"I scream without a sound/how could you take away/everything I was/made me your fuckin' slave," hollers Korn lead vocalist Jonathan Davis in the vindictive "Good God" from his group's latest album, Life Is Peachy. The four musicians backing him up play off his ferocious vocal delivery in their propulsive avant-metal rush.
Most of Korn's tunes from their two albums address the darkness of society and the struggle for survival, and it's become their trademark. Yet if anyone follows Korn in concert (most recently co-headlining Lollapalooza '97) or in the studio, they'll realize revenge and abuse are not the only issues in their heads. From their friendly nicknames to their raucous humor, the Bakersfield, CA. quintet ensure that their work is sidelined by a lighter side. And with their ultra-emotional performances, fun is essential.
On "Good God," the band's so brooding that the intense music would bleed if it could. Yet on the same album they amuse their listeners with "Twist" - the less-than-a-minute album opener highlighted by one of Davis' mock gangsta-raps. Despite the pounding, angry arrangement, one would notice that Davis is singing all nonsense except for one lyric - "twist."
With "No Place To Hide," the first single from Life Is Peachy and a handful of tunes from Korn's two CD's, the pain bounces from the vocals, which Davis punctuates with his nervous hyperventilation and is further compounded by Fieldy's percussive bass lines, the solid "twin guitar" sound of Head and Munky, and David Silveria's tight rhythms. The tension stagnates in the atmosphere long after the last note is hit, and it smarts for quite a few seconds after.
"Just because of our music and lyrics, people used to think everyone in the band was depressed or down as people," said drummer David Silveria, the youngest in the group. "People get the idea that we're on the verge of suicide at 25. So when they meet us, it's like "wow, you seem happy'."
The clash of those two extremes of the emotional spectrum is what makes Korn as one of today's unique alt rock bands. When they combine the two, even for one moment, they create an unsettling, dramatic effect like in "Daddy," the anti-pedophilia climax of their '94 self-titled debut. After Davis finishes a whimpering fit, the band stops playing and then a seemingly-spontaneous laugh from one of the band members is discerned in the left speaker - a jarring yet effective device to downplay the tune's darkness. Davis acknowledges the song's meaningfulness in interviews, but is often reluctant to talk about it. In Britain's rock mag Kerrang, he reluctantly gave away more than usual - that the eight-minute tune was based on an actual incident and his parents didn't do anything about it. In fact, "Daddy" was performed only a couple of times since the song's release.
In his psycho-angry lyrics - most of which reflect experiences - Davis sees the dark side in childhood and especially his own. He might be the first rock star to pen a diatribe against the innocent, comforting Mr. Rogers from the PBS family program. "Shoots And Ladders" from their well-selling debut album is an explosive medley of very familiar nursery rhymes like "Knick Knack Paddy Whack" and "Ring Around The Rosies." The intricate tune exceeds what some rigid critics have tagged a novelty song. "That was written because all these little kids sing these nursery rhymes and they don't know what they originally meant," Davis told one magazine. "Everyone is so happy when singing but 'London Bridge' is about the Black Plaque. All of them have these evil stories behind them."
The only son from a broken family, Davis was shifted from one household to another as a child, sexual abuse, and at least two unsuccessful romantic relationships. After his parents divorced when he was three years old, his father would come home for three-day periods and then disappear for a long time.
Music was a refuge for Davis in the center of all his hurt. His father owned a music store in Bakersfield, so the young boy took lessons in piano, upright bass, violin, clarinet drums and Scottish bagpipes. In high school, he joined the bagpipe band and sung in the choir. Because he participated in theatrical arts and wore eyeliner, he was picked on by jocks and called "HIV" (a cruel moniker that Davis later tattooed on his upper left arm as a form of revenge). These insults inspired Davis to write one of his fiercest lyrics yet, "Faget."
After high school Davis interned as an autopsy assistant at the coroner's San Francisco office for two years, then attended mortuary college in the same city. But singing in a band was more his interest, so he joined a local group named Sex Art.
