KoRn's Height of Bling Bling (Follow The Leader - Korn)

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Product:	Follow The Leader - Korn
Date:	09/12/01 (221 review reads)
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Advantages: Mostly amazing songs, Widely-appealing, Value for money

Disadvantages: KoRn's weakest album, A large rap element

The finest band in the world's (that's KoRn to you) third and most successful album is generally considered their finest work. The Bakersfield Nu-Metal quintet, Brian "Head" Welch and James "Munky" Shaffer on seven-string Ibanez axes, Reg "Fieldy" Arvizu on five-string bass, David Silveria (most interesting name yet) on drums and Jonathan Davis handling vocals and bagpipes (don't act shocked) have successfully managed to produce an album that appeals to the masses whether they are fans of KoRn's unique "seventies funk hip-hop bagpipe metal" (don't worry if this conjurs something very disturbing in your head, I only find it slightly relevant) musical style, or fans of hip-hop and rap culture, as several songs on the album feature guest appearances by rap artists such as Fred Durst and Ice Cube. There's also an appearance by Trevant Hardson and Cheech Martin (the latter of which collaborates with KoRn on the album's hidden song after "My Gift To You").

This is certainly KoRn's highest budget album, and this is also demonstrated with the award-winning music video for the album's first release, "Freak On A Leash." KoRn have obviously prospered with the sales of their first two albums, and have certainly come a long way since the low-budget-small-room-with-a-KoRn-poster-hanging-o n-the-wall video for "Blind," their first ever release.

KoRn's musical style has also taken a turn with this album. Their debut album, "KoRn" (1994), has been their heaviest offering to date, with songs such as "Ball Tongue" and "Clown," then they became slightly different, darker and disturbing with their second album "Life Is Peachy" (1996, n.b. most people are convinced this is their newest album. I don't know where that comes from). "Peachy" initially sold more copies than "KoRn," but its more sinister s
tyle put off many of the general MTV public who were looking for something a little bit happier. Personally, I think these two albums are probably KoRn's finest work, however I both respect and bum their succeeding releases anyway so it doesn't matter. The style of "Follow the Leader", rap appearances aside, is more towards the high-pitched guitarring and drum loops, as well as more signing and less shouting from front man Jonathan Davis. However, in songs such as "Freak On A Leash" and "B.B.K." Jonathan performs his distinctive vocalisations that you couldn't really write down, but which might mean something to him. Maybe it's something from his Scottish side (that wasn't racist, it was a JOKE.)

A brief summary of tracks must start at track thirteen, as unless you have some form of illegal copy of the album, tracks one to twelve are simply several seconds of silence each. Nice idea KoRn, however it does get a bit annoying when there's always that odd occasion you forget. Meanings to the songs (as stated by band frontman Jonathan himself) are also included for those who may be interested.

"It's On" begins with a cool sound effect before the drumming and guitarring kicks in, along with the distinctive KoRn clicking. The song is really cool, and explodes into life with Jon shouting "Come On!" It's also one of the only songs on the album that manages to refrain from using that "f" word that KoRn tend to use often (well they do sing about angst and bad experiences, so it's understandable. The start of this song is played at the beginning of the "Got The Life" music video when David and Munky are heading towards a car with their stereo blurting it out). ("It's On" is my s**t peer pressure song. Me being so stressed out going out and partying. Everybody's just going 'Come on dude, it's on.' That's partying, it's
alcohol, cocaine, women. All that wrapped into one. I wrote a song about it. And the chorus I talked about Why am I really doing this? It's all my fault that I'm doing this because all the alcohol, the booze an the chicks do is just make it worse. They just rearrange all the problems in a different order that I can deal with at that moment.")

Possibly KoRn's most well-known song (apart from "Blind" and maybe "Make Me Bad"), "Freak On A Leash" is also one of my favourites on this album, if not my favourite. It seems the perfect example of KoRn, so if you haven't heard them and want to do some semi-legal MP3 downloading this is the song you should hear. It features all styles of KoRn from their high guitarring and high singing vocals to heavy, clicky bass and guitar parts with Jon's shouting and "noises" (for lack of a better word). No bagpipes though, unfortunately. This song was one of the album's three singles. ("One of the best titles I've heard ever for a song. That's my song against the music industry. Like me feeling like I'm f*****' a pimp, a prostitute. Like I'm paraded around. I'm this freak paraded around but I got corporate America f*****' making all the money while it's taking a part of me. It's like they stole something from me, they stole my innocence and I'm not calm anymore. I worry constantly.")

