Album Details

• Artist: Korn
• Album: The Path Of Totality
• Label: Roadrunner
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2011-12-15

As a preamble, I think it's worth mentioning my experience with Korn, one of the most prominent metal acts throughout the 90's and, perhaps less so, now. At the time of my introduction, Follow The Leader was riding the hype behind it to major success, and I was on the bandwagon. I was young, of course, and this both explains my relative naivety (I can no longer enjoy ANY Korn album the way I once enjoyed Follow The Leader and, to a larger extent, the follow-up Issues) and also seamlessly describes the appeal. Johnathan Davis' angst, aggression and methods of relaying them have, I think, a particularly strong appeal to the confusion of many a teenager. It's been a staple of Korn's method for years, no matter how far they've delved from their original sound. The Path of Totality is about the furthest they've ever ventured from that foundation, and while the results are mixed, as always I commend any established band's willingness to accept the consequences and take the road less travelled.

The band I once loved has aged in a way that is both graceful and hard to witness. The fact that the creative wells have not yet been tapped dry has manifested over a handful of tracks from their past two or three records, but otherwise you get a sense of a band desperately scratching at the pedestal they were once upon but since fell from. The Path Of Totality starts, finishes, and fills the middle ground with much of the same far-reaching, market-shape-shifting material. Increasingly so, Davis and co. have found it appropriate to flirt with what I can only describe as up-tempo electronica, and while the terms "dubstep" or "drum and bass" may also apply, my almost total inexperience with such sounds leaves me somewhat ignorant to the exact nature of the sound. Suffice to say, it's not the Korn of my youth. I find no problem in giving them a chance after all these years, an attitude I've brought to every new album since Untouchables awhile back. But nothing on The Path of Totality leads me to believe the band has anything else to offer. At least not in the collaborations with various electronic masterminds. Some of what I hear (Kill Mercy Within, Narcissistic Cannibal, Sanctuary) has about as much of that aforementioned foundation as to make it almost nostalgically compelling, but it never seems to last. Perhaps my days with Korn have come to a complete and total close, but if anyone else had passed this album across my desk under a different band name, I still would find little to like about it.

Like a twiated mixture of Nine Inch Nails, dub-hop-drum and electronica-step or whatever the hell you want to call all the bells and whistles, and the occasional bit of Korn, The Path of Totality is desperately attempting to be something else. Not something it shouldn't be, mind you, but something it doesn't have the foundation to be. It's sumnation is the aural equivilant of attempting to walk without legs. My only thought towards the positive is that, however unlike Korn this album manages to be, there has to be a very lucrative market for what they've produced. I won't even bother selling the album short on the merits (or lack thereof) of shifting style to take advantage of a not-so-dried-up market, but that's another easy impression to take away from it. The creativity is there, but it has no substance, just disconnected noise that longs for the underappreciated center of gravity the band once commanded with disciplined experience. 

Some will love it, some won't, and others simply won't find it in them to care anymore, if they ever did at all. Sometimes what Korn does now makes me wish I fell into the lattermost category. 

User Reviews and Comments

on 2012-04-26 iamparadox Said:

I mostly ignored this record when it initially was released. I didn't like the 1 or 2 songs that I actually heard. And instead of giving the entire album a fair chance, I just listened to the opinions of everyone else. Now that I have heard the story of what went into it and where they are coming from, I have much more respect for them. One of the few bands of that era to truly evolve and innovate. Give this record a chance!
Rating: 6/10

on 2011-12-15 hstisgod Said:

nicely said Kevin... its an avoidable
Not Rated

on 2011-12-15 SolitaryMan Said:

Something I failed to mention in my review, but deserves to be noted, is the fact that anyone who has followed this band from their early years to now who DOESN'T find Johnathan Davis' lyrics trite, immature and exceedingly frustration is either quite immature themselves, too fond of their troubled past to see otherwise, or is a little slow on the upkeep. His "poor me, how about you?" routine is ridiculous at this point in his life.
Not Rated

Review:

on 2011-12-14 jacobking Said:

There comes a time in every hookers life when she loses her teeth, her body goes South and she realizes, maybe she should pack it in as a profession. What once was an attractive young flower has now become an old rusted tow truck searching the lost highways of love in hopes of one last pull. Which bring me to the latest Korn release The Path Of Totality. Unlike the hooker in my previous thought, Korn uses modern science to extend its longevity in the market place (kind of like Botox or dental implants) allowing their machine, perhaps past its prime, to carry on with the task at hand! How Vogue of them!!

There is no denying its a Korn record with the exception that Jonathan Davis and the gang push things a bit more in respect to electronic music and heavy guitars, dare I say dub-step. Narcissistic Cannibal is an example of their evolution and experimentation. Fusing electronics with heavy guitars is nothing new (Marilyn Manson / NIN) and it works. As electronic music and technology evolves, Korn has positioned their way into the dance clubs while still keeping the Ozzfest fans happy.

I doubt the average dub-step hipster will get it, but some will and I am sure not all the Korn fans will get it, but some will and finally some folks might NOT think that Korn are pandering by jumping on the dub-step train, BUT SOME WILL.

As the wise owl once told me  some will, some wont, so what!!

Rating: 5/10