Last month I saw Korn at the O2 Academy Brixton, performing the entirety of their self-titled album in celebration of their 20-year anniversary. If you don’t know of Korn, they are an American nu-metal band which combine lots of different genres of music, such as hip-hop, rap, metal, rock and grunge.
I had seen Korn perform earlier on this year as well, supporting Slipknot in January, and I was amazed by how great they sound live and the energy they put in.
Supporting Korn were Sunflower Dead, a fairly new band who I hadn’t heard of before. I liked their sound, although they reminded me of other bands such as Disturbed. They were memorable for their painted faces, interesting clothing and good balance of clean vocals and screams. They also brought out an accordion for some songs, which was a unique addition to their music.
After Sunflower Dead, Snot performed. Snot are a nu-metal band, more similar to Korn, but I’m not fond of their music, as, in my opinion, lots of it sounds the same and the lyrics don’t interest me much. Because of this I didn’t enjoy their performance too much and was just waiting for Korn to come on stage.
Finally Korn were here, starting with the gradual build of ‘Blind’ and the familiar opening line “Arree yoouuu reeeaaadddyyyy?” to get the crowd going. Korn’s debut self-titled album includes songs based on personal experience, such as ‘Faget’ which relives the hate and bullying that singer Jonathan Davis was subject to as a child, as he used to wear eyeliner and earrings and never seemed to fit in with the norm.
The main song which I wanted to hear, however, was ‘Daddy’. This song focuses on how Jonathan Davis was abused by a neighbour, although his parents refused to believe him when he told them. The hurt he expresses through the delivery of his lines allows you to feel his pain. Korn hadn’t performed this live for 20 years, only performing it right at the start of their career, as it was too painful an experience for Jonathan to relive, so I really wanted to see this rare performance. Jonathan performed it with such raw emotion and anger, putting down the mic and leaving the stage as soon as the song ended, reminding the audience of how traumatic the event still was to him. A recording of the performance can be seen below.
Another of my favourites, ‘Shoots and Ladders,’ brought out Korn’t trademark unique sound, through the inclusion of the bagpipes played and interesting mix of nursery rhyme lyrics. Finally, after the entirety of the album, Korn finished off with a few of their most popular songs from other albums, ‘Falling Away From Me,’ ‘Here To Stay’ and ‘Freak on a Leash.’
It was an emotional and thoroughly enjoyable night, and I spent the majority of Korn’s performances in the mosh pits, being covered in everyone’s sweat. It was great to feel everyone’s excitement and enjoyment as the songs were played. It was really interesting seeing Korn perform an album which was released before I was born, and the simplicity of the stage decoration added to the old-school feel.
Pure Destruction 