Untouchables

They're Here To Stay
by: bill aicher

Since their debut self-titled album, Korn has been considered not only one of the pioneers of rap/rock, but the definitive group for the genre. In the years following and through subsequent successful releases Korn bred a strong following of rock/rap bands eager to embrace this new genre.

Still, what bands like Limp Bizkit and their kin were missing, and what would never get them to a level higher than that occupied by Korn, was the raw emotionality of Jonathan Davis' lyrics and the band's refusal to adhere to a set formula. Rather than follow, they led the genre... and they have led it well.

Untouchables finds the band moving on from the hype of the rap/rock revolution. Instead of churning out yet another photocopy of what they bred and others copied, Untouchables is an exercise in hard-edge metal. There's no rapping to be found, and it's easily the band's hardest work to date.

That being said, Untouchables also finds Korn at their most melodic. Throughout the album's fourteen tracks the listener is barraged by a nonstop musical rock flood; but rather than fall into the rut so many other hard rock bands end up in Untouchables is a highly melodic and dynamic album. And it's in this simply amazing use of dynamics that the band truly excels over the rest of its followers.

In the past few years I've lost much of my appreciation for bands like Korn, dismissing them as of a dying breed and replacing their hard-edged mental expulsions with the lighter sounds of Coldplay or the vintage rock of The Strokes... and Untouchables isn't enough for me to re-embrace the entire hard-rock genre. It will, however, find a place in my 200 disc cd changer - the place my better albums call home. 25-Aug-2002 5:56 PM