the album itself has stood the test of time far better than early reviews might have suggested.
Far from being an exact copy of the first album, but with expensive production, songs like the strangely cheerful Somebody Someone, energetic Beg For Me, a wonderfully dynamic finale Dirty or, most remarkably, became an anthem Falling Away From Me, are seen as key moments in Korn's career.
The album features some brilliant atmospheric interludes such as 4u and the opening composition of the album Dead, and its cover, famously submitted by fan Alfredo Carlos and chosen by the band in an MTV competition, has achieved cult status.
It's not a perfect album, Let's Get This Party Started As awkward as ever, its greatest achievement was that it became a bridge between where Korn had been and where they were going.
Issues Group successfully balanced between star status and authority in the metal world, and when they reunited to record an album Untouchables , they learned enough from it to create another masterpiece. They haven't looked back since.
Classic Rock Separator«
Korn: Problems
Repeat the album's incredible success Follow The Leader It wasn't easy, but Korn's fourth album still impresses, confirming the fact that they will never follow trends, no matter what - they will do everything their own way.