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When Korn released its eponymous, debut album in 1994, few people could have predicted that this was the band that was going to resuscitate a heavy metal scene which was largely bereft of new ideas. Make no mistake, Korn, the album, was totally cutting-edge, with a dual guitar sound that took detuning down to a new level (literally) and a rhythm section that tore up the “how to play bass and drums in a rock band” rulebook. Lyrically, it also went way beyond the introspection that had characterized the “grunge years”-­ lead singer Jonathan Davis had been abused as a child and on songs such as “Faget” and “Daddy” the listener had almost no choice but to enter into his torment. Surely the music-buying public would not want this as it's choice of "easy" listening?

Eight years on and with twelve million albums sold in the US alone, today, the members of Korn find themselves in the somewhat bemusing position of being the elder statesmen of a genre that has irritatingly been labelled “nu-metal”.  Perhaps it is because of this situation that they have chosen to distance themselves from their copyists with their fifth album, Untouchables. Completing the mission that they seemingly began with their last album, Issues, gone is any semblance of rap, which had reared its sometimes ugly head throughout the earlier Life Is Peachy and Follow the Leader albums. Instead, Untouchables is a truly varied collection, ranging from grinding, crunching metal (“Embrace”), through Ministry-style, industrial workouts (“Wake Up Hate”) to more contemplative, near-gothic soundscapes (“Hollow Life” and “Make Believe”). What the fourteen tracks offered here do share, however, is an incredibly produced, guttural, guitar sound (check out the jaw-dropping intro to “Here To Stay”), an array of simply gargantuan choruses (heard to best effect on “Blame” and “Thoughtless”), and Jonathan Davis doing the kind of vocal gymnastics that Freddie Mercury would have tipped his hat to.

Some music critics have contested that lyrically, Davis should move on to happier themes, suggesting that a seven-figure bank balance should have the power to somehow heal any past wounds. This nonsensical viewpoint is given a glimmer of credibility in opening track, “Here To Stay,” where Davis declares that, “My hurt inside is fading.” However, this appears to be vain hope rather than reality, as he soon returns to grapple with his tortured childhood, low self-esteem and despair. Perhaps this is most poignantly captured in “One More Time”:

Falling through this space and time
Buried in this hurt of mine
Falling slowly like a dream
Falling through a world unseen
Why can I not break this spell?
I’m in darkness
Is this hell?

“Untouchables” is Korn’s heaviest and most brutal, yet most diverse and thought-provoking album to date. It is the sound of a band reclaiming the centre ground in a musical field that it laid the seed for. My only concern is that it may be too avant-garde and dare I say, grown-up, to ship the same sorts of quantities that past records have managed. But then again, isn’t that what we were saying back in 1994?

Vik Bansal 7/11/2002

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