All photos by Karolina E. Piwko
Korn is no lightweight on the Metal scene. The band’s been around since 1993 and they’ve released nine original albums to date. Approximately 2000 people paid to see the NuMetal legends play at Youngstorget in Oslo, Norway, and it turned out to be money well spent. Korn has been labeled NuMetal for a long time, but it’s not really covering Korn’s musical style to the fullest as they lean more towards Grunge and Industrial Metal than Hip-Hop.
The band opened mercilessly with the classic “Blind” from their self-titled debut album (1994), and followed up with “Here To Stay” from 2002’s Untouchables. The crowd ate every minute of it up and vocalist Jonathan Davis let the crowd sing the choruses on almost all of the songs starting with “Blind.” The band was dead tight and played their stuff excellently, and some songs were even much heavier than the original recordings. Every part of their performance was great, with Jonathan Davis crying out his pain in spasms, James “Munky” Shaffer’s wailing guitar screams and merciless riffing, Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu’s pounding bass play, and Ray Luzier’s mind-blowing drum work. Even the session rhythm guitarist and keyboardist gave all they had. Drummer Luzier joined Korn in 2008, and he has definitely helped raise the bar a bit for the band. He is a fantastic drummer and plays really technical stuff with the greatest of ease. He seemed to have a great time behind the kit as well, and he was just a thrill to watch.
Singer Jonathan Davis seemed to be in great shape for this tour. You can see that the lyrics are personal and he means every word of it. Davis was abused as a child and this is a theme that haunts many of the lyrics. He’s one of few front men with the charisma and integrity to really make his audience believe in what he’s singing. He really gave all he had onstage this night, and in-between the songs he went back to the keyboard rig to use his inhaler. But it wasn’t all anger and depression, as they played catchy songs like “Y’all Want A Single,” a song that clearly states what Korn feels about that (“fuck that”), and their catchy, updated Industrial Metal-sounding (really meaning a mix between Metal and Dub Step) new single, “Get Up,” that made the crowd go nuts. Davis also showed his versatility when playing the bagpipe on the intro of the crowd pleaser “Shoots And Ladders.”
There was something for everyone in their set this night. From the heavy “Here To Stay” and “Got The Life” … the latter with its semi-rap vocals, via Industrial-sounding songs like “Get Up” to the slow and emotional “Dirty.” And to make sure that everyone got to hear at least a part of their favorite song, they included a medley consisting of excerpts from seven songs in their encore.
They also included short excerpts from songs by Pink Floyd, Metallica, and Queen throughout the set. Pink Floyd’s “Breath” was a brilliant psychedelic outro to “Freak On A Leash,” while the heavy part of Metallica’s “One” has become a natural part of Korn’s set as the ending to “Shoots And Ladders.” They even managed to sneak Queen’s “We Will Rock You” into their encore medley. The excerpts fit great into the set … nothing seemed forced, and the crowd seemed to like it as well.
Korn is definitely in great shape, both album-wise and via their live performance, and “Pop A Pill” and “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)” from last year’s Korn III: Remember Who You Are are testaments to this. A new album is underway, and if they keep performing like they did in Oslo, fans have a lot to look forward to.
Setlist: Blind / Here to Stay / Pop a Pill / Freak on a Leash (with an excerpt of “Breath” by Pink Floyd) / Shoots and Ladders / (with an excerpt of “One” by Metallica) / 4 U / Got the Life / Alone I Break / Dirty / Right Now / Medley: (Ball Tongue/Lodi Dodi/It Takes Two) / Oildale (Leave Me Alone) / Throw Me Away / Somebody Someone / Get Up
Encore: Falling Away From Me / Medley (Coming Undone/We Will Rock You/Twisted Transistor/Make Me Bad/Thoughtless/Did My Time/Clown) / Y’All Want a Single
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