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Korn Gets "Really Heavy" For Next Album
Korn has gone to the head of the class this year, but the band's not stopping to rest on its laurels.
The gut-grinding group has been working feverishly in the studio on the follow-up to "Follow the Leader," and MTV's Ananda Lewis caught up with the guys backstage at Woodstock '99 to talk about what we can expect from their as-yet-untitled fourth album.
"We're going back to the first album," frontman Jonathan Davis told MTV. "But it's just different. I think that we've grown a lot, but we take more of the element of the first album. It's really heavy this time."
"But you know what it's like?" bassist Fieldy suggested. "It's like if we were to record the first Korn album today." "'Cause back in the day, that was the heaviest," Davis added. "When 'Korn' came out, that was our newest, heaviest stuff. It was dark, it was going on."
The new disc is being produced by Brendan O'Brien, who mixed "Follow the Leader" and is also known for his work with Stone Temple Pilots (see: "Korn Records With Brendan O'Brien For New LP"). In addition to its other kudos galore, Korn is sitting pretty at the top of the nominations list for the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. When the VMA nominations were announced on Wednesday, the group received nine in total, including one for Best Video of the Year for "Freak on a Leash."
The 1999 MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast live from Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House on September 9 at 8:00 p.m. (ET), with Chris Rock making a return as host.
Limp Bizkit Back On Top Of Charts After Woodstock '99
It looks like the band's turn at Woodstock '99 was just what the doctor ordered to get Limp Bizkit back to the top of the charts.
According to SoundScan figures released on Wednesday, the band got enough of a goose after its performance at the three-day festival to send its "Significant Other" back to number one on next week's "Billboard" album chart. The record sold an additional 250,000 copies in its sixth week in stores to bump the Backstreet Boys out of the top spot. The reigning kings of teen pop drop to number two after selling another 223,000 copies of "Millennium."
Rage Against The Machine Finishing Up Third LP
The rock-politik heavyweights of Rage Against The Machine have finished recording their new album in sessions which took place in both Los Angeles and Atlanta, and now the group will start mixing the still-untitled record next week.
While at Woodstock '99, MTV News spoke to guitarist Tom Morello about the project and its producer, who also manned the boards for Rage's last release, 1996's "Evil Empire."
"Brendan O'Brien produced it," Morello told MTV News. "We've been getting along great, and the music reflects that. And I think it's, by far, it's head and shoulders our best record. It's the heaviest record. I cannot wait. I cannot wait for everybody to hear it."
Producer O'Brien is a busy man these days; he's working on the next effort by Korn as well as the Stone Temple Pilots' upcoming LP.
As for Rage, the group hasn't picked a first single off its forthcoming record yet. It will have to pretty soon, however, as the band is set to shoot a video for it later this month.
DMX, Method Man, Redman, ICP, Filter To Join Limp Bizkit For Family Values
Rappers DMX, Method Man, and Redman have confirmed that they will join Filter, Insane Clown Posse, and headliners Limp Bizkit on this year's Family Values tour, which could begin as early as September 17 and will run through November 6.
Fans got a bit of a taste of what this year's edition of Family Values might have in store at Woodstock '99 where DMX, Limp Bizkit, and Insane Clown Posse all took the stage. While DMX and ICP each offered hard-driving sets, Limp Bizkit's was undoubtedly the most talked-about of the three, as the band's performance was met by a violent swirl of crowd activity that led to the destruction of a couple of temporary structures on site. One 24-year-old woman has also claimed that she was raped in the mosh pit during the band's performance (see "Woodstock Organizers, Police Address Rape Cases").
The mood (and actions) of some in the Woodstock crowd grew even uglier as the weekend went on, yet the Limp Bizkit tour news raises some questions about whether or not such anarchy will follow the band on tour. The Family Values trek is set to visit arena-sized venues in major cities like New York, Detroit, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia, and insiders seem to think that Woodstock's bad vibes will stay in upstate New York.
Andy Cirzan, vice president of the concert division for Jam Productions in Chicago, told MTV News on Monday that it would be wrong to pinpoint the Family Values outing as a "lightning rod" for another violent Woodstock-type episode. He added that security is a major priority at all events, but noted that "kids will be kids."
For DMX, the tour will come after the rapper heads into the studio this month to record his third album, entitled "X: The Man, The Dog, The God." The album is due on December 18, but the rapper has also found the time to shoot the upcoming action film "Romeo Must Die," in which he plays a club owner named Silk.
All news on this page comes courtesy of mtv.com
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