Korn Casts Out The Haters On Their New Release

Stepping back from the brink. Commendable undertaking any way you slice it. Korn's new single "Hater" plays up the strength behind doing so. Each new stanza expounds further. As usual Korn isn't going to go for the quick, easy rip the Band Aid off the wound method. Slow and calculating works so much better. Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu plants his bass in crannies where mortals can't reach. Much of the chum churning around upstairs in the skull originates from the steady stir of his instrument. Not that either one of the double barrel attack guitarists James "Munky" Shaffer or Brian "Head" Welch gets left out of the white hot character examination. At the bridge you sense steam rises from the overheated brain pan. Haters get up on you like that. They're pissed off and miserable therefore they wish for others to endure that same slow, withering agony. Over behind the drum kit Ray Luzier directs the mindset towards uncompromising focus on how the haters are not going to detract from the glimmer of determination resonating through Jonathan Davis' voice. For the most part the lyrics won't let the haters off the hook. However "Your trauma is lame" is a bit of a dated proclamation. Did I jet back to the late '70s early '80s for a brief moment? This is the band with a video featuring the slo-mo path of a fired bullet! Lame is well...lame. We're talking Korn, a gang of dudes I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of a back alley brawl with. Small quibble but when a hair's out of place you forget the rest of the scalp was stylishly coiffed. It takes moxie to move on with any degree of steadiness when your life has been turned upside down. Jonathan Davis claims he's reached a few rungs higher than that. He flies. He fights. He convinces himself his life's divine. Even though the message pulsates with unhesitating forward march. The unsettling key progressions have you wondering if Jon's really that sure footed. He could be in a funhouse full of mirrors of his own making trying to pick out which version resembles him most closely. In the final analysis creepy wears well on Korn's shoulders. "The Paradigm Shift" is where this defiant creature can be found. The haters have been warned. Korn's not going down without a fight.