Approaching thirty years since their formation, the Bakersfield band and Nu Metal pioneers Korn are far beyond the heyday of chart topping platinum records and MTV domination. Navigating a patchy period without guitarist Head, the recent resurgence of form, peaking with The Serenity Of Suffering, has been fun but ultimately struggles to have the impact of their early albums. With The Nothing I wasn't initially excited but then pleasantly surprised. It seems the same thing has happened again as Korn navigate a more toned down, slightly atmospheric take on their iconic sound. This time its without bassist Fieldy who has taken a creative hiatus from the group.
His lack of participation is noteable, that distinct low rumble and rattle of his string slapping technique, usually a hallmark, is missing. Its oddly fitting to where the music leans into mood, tone and aesthetic less on the bombastic side, which his crunchy baselines always helped reinforce. On Requim, Korn seem to of nostalgically reached into the past and plucked the subtler tones and accents of their style. Its reinvigorating them with songs that sway through through swells of distorted guitar melodies and dense resonance as the overall mood and texture becomes its persuasion.
Sure, each song has its meaty riffs and simple, syncopated Nu Metal riffs but they are rarely pushed to the forefront and often flexed back and forth with bustles of overdrive playing out further up the fret board. Ray Luzier suits this style so well as the kick snare grooves take less focus and he contributes to the tone with lots of cymbal grooves and timely drum fills. The theme of subtlety continues on with frontman Jonathan Davis ,who so atypically himself. Somehow he finds a performative presence that gels with his band mates as well as they ever have before.
Lyrically, it hinges on the expected themes of mental health, self loathing and metaphorical demons hes reiterates again with plain language. His vocabulary seems softly expanding this outing but its mostly what you'd expect. Its the performance that grabs me, he straddles a sweet melodic spot in his range and gives a lot of his sung chorus a humming melody to it. His screams and shouts don't dazzle quite the same and hearing some classic scatting again is a crowd pleaser for sure but nothing new.
I step away from Requiem now, after many spins, with a sense that this one will never be dull to pick up and enjoy again. At a shorter thirty two minutes its curation and focus serves it well. I wonder where it would stand if my apatite for Korn were as it was in my youth, if it may rank among the best. With the band still churning a new record out every couple of years, its hard for that impact to be properly felt. With time I'll see how this one feels again at some point in the future.
Rating: 7/10