168 - The Michigan Daily ekend, etc. Magazine - Tsday, March 30, 2000
w . __ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ __ _ _
KORN
Continued from Page 4B
grew dreadlocks, got an eyebrow
ring, wears kilts during concerts and
openly professes his inner demons in
his screamed lyrics.
On the new album, "Issues," Davis
often alludes to his appetite for sex
as a cure for his problems. Songs
such as the huge MTV and commer-
cial radio hit "Falling Away From
Me" head into areas of epic self-pity
and confessional-style depression.
In fact, there aren't many cheery
or positive moments in any of Korn's
songs. Other songs on the new
album such as "Trash" link absolu-
tion with sex, such as the following:
"All I wanna do is get with you and
make the pain go away/ Why do I
have a conscience, all it does is fuck
with me/Why do I have this tor-.
ment?/All I wanna do is fuck it
away/I tell my lies and despise every
second I'm with you/So I run away,
and you still stay so what the fuck is
with you."
While the new album centers to a
great extent on Davis' recent win-
ning battle with alcoholism, past
albums go much deeper into taboo
territory. On Korn's second albumi,
Follow the Leader" (an album that
opened number one on Billboard,
went on to go triple platinum and
had a song nominated for MTV's
"Video of the Year"), Davis sings
about strangling his wife while
they're having sex. On the first Korn
album, Davis breaks into unstaged
hysterical tears during a haunting
song called "Daddy" that deals with
abuse he experienced as a child.
Perhaps hundreds of thousands are
drawn to Davis' courage and the way
he publicly sings about the things we
all suppress to varying degrees --
our skeletons in the closet, our
unquenchable appetite for sex and
our underlying unhappiness. Davis
is no doubt an extreme case, but vir-
tually everyone buying records can
relate on some level.
To see him on MTV singing about
suicidal thoughts and about how he
feels like a "freak on a leash" is one
thing. To read interviews with Davis
in magazines such as Rolling Stone
and Spin about how alcoholism
almost tore apart his band enters a
region of even more painful hon-
esty.
While Davis sings about what we
all suppress, his band's music is
unbelievably intense and serious, the
aural equivalent of his subject mat-
ter. Rather than ingesting the speed-
ridden metal of the past, polluted
with masturbatory guitar solos,
Korn's music instead integrates ele-
ments of the hip-hop sense of
rhythm.
You can dance to it, and it's also
funky in a deadly serious way that
hi p-hop cannot rival. In addition, it
will literally "rock" the house when
played at high volumes on a stereo
with high bass output.
Returning to the underlying ques-
tion about what draws legions of
teens to Korn, one must understand
F
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that as tormented as the music is,
when thousands assemble at the
Palace this upcoming Monday night,
it's a safe bet that they will be emu-
lating Davis, the undeniable hero of
the night.
Following his lead, they will
spend the evening exorcising their
inner demons, emanating their sup-
pressed tensions with the help of
rock music in a very blunt, honest
manner. Think of it as a hedonistic,
communal alternative to therapy.
The reason for Korn's success in
the aftermath of heavy metal is fair-
ly obvious in the context of rock his-
tory. While bands such as Motley
Crue wrote anthems such as Girls,
Girls, Girls" and "Dr. Feelgood cel-
ebrating a decadence remote from
the lives of their fans, Korn has a
conscious understanding of where
those lifestyles lead. They can be
considered the quintessential post-
metal band.
Davis has transformed himself
into a case study by publicly pro-
fessing his alcoholism, history of
child abuse and uncontrollable
appetite for deranged sex. He serves
as the lingering product of yester-
day's heavy metal. Rather than cele-
brating decadent debauchery as they
would have a decade ago, this
Monday's sold-out Palace crowd will
be exorcising their suppressed
desires for it.
Korn's" show at the Pa/ce o
Auburn Hills will feature special
guests Staind Mindless Se/f
Indulgence and DJ C-Minus. For
nmore information, call the Palace
offices at (248) 377-0100 or check
out Korn s website t
www. korn.com.
We have been ooking for
you Christians who have
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Church is being started
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Call Pastors Don and Diane Lape
734-944-4672
'vvwednesdav
@ Spm,
April 5tL
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Rackham Auditorium
I Book Signing @ Borders 6:15 - 7:00pm
I