Korn - See You On The Other Side review
| Band: | Korn |
| Album: | See You On The Other Side |
| Style: | Alternative metal, Nu metal |
| Release date: | December 06, 2005 |
| A review by: | jupitreas |
Disc I
01. Twisted Transistor
02. Politics
03. Hypocrites
04. Souvenir
05. 10 Or A 2-Way
06. Throw Me Away
07. Love Song
08. Open Up
09. Coming Undone
10. Getting Off
11. Liar
12. For No One
13. Seen It All
14. Tearjerker
15. Too Late I'm Dead [Japanese deluxe edition bonus]
Disc II Deluxe Edition & Japanese Deluxe Edition
01. It's Me Again
02. Eaten Up Inside
03. Last Legal Drug (Le Petit Mort)
04. Twisted Transistor [The Dante Ross Mix]
05. Twisted Transistor [Dummies Club Mix]
+ Twisted Transistor [video] [Live In Moscow]
+ Hypocrites [video] [Live In Moscow]
+ One Year Membership To KoRn BSC Fan Club featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes media content, Korn community membership with personal home page and blog, pre-sale ticket access for the Korn tour [deluxe edition bonus]
+ Password access to two digital download tracks at Best Buy Exclusive! [deluxe edition bonus]
+ One Year Membership To KoRn BSC Fan Club with two books, first with texts of songs in English and Japanese, and second with pictures [japanese deluxe edition bonus]
What a lot of you people don't get is that Korn is a band that has been striving hard to remain creatively relevant even though, by the mysterious whims of the gods of popular culture, they found themselves at the center of mainstream attention. There are many such bands that become extremely popular even though their music is non-conventional and non-conformist. All of a sudden, the band is thrown into the dog-eat-dog realm of the mainstream, dominated by plastically engineered music designed to satisfy the statistical and non-demanding MTV audience. At this point, a lot of bands just switch to automatic and release more of what made them popular without ever trying to push the envelope any more (and if they do, they tend to make music so removed from the trends in the underground that it can be seen as a joke, at best). Surviving in such a world is not such an easy thing to do and most bands end up destroying themselves, either creatively (Metallica) or literally (Nirvana). I am happy to say that some minor missteps aside, Korn seems to be coping with their popularity just fine and the new album See You On The Other Side is for the most part a very rewarding and interesting listen.
This album is definitely a progression for Korn and a welcome one after the good but too retro Take A Look In The Mirror. The production is the most clear indication of this progression. The album boasts a deep, elaborate sound that draws equally from modern industrial rock and alternative rap. There is a massive low end here and the music is positively funky as a consequence. The band embraces their new-found groove masterfully and uses it to compose a collection of songs that are fairly unpredictable. Those who felt Korn should have worked more on perfecting their neo-New Wave chops from Untouchables will be very happy with such tracks as "Love Song", "Seen It All" and "Tearjerker" as well as with pretty much the whole album as elegant melodies are used generously, yet tastefully throughout. At the same time, the band does not lose its aggressive edge and explores some new ground on this front as well. "Hypocrites" almost sounds like a Rage Against The Machine song but with a NYHC claw, while "Coming Undone", "Getting Off" and "Politics" are all vintage Korn with all the trademark grinding, angular riffing, increasingly more technical drumming and growled refrains that we've come to expect from this band. Naturally, it is no secret that Korn is good at what they invented and this is why it is their constant will to surprise the listener that makes listening to this album exciting. Finally, what reflects Korn's growth more than anything is the lyrics on See You On The Other Side. It was long overdue for Jonathan Davis to decide that he does not need to be the substitute for the troubled teen's psychiatrist and instead write lyrics dealing with religion, politics and morality, among other things. He delivers these lyrics with total conviction and with the most vocal finesse yet.
Naturally, I am not naive enough not to be aware of the fact that what I described above in positive terms will be a thorn in the side of a very large number of people reading this review. Well, all of you brainless nu-metal haters and close-minded freaks - deal with it. A band that remains relevant and innovative so late in the game deserves your respect, no matter what illogical connotations with watered down hip-hop this music might conjure to you. Korn are still trying out new things and this is more than can be said about the majority of the 'non-mainstream' metal scene where the term avant-garde is stretched so thin as to describe even the most marginally unique black metal bands. Many of you will need to realize that your need to belong to that hip group of nay-saying delinquents can get in the way of enjoying good music.