Another of this album's most popular tracks (also released as a single), "Got The Life" begins with a definite, sole drum whack before launching into a guitar-driven, clicky section. Jon's vocals range from angry shouting to some of his highest vocals ever in the space of a word, and there's even a confusing "get your boogie on" section (?) Oh well. Nice backing vocals from Head again, as there were on the previous track. About half way through, the song changes style and Jon's vocals beco
me more whispery and quiet, and the guitars even more weird. Oh yeah, and there's the "ram-ba-dee-boom" backing bit too, which is cool. Another of my favourites. ("That's a song baggin' on myself. How everything's always handed to me. How I look up to God and don't want this anymore. Like I want something more out of life than all this. And I've got everything I really need but I sometimes don't like. I don't know how to explain it. I have to let it sit through the songs more to actually get into what I write. I truly know, really, the meanings of the songs almost. That's what I'm getting out of it right now.")

Track four (or should that be sixteen), "Dead Bodies Everywhere" starts very confusingly with some kind of child's music box tune slowly playing, before KoRn's instruments start playing. This song was not released, but is another of the album's highlights. It reverts back to the opening sounds after two and a half minutes before returning even heavier and angrier than before. ("That was the song about my parents trying to keep me out of the music business. My father was in it and he knew how it was and I totally understand now that I have a son. I want Nathan to be a musician but I him don't want him to go through the hell I went through. That's the same thing my Dad was doing. A lot of people can relate to it, because it's like the Dad's wanting their sons to be football players and their sons want to be doctors or something. That peer pressure its like trying to make them something they're really not. And the Dead Bodies thing is like so I did it and all I got out of it was dead bodies everywhere and got all traumatized. Thanks a lot Dad, Mom.")

A song I admittedly skip often (even though this is almost a blasphemy upon KoRn), "Children Of The KoRn" features several short Jon Davis verses choruses, a bit of KoRn playin
g in the background, and a lot of Ice Cube rapping. Unless you've read some of my other reviews on the subject, rap music does not appeal to me at all, and I really don't like this song that much. The KoRn tune is quite good, and Jon's vocals are cool still, but for me it's spoiled by Ice Cube. However, if you like rap you may find this on of the album's highlights, I don't know. ("That's the song that Ice Cube is on- Cube came up with the title. I fed off of what he wrote, he was talking about growing up and puberty. Dictating what he can do, like how you gonna tell me how to live and who to f***? And all this stuff. And I took that and in my stuff I was talking about being a kid always known as the f*****' town faggot. It's funny how things change. That some of these people picked on me and all of a sudden look who's laughing now. Also in another of the verse I talked about all these parents f****** hating me for what I do, saying I'm corrupting their children, but in turn these parents need to step outside of themselves and really listen to what I'm talking about. Then I think they can understand that they were kids before. They're just really quick to judge me. All the Children of The Korn are all our Korn fans. All those kids going through that shit and feeling what I feel.")

"B.B.K." isn't a very original song, however it is cool. The simple KoRn formula with a bit of odd noising by Jon near the end. ("Big black c**k! That's what I call a jack and coke. Those little glasses they serve in Europe and everything. That's what I named it, big black c**k. And that's another song about me dealing with the pressures of this album and how I, you know, I'm trying to kill myself, but you know? Do I really want to kill myself? Things I'm just questioning myself. Most of this is self-structured.")

"Pretty" (track nineteen) begins with a cool
, throaty-style sound that sounds cool. The song is slower and in parts less heavy than KoRn's usual offerings, but is a really cool song. Jon sings the verses and shouts the choruses. ("It's a story about this little girl that came into the coroner's office when I was working there and she was f****d by her dad. She was an 11 month old little baby girl. Her legs were broken back behind her and he just f****d her like a toy doll and chucked her in the bathroom. It was the most heinous thing I've ever seen in my life and I still have nightmares about it.")

Less serious, and a very light-hearted song, "All In The Family" does feature rapping, but in a comedy context which makes it all the more standable to me. Dividing the vocals between Jonathan Davis and Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, the song is basically a diss-fest with the two friends taking the wee out of each other. A lot of the lyrics are very funny, and some of the insults actually shocked me as they seemed like they would be hard-hitting to the receipient. Quite a cool song, there are many I prefer. This was also released as a single, but was the least popular (probably cause the others were better). ("Fred was there after Korn TV and we said, 'Let's do a song together, Hey, man, let's go back and forth and rip on each other like an old school battle.' I don't know who's idea it was, I can't remember if it was mine or Fieldy's or Fred's but we came up with the idea and we started writing and we worked on it together. I came up with some bags on myself for Fred to say. It was all in good natured fun.")

