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Ah the band from Bakersfield. Lessee if I can remember the names of the guys in the band. Vocals-Jonathan Davies. Guitar Riffery-James "Munky" Schaffer. Ambient Guitar Noise-Brian "Head" Welch. Bass-Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu. Drums-David Silveria.
Life is Peachy: If you have never heard KoRn before let me describe them. They sound like a herd of iron hooved Buffalo stampeding to a hip-hop rhythym. Even more so on this second album. Not only do they have a heavy sound but on this album they made the Bass guitar even louder. It gives it a very thick low rumble. What I love about the band is that Jonathan can actually sing and has some rhythmic sensibility, unlike some other bands coughsepulturacough. The sound is very primal and if you think about it the songs aren't really groundbreaking and you could probably make up better lyrics on the fly but ya know what, that's exactly what makes it so powerful. It plays to your instinctual musical sensibility, and crushes it. You don't have to think all you have to do is listen. It's very dumbed down music unlike Tool, but it still makes me bob my head. Let's begin with the run down (6) Track 1: Twist. Well this is about as close to skat as you'll get in a heavy band like this. Pretty much it's Jonathan growling nonsense. Pretty cool actually. (9) Track 2: Chi. Named after the deftones bass player because he thought it sounded like reggae and chi likes reggae. Actually track 3 sounds more like reggae to me but oh well. This is an out and out Heavy song with a good rhythmic bassline. One of my favorites of all time. If you happen to have a subwoofer this song makes good use of it. David has a pedal that emits an earth quaking boom and you hear it right after the quiet break in the song. Oh you also find out Jonathan can yell pretty loud on this track but he can also whisper.
(7) Track 4: Wow listen to the bass go. Has about the most rolling bassline I've heard from these guys. Gets higher than normal too. (5) Track 5: Porno Creep. Uh this sounds like sounds like they made it up as they played. It features some nice drumming from David but nothing else really interesting about it. (9) Track 6: Wow I dunno what it is about this track but it just works. The rhythym when you think about it sounds hard, buts its really easy to follow. The opening riff is almost untouchable in rhythmic expression.
(6) Track 7: Mr. Rogers This song kind of let's you know how screwed up Jonathan is. (5) Track 8: %$@#%$#@% um well. This song is just one big long cuss word. If the main guitar riff wasn't so cool I'd only give it a 2. What's weird is the distortion is so high that the gutar line almost sounds like rhythmic static. (8) Track 9: No Place to Hide. Good song has an ascending minor progression. Sounds kinda evil. I love it. You'll be humming the main chorus for a week. (9) Track 10: Wicked. What can I say. Chino from the deftones did vocals on this one. It's pretty much rap but they lay out a good backdrop for it. Jon helps out with the chorus. (7) Track 11: ADIDAS. Good song in fact it's not as heavy as the others but musically it's very catchy. Has a nice little part where it sounds just like a sitar is playing. David uses his little boom pedal alot in this one. (7) Track 12: Lowrider. yup it's a cover of lowrider. Think Lowrider with distortion and about 2 octaves lower. Besides Jon uses bagpipes for the main line. (8) Track 13: Good song. Nothing really spectacular about it and it doesn't really stand out from the rest of the album but it's a good listen. (8) Track 14: Kill You. Wow this is the evil song of the album. Pretty much it's about this lady who used to babysit Jonathan. Needless to say he didn't like her much. |
Content Warning: This CD had one of those little stickers on it.... you
know those parental advisory ones.
(8) Track 3: The opening reminds me of clown from their first album.
Then it breaks into a almost ska like bass upbeat. Nifty stuff.