See You On The Other Side is Korn waltzing through the obstacles of being popular. Not afraid to embrace non-rock influences, the band still makes music that can be surprising and unpredictable and is a joy to listen to for anyone who is not concerned with being seen as cool by their nekro-kvlt friends. A fine album from a fine band.
 | Written on 08.12.2005 by With Metal Storm since 2002, jupitreas has been subjecting the masses to his reviews for quite a while now. He lives in Warsaw, Poland, where he does his best to avoid prosecution for being so cool. |
Rating:
8.3
8.3
|
Rating: 8.3 |
I'm not a huge fan of nu-metal right now, but Korn used to be a favourite of mine. They've been trying to re-invent themselves for a while now, from the electronic beats and strings on Untouchables to the hard-hitting Take A Look In The Mirror, to the borderline-electronica of the untitled album. But I still think that this album, where Korn went industrial, was their most successful attempt at reinvention yet, and made the untitled album even more disappointing. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 23
Visited by: 180 users
| Rupert Posts: 469  |
Man, what a great review. I just don't know what else to say, I'm in awe.
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| matthioso Posts: 354  |
I never really liked Korn except for the album 'Take a look in the mirror'. Despite I don't really like their music style, I must say that this is a good review except for the second last paragraph. Korn is different from the 'normal' metal-scene. nu-metal will allways bring along discussion, but that doesn't mean you have to insult people who dislike the style of music. btw, Metallica didn't destroy itself creatively. The album St. Anger is just an album on which they unleashed their frustrations of everything they've been struggling with (if you don't believe me, watch the docu 'Some kind of monster')
---- www.seedofrock.be
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| Bitch Boy Posts: 1353  |
Good review. The album isn't that bad, but I prefer that "retro Korn" which you mentioned along with "Take a look in the mirror". The album is enjoyable, kind of fresh sound (close to Untouchables), and has new lyric themes, I would say more "mature". My favorite songs are "Tearjerker" and "Twisted Transistor".
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| XStraightxEdgerX Account deleted |
XStraightxEdgerX
Account deleted Written by matthioso on 30.12.2006 at 15:37 Why should a piece of propaganda aimed at boosting a washed up band's sales convince anyone that they are on par with their early releases? Feel free to swallow what Metallica's publicity agents are shoving down your throat and "choose" to accept their latest albums as different yet uncompromised. Perhaps you could choose to educate yourself in the field of music and see the modern Metallica for what it really is: really, really gay. 
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| Rupert Posts: 469 |
I believe we're supposed to be commenting on Korn's newest release and the review, not on Metallica.
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| Sith Lord Account deleted |
Sith Lord
Account deleted
i was surprised when i picked this cd up...i thought it was gonna not deliver but it did..to bad Head lfet..oh well he's doing his own thing now ! 
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| Sunioj Posts: 3894  |
I liked Korns earlier stuff, and this album just sounds like crap, 9.0? Give it a 5 or 6, and thats still being generous. Twisted transistor makes me want to kill myself.
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| XStraightxEdgerX Account deleted |
XStraightxEdgerX
Account deleted Written by Rupert on 07.01.2007 at 00:18 We're commenting on the review which references Metallica. I wasn't even the one who brought it up. Some tool was trying to sneakily promote St. Anger with his btw crap. 
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| AnGina-- Dark Phoenix Posts: 3555  |
Hey @jupitreas this is definately one of the best reviews I have ever read on MS! Well put, even though See You On The Other Side never kicked me as hard as for example Issues, therefore I never really got to the profound layers of it. But you did and you did it perfectly. I would have given this album 7,5/10 though, I gotta say some songs are just kickass, such as Twisted Transistos (and one hell of a video also!  ), Open Up, Liar, Getting Off. Korn are just going their way and I have loved all their albums up to now, some more, some less, and there is no connection between them actually, I like Issues and Untouchables the most and they are not in the same range though. Oh well, long live KoRn! 
---- You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was a man. But it was nothing to me but blinding.
