Album Review. Korn - The Nothing (2019)

This year was very saturated with high-profile releases from masters of heavy genres who for a long time did not release full-fledged albums. Rammstein and Slipknot have already managed to please us with their novelty, which is already quite enough for a fruitful musical year of any music lover. But still, one more important release of the 2019th was expected with special trepidation.

In July of this year, the legendary band Korn announced the release of a new album, releasing their video for the single You’ll Never Find Me from the upcoming album. Track turned out to be an excellent spoiler and incredibly spurred interest in the upcoming release.

Korn's thirteenth full-length album, "The Nothing", was released on August 13th. By the way, the magic of numbers does not end there. Oddly enough, but the record contains exactly thirteen tracks. Putting all these clearly nonrandom circumstances together, one could safely assume that something dark and mystical awaits us. But the fact that Korn was released on this album, it seems to me, even the most devoted fan of the group was not able to predict.

"The Nothing" turned out to be not just a gloomy album, it turned out to be really hopeless, even ominous, melancholy and hopeless, crazy and unpredictable. Musicians managed to achieve an incredible atmosphere of complete detachment and hopelessness, both musically and in lyrics.

A year before the release of this record, Jonathan Davis's wife and mother died, so it is not surprising that "The Nothing" turned out so gloomy. But other than that and very personal.

“I think the new record is really about all the processes of grief. There are sad songs. There are evil songs. There is everything that I experienced. The emotions I felt, the things I felt, were in a conspiracy to prevent us from recording. It really was the worst year of my life. I basically tried to solve it, how we did it. There was no plan. There is no plan. It was really honest. It was just a man, completely confused, trying to understand something terrible, ”says Jonathan Davis.

The album opens the intro track The End Begins, which perfectly conveys the mood and atmosphere of the entire record, thereby preparing the listener for new material. I think it was a great idea to gradually dive into "The Nothing".

Following him is the most powerful single Cold, released a little earlier than the official release. This is one of those tracks that I associate with the classic Korn sound. I’d also include You’ll Never Find Me and The Darkness is Revealing. I think that long-time admirers of Korn's art will appreciate these very tracks.

The most personal song on the album was Finally Free. In it, Davis addresses his dead wife, discussing her release and the irresistible bitterness of loss.

The main hit of this record, which is doomed to widespread radio circulation, is, as it seems to me, a track called Can You Hear Me. A fairly calm rhythm, an epic guitar riff and a melodic chorus definitely increase the chances of this composition becoming the most popular song from the new album.

I would also like to mention the track This Loss. He definitely stands out against the general background of the rest of the compositions and as if is knocked out of the general concept of the record. This Loss is an experimental and very unusual track for "The Nothing" and Korn in general. And an unprecedented Pink Floyd-style musical insert in the middle of the composition should not melt the heart of even the most picky music lover.

Korn fans have mixed feelings about the new record. Opinions were divided: some found this release boring and monotonous, while others found hidden meanings and a favorite, more familiar sound in it. Perhaps I agree only with the fact that "The Nothing" turned out to be quite homonymous. But this fact only motivates to its obligatory listening.