Into the second half of the album, "Reclaim My Place" is quite a cool song, but a bit average for KoRn. A simple song structure and nothing very original, it's one of the reasons why this is my least favourite KoRn album. ("This one is about the whole band and about all my life being called a homo
sexual. And then I became this big rock star in a band and I'm still called a fag even by my own band. So it's like I was f*****' pissed off at them. It's like erase them all because I'm gonna reclaim my place and say hey, they owe a lot to me for what I did, and I owe a lot to them back. But, it still kinda sucks. I've never ever gotten away from that fag f*****' title. Just because I'm a sensitive kinda guy. Kinda feminine it really sucks.")

"Justin" is a lot better, and starts with an odd tune that climaxes and leaps into the song with Jon shouting "F*** all that bullshit!" A heavy tune for the choruses, Jon's voice seems slightly distorted and high in the chorus. This song is very good, but often overlooked for the first half of the album. ("Justin, that was the kid dying terminally with intestinal cancer. His last dying wish was to meet us and it really freaked me out. That threw a whole bunch of new kind of pressures on my head. That's really intense. Someone's gonna die and his last thing he wants to do is come hang out with us. So I truly just freaked out. It's like why would you want to meet me? What makes me so special? And in turn I talk about how I admire his strength and his life. I couldn't stare at him because he was so content he was gonna die. No one could look him in the eyes. And I totally admire his strength. I wish I had it.")

"Seed" features 42 seconds of high-pitched guitar noises between leaping into a tune that is very good, but a bit similar to the previous two tracks. The chorus doesn't seem very clever either, and seems to be swearing just for the sake of it. A cool song though. ("Seed. That's all about the same thing again. I, laying in bed in my hotel room, thinking about do I really need all this stuff? All this pressure on me? Because I'm a stressed out freak. It's about Nathan, it's about every t
ime that I look into his eyes, I see myself how I used to be, innocent and stress free. I'm kind of jealous of it. It really sucks, I used to be that way. It's like I have to work so hard at this thing in my life. I have to become a stressed out freak. I put food on the table for my child. Every time I look in his eyes, I just see myself staring right back at my ass laughing. I was like care free, innocent as a child. It's really weird and I'm really jealous of it.")

Better than "Children Of The KoRn," "Cameltosis" is another song featuring a rap appearance (by Tre Hardson of Pharcyde), and a little bit of Jon in the choruses. The tune in the background is more prominent than in "Children Of The KoRn", and this song would be really cool (the best song on this album for a while) is if did not feature that damn rap guy. ("That's a love song. It's about women in general, women who hurt me. It's Tre's lyrics. He's going on about chicks and my chorus is like I'm so scared to love anyone and really let them in after I got hurt really really bad by a girl. I've let Renee in a little bit, to be honest, but I'll never be that in love ever again. That's what I'm saying, if you've loved twice, you're gonna get f*****, 'cause you usually do.")

Another of the album's highlights, "My Gift To You" reminds me of "Shoots and Ladders" off the first KoRn album (yes, this is where Jon whips out his bagpipes), and has another very cool, heavy tune overlaid. The song does get a bit long towards the end (lasting just over seven minutes it's nearly as bad as some Metallica song lengths, not that Metallica aren't amazing or anything), and Jon puts the 'pipes away after 48 seconds in favour of vocals. ("Renee always wanted me to write her a love song and that's why I called it My Gift To You. It's my gift to her, y
ou know how I get sick. I always had a fantasy of f*****g her and choking her to death. I fantasize about what it would look like me in her body and watching me do it. So it's like a really sick f***** up song. I did it totally like, I love her so much, I want to take her out of this world. It's really strange. She used to leave notes on my pillow like 25 ways she'd like to kill me. She's got this weird death fetish. We're kinda f*****' freaky. She got it. She's all 'Thank you that's kinda f***** up. I was expecting a f*****' I love you, baby kinda song.' I'm all, 'No, you know me.' I mean I can't do that.")

The album's hidden section ("Earache My Eye") begins after 9 minutes and 14 seconds, with Fieldy and Cheech Martin conversing about some form of barbecue, and this runs into a rather comical song sung by Cheech about wearing his mother's clothes. A nice end to the album, if a little strange.

Overall, the album is my least favourite from KoRn as the similarity of a few songs and the guest appearances all diminish it in my view. However it is still an amazing offering from the band, and this album is probably responsible for them acquiring a large number of fans who were maybe put off by their other stuff. It was cool though to see somewhat of a return to form for their fourth album "Issues" in 1999.

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