Fate determined that Munky and Head, an old junior high school mate of Davis', would visit a local club the evening that Sex Art was gigging in '93. The vocalist gave what the two considered a jaw-dropping performance. After the gig, they asked him to try out for their group. He auditioned a few weeks later for their band Creep with a cheap mic attached to a stereo and barely two months after joining Sex Art, Davis was officially in the newly-renamed Korn. Within two weeks, they taped demo versions of songs that would materialize on their first album: "Blind," "Predictable," "Daddy" and "Alive" (an early version of "Need To").
Korn is essentially one of those bands that congealed from the "friend of a friend" connection. Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu and Brian "Head" Welch were high school buddies and used to go to each other's houses to play their instruments. James "Munky" Shaffer, who began playing guitar as a therapeutic treatment after a bicycle accident, was a close companion of Head's and says half-jokingly that he was asked to audition for their band because of his lengthy locks. Only 15 when he joined their first band LAPD, Silveria left a message on Fieldy's machine and "he was so young that his mom had to drop him off at practice," Fieldy said in their longform video "Who Then Now."
Munky, Silveria, and Fieldy (sans Head) all moved to Huntington Beach, CA. to play in LAPD, which then released a tape under "LAPD-XXX" records. The musicians clicked, but they had hard luck finding a vocalist. "We had some trouble with that former singer, and we tried out some singers, but nothing really worked out," Silveria told Circus. A later incarnation of the group, dubbed Creep (described by Fieldy as a "cross between Chili Peppers funk and Faith No More") was similarly unsuccessful and they realized they needed a set of passionate pipes that matched their fierce brand of music. They got more than they bargained for, when they learned Davis played mean bagpipes (who would use them on the "Shoots And Ladders" intro and a brisk cover of War's "Low Rider").
How odd that Davis, one of today's more original vocalists, was influenced by the slick, synth-driven pop of the last decade. He practiced singing along to Missing Persons and Flock of Seagulls, and told Circus that if given the chance to be another singer, he'd be Simon LeBon of Duran Duran or Barry Manilow. Today, he seamlessly gels the classic hard rock vocal approach with the rasta-flavored raps of Davis' favorite old-school rappers, Rob Base and Slick Rick. As for the rest of the band, their influences are as wide-ranging as their emotional depth. The other four are admitted fans of R & B, hip-hop, blues and softrock.
When watching Korn onstage, it's hard to recognize a band that has sold platinum and gold for their debut and Life Is Peachy, respectively. Decked in their Adidas and Filas, they're poised on giving an exhausting, strenuous performance. Guitarist Munky's outfit appears more dingy and well-worn "because when I'm up there, I feel, like, sick."
Except for the usually-stationary Munky, the rest jump wildly or swing their mic stands to the explosive beats of audience favorites like "Blind," "Clown" and "Ball Tongue." Davis has said that Korn is all about their live show, and touring has helped them connect with their audiences. So fervent and cathartic are their live experiences that Davis has thrown up offstage before shows, and at times, gets stage fright. Their "Blind" and "Faget" videos reproduce the essential Korn live experience.
Generating audiences should be less of a problem now than a few years ago. In '96 alone, they played 306 shows, earning their good name. The quartet has toured with all of today's big bands, like Ozzy Osbourne, Danzig, Marilyn Manson, KMFDM, and Metallica.
On their gradual, yet inevitable success, Head told Circus proudly, "We certainly worked for our success, and nobody can call us test-tube babies or fakes."
Music News Aftertaste
"It just doesn't feel right without Munky," Korn's frontman Jonathan Davis explained in a prepared statement following the announcement that Korn pulled out of Lollapalooza in late July because their guitarist had become very ill.
At press time, the doctor's first assessment was that James "Munky" Shaffer had viral meningitis.
Not to worry though, upon Munky's full return to good health, Korn will go back into the studio to record the follow-up to last year's Life Is Peachy.
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