Korn – The Path of Totality

Jon Davis: “They (our fans) don’t really understand dubstep but then they relate to it because it’s heavy and dark but not techno. They’re like, ‘This isn’t gay techno music. This is something different’.” Rarely has an artist managed to cut to the core of their own awfulness so concisely, whilst simultaneously revealing their own mercenary attitudes towards creativity.

Filled to buggery with pointless robot noises and ultrahardcore WUB WUB WUB-iness, The Path of Totality finds Korn welding their own brand of tired miserabilism to aggro productions from the likes of Skrillex, Excision and Downlink. The album’s one and only solid chorus crops up on Narcissistic Cannibal (briefly evoking a sort of early-Birthday Massacre gothic pomp), but the overwhelming impression is one of relentless, bludgeoning stupidity. The Path of Totality makes it very clear that the only thing Jon Davis learned from nu-metal was when to spot a potential marketing opportunity.