Album Review- Korn "The Path Of Totality"

After releasing the back to basics “III: Remember Who You Are” back in the summer of 2010, which sounded strong, but met with complete indifference from fans- the band decided to switch things up a little bit. Growing tired of the cookie cutter rock the band had been hearing over the past several years, the band went in a new direction. Enlisting dubstep artists like Kill The Noise and Skrillex, Korn has changed up the template for “The Path Of Totality”, which features a slew of dubstep artists’ collaborations.

The result: the effort is there, but some of the music meshes well together, and others just fall severely flat. There’s been some hate from the internet hate police related to the first single, “Narcissist Cannibal”- but this is actually one of the better tracks on the album. Jonathan Davis’ lyrics and vocal structure fit better with that song than let’s say “Kill Mercy Within” and “Illuminati” which sometimes falls into Metallica/Lou Reed territory. Ok, maybe not THAT bad, but it is not their best work. The album seems to hit it’s stride in the middle after “Cannibal”, where heavier tracks like “Burn The Obedient” and “Let’s Go” show the fans the creative peak when you mix Korn’s music with the burgeoning musical movement known as dubstep.

If there are issues on this album, it’s not with the dubstep artists. They give life to the album with their beats and wild sounds throughout the album, but the album falls pretty flat at times due to Korn’s pacing of their material. The album seems like just when it’s about to turn it up a notch and turn into something remarkable, the next song just dies on you and loses momentum. Rock fans who aren’t sold on the whole dubstep thing might not appreciate the lack of riffs on the album and may wait for the next album.

“The Path Of Totality” is nowhere near a complete disaster, like the previously mentioned Metallica/Lou Reed or Queensryche albums released this year and it quite good at certain moments. But I feel like more guitars and a more evenly structured mix between those riffs and the electronica sounds would have provided a more happy medium on this salvageable but far from perfect album.