Eamon Blog

Today's Shelf Pull: Korn, The Path of Totality

Heavy music with its wiring showing

Beneath the drops and digital distortion, the familiar groove and vocal tension still do their uncomfortable work.

Korn's The Path of Totality is not a record that leaves the electronics politely in the background. This 2011 album puts them inside the machinery of the songs, where they interrupt, propel and reshape the weight rather than simply give it a different finish.

Today's vinyl shelf pull at Kilmorna in Listowel is an album built around that decision. Downtuned guitars meet sub-bass drops and tightly gated rhythms, but the useful thing to notice is how the parts move together. There is friction, certainly, and also considerable agreement.

Jonathan Davis's strained melodies supply a human line through the digital movement. His rhythmic phrasing belongs inside this unsettled framework rather than floating above it. The familiar unease survives the change of surroundings, which is more interesting than a simple contest between guitars and machines.

Released on Roadrunner Records, the album brings nu metal into direct contact with bass-driven electronic production. The catalogue's genre tags also include alternative metal, electronic rock and dubstep. Those labels help locate it, but they do not quite explain the appeal: this is music in which the joins are part of the point.

On the shelf today

Korn - The Path of Totality

LP / Metal / 2011

EUR41 / Available now

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