If Faith No More and Metallica were the most important rock bands of the ’80s, then Nirvana and KoRn could easily lay claim to fulfilling those roles in the subsequent decade. KoRn are the perfect band for teenagers and the generally malcontent. They positively burst with middle-finger rebellion, grinding guitars and rhythms, as well as an unusual vulnerability, courtesy of their certifiable frontman Jonathan Davis. After the release of their energizing self-titled 1994 debut, KoRn’s swiftly amassed cult following grew exponentially as they toured hard and released albums as quickly as schedules allowed. Today, they are clearly the new Metallica.
It may be difficult to pinpoint exactly when the term ‘nu-metal’ was first used to describe a band’s sound (or, for that matter, by whom and what band they were talking about) but, with the benefit of hindsight, we can at least say when it should have been, for the sub-genre’s origins can be traced back to KoRn’s seminal self-titled debut album, produced by the then largely unknown Ross Robinson, back in 1994.
With its bottom-heavy, downtuned guitar sound, angular, discordant riffs and singer Jonathan Davis’ gargled, borderline-psychotic lyrics, ‘KoRn’ sounded like nothing else around at a time when grunge still had a monopoly on alternative music. Quite who can take the credit for this revolutionary racket, however, is still a matter of some debate. Certainly Robinson has since been labeled the ‘Godfather Of Nu-metal’, but to this day Davis maintains that [Ross] got that sound from us, and, what’s more, that he knows it too.
By the turn of the century the nu-metal epithet was being applied, seemingly without rhyme nor reason, to just about any group playing heavy music but who didn’t take their fashion cues from the back of a Saxon album. And while it’s certainly true that many of the bands now considered mainstays of the genre share little common musical ground, the one thing that unites them all is a rejection of the values and attitudes of, for want of a better phrase, old metal. And in that sense, the best of the nu-breed are definitely keeping the spirit of KoRn’s debut - if not the actual sound - alive.