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| aborted10 Account deleted |
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| Passenger Lost To Apathy Posts: 1464  |
Korn is a good band and I like a lot of their stuf, be it more straight forward or more experimental. However, this album is weak. It just doesn't deliver. The song are heavy and very typical of them, sure, but I hear them and they do nothing for me, or at least nothing other albums from Korn don't do already. Pretty weak effort, if you ask me. 5/10.
---- You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it ~ Mean Streets
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| ãtuã Posts: 28  |
A 'long' time ago, Korn showed up with a unique musical style that other bands turned into what is now known as nu metal (not really into it). Now they completely change their style into something different from anything, and that makes me wonder: will this eventually evolve to some other kind of genre?  By the way, this is a great album, I just don't know what people have against it. When I listened to it for the first time, I wasn't really interested either, but if you listen carefully, you will see how good it is! 
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| Necrogrinder Account deleted |
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| Ked. Posts: 2  |
I don't understand, why someones don't like that... It was one of my first Korn Cd-s and I like that... a lot... My favorite song is "Tearjerker" .. Or... now when I start thinking.. I like all of them!;)
---- Maailma lõpus on kohvik, kus kunagi kohtume kõik
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| Spyroid Rosetta Stoned Posts: 1023  |
I haven't heard the album but I say that the review was very good - you defend yourself well and in the first paragraph you describe the situation of bands that suddenly get famous very fast (without playing "appealing" music from the beginning - like Korn). I agree with some other comment though - attacking people for not liking nu-metal, and tell them that they are narrow-minded is not totally fair. Of course a lot of people that bash the genre hasn't listened close enough. But there are a lot of exceptions - for example I don't like nu metal and some of my favourite bands are Behemoth and Pink Floyd, so I'm not excatly narrow-minded  anyway - good job!Hell I feel like a teacher commenting on your essay... whatever 
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| jupitreas hi-fi / lo-life Staff Posts: 6659  |
Don't take it personally, any of you... I wrote the review with a particular voice in mind in order to make it interesting, not to insult every last one of you who might not like Korn. There is nothing wrong with disliking a band or style provided one approaches it rationally and formulates an informed opinion. Many of you that commented definitely belong to that group of indeed open minded people who just happen to dislike nu metal and that is fine.
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| Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955  |
I Like korn... really do... but this album, and the next one [Untitled] are very very bad. I still can enjoy some of the previous Korn albuns, but in these two is very hard to find some track that is actually good. The best song in this album is Coming Undone, and the only as well.
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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| Introspekrieg Totemic Lust Elite Posts: 2749  |
I believe the main reason their lyrics have improved on this album is because they had to bring in some songwriters to make the songs coherent, so I give no credit to KoRn. I didn't mind some of the songs on the bonus disc... I have no idea why they left those off the final tracklist.
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466  |
Come on now, this raing (5.1 for now) is hardly fair. OK, this ain't exactly a kvlt release, but almost all songs are pretty enjoyable (except that damn "10 Or A 2-Way) and it is a lot heavier than some releasas that seem to be extremely popular here on Metalstorm, despite it's obvious rap influence. I'd rate it a good 8, and that's from a hardcore BM fan.
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| lord artan Posts: 297  |
What rating 5.2 this album in my idea very good Coming Undone best album in album why this album Bottom 20 albums?
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| Kennoth Posts: 2502  |
I must say this is probably one of most mature and openminded reviews I've read in this site so far. So kudos on that. About the album itself? It used to be one of my favorites, but now it's one of my least favorite ones (Korn-wise). Of course, they continue to experiment with every release, and that's very commendable, though like the reviewer said, I wouldn't mind every album of theirs being Untouchables copy, since I freaking worship that release. But I guess that wouldn't be Korn anymore.
---- *insert something deep and profound*
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| Kennoth Posts: 2502 |
Written by Slayer666 on 11.05.2009 at 11:25 The answer to that question is pretty well answered in review itself. When a trve-necro BM fan sees Korn release, it's his unholy duty to rate it 1, and smite the nu-metal plague that infects the trve metal forests! Just take a look at this self explainatory link
---- *insert something deep and profound*
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| JeffreyAgente Account deleted |
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