dB Magazine
13-26 January 1999Korney Rockers
KoRney Rockers The cover of the current edition of Cleveland's much respected Alternative Press or A.P. magazine should carry a warning.
It might shock some Korn fans. The band are pictured as glam rockers in full glitter an makeup getup. The cover caption reads: "Wham, Bam... Korn Go Glam?"
"It's the most crazy thing you'll
ever see Korn do. Ever," declares the streetest member of the Korn tribe, bassist, Fieldy.
Actually it was probably the other most crazy thing that the world will ever witness the outfit doing. The
show they played in Washington DC, as part of their nine week Family Values' tour with Ice Cube, Limp Bizkit, Orgy who are signed to Korn's own Elementree label and German pyroheads, Rammstein, probably ties for the
honour. Whether the band's number one fan, a guy who for the last five years has placed himself front and centre at their shows every night with a raccoon head in his hand, witnessed the fun, is unknown. "It was
Halloween,' explains Fieldy, "and we all dressed up as like heavy metal gods. We had big wigs and we played some metal covers. Songs like We're not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister and the Scoprians' Rock You Like A
Hurricane. We did a bunch. It was funny. Wigs and tight pants."
For the radio competition got to witness the show from the vantage point of a series of huge cages that overlooked the stage, the
Washington show was a real treat. Not that keen airwave devotees from other cities missed out on any special action when the rock circus hit their town. "Every night we did Children of the Korn with Ice Cube and we
did All In The Family with Limp Bizkit. Two bands on stage together. That was out encore. That was cool.
The Family Values' tour was a state of the art, up to the minute snapshot of the high tide mark of
the Korn machine. Three years ago, the outfit that began life on a house boat playing the same four or os songs all weekend, had hard stuff dignitaries like then Sepultura mainman, Max Cavelera, screaming their praises.
They've since set fires acorss the globe with a unique hybrid of rap and metal with tunings that, in some cases, are almost as radical in metal circles as what Sonic Youth had done a decade earlier.
Guitarist, Brian "Head Dog" Welsh's toe toughting guitar style and hairscrape alone has created a genre in itself.
It's all the devil's raw power and a damn near satanic voodoo lust. Watch singer,
Jonathen Davis, for a few minutes, and it's difficult to dismiss out of hand the notion that you might be witnessing something that' somehow connected to midnight goings on on Haiti.
For KoRn it's been a
matter of increased rathern than diminishing returns over time. Their third album, 'Follow The Leader', has the same head of brimstone, if not even more, than their incendiary 1994 self titled effort. When the album was
released last year the band undertook a gruelling schedule of flying instore appearances across the U.S. It was almost as if they were in election mode. Truth be told if it had been a Presidential year, the band
collectivley could have put a ticket together and, with their current level of popularity, scared the shit out of the White House.
"We did 18 cities in 15 days," sighs Fieldy. "That was one
of the hardest things I've ever done in my career with Korn. It was tough man. We were on a jet sometimes in two cities in one day and we were signing anywhere from 1000 to like 3000 kids a day. "I think Toronto
was the funniest. We went down the street in a big tank. We're on top of the tank and there was probably like 5000 kids following us down the street. They had a van in front of use with these big PA speakers cranking
our new album and in front of the band was like these four bagpipe players. We just did a parade down the street. It was a scene, Crazy
" For Fieldy's money he'd money he'd much rather his big speakers
at home pumped out rap rather than metal of any description."
I listen to rap. The only thing that I listen to that's heavy is Korn. I'm not into any like heavy metal music. Maybe a couple of bands
like Limp Bizkit now and then or there's another band. They're actually the second band to be signed to (Korn's) Elementree Recoreds. They're called Videodrone. I just produced them and they're really heavy. Jonathan's
on their album and so is Fred from Limp Bizkit. It's a really heavy album.
All the members of Korn were bonded together in some way in their youth. Fieldy, for example, made the switch from guitar to bass
when his buddy and future Korn guitarist, Head, mentioned on the way home from a party that he needed a guitarist for his new band. Fieldy and Davis had the additional linkage of their Dads playing together in a band.
"Jonathan was the guy that got picked on at school. he was a loner. Nobody hung out with him. He was the little freak that worked at the Morturary. He was to himself. I think the only thing I ever said
to him was give me on of those Marshall T-shirts from your Dad's music store, punk!"
To which he said... "(takes on a tiny meek voice)'Alright. I'll try and get you one.'"
But
that same guy is intense when he hits the stage... "
He's a completely different person. He turns into somebody cool!" he hoots. "Because I'll tell you off stage he's a nerd. I tell him to
his face. But he gets on stage and becomes a cool guy. He looks like a rock star up there."
Murray Engleheart.
