rst are face-painted Norwegian black-metal demons Dimmu Borgir. A strange opener for Korn, but there was a handful of hardcore fans there purely to see them
First Limp Bizkit, then Korn a week later in the same venue – it was like the Family Values tour ten years later in Holland. Last time Korn were here, many were disappointed. Lead singer Jonathon Davis was overweight and chugged from an oxygen mask. This was not the case tonight. He was looking thin and fit as he jumped and prowled around the stage in his trademark black and white Adidas tracksuit.
First are face-painted Norwegian black-metal demons Dimmu Borgir. A strange opener for Korn, but there was a handful of hardcore fans there purely to see them. Their theatrics are like Tenacious D without the satire. Picture various wolf skin robes, pentagrams on everything, metal armour, a denim skirt maybe hiding a studded codpiece, and a ridiculous spiky drum kit with cymbals six foot above the drummer. Next to the monstrous bass player they had an oversized steel drum, but it was never used. I felt betrayed.
The singer had a songbook with his lyrics – so he would know whether to scream ‘RARRGHH’ or ‘ROOOOAAAR’. The laughs continued between sets as Kid Knuckles played the role of over-excited rock DJ, playing 30 second spurts of heavy tunes, only to skip his own system while jumping around like a moron.
He wheeled his little trolley off and soon Korn fired into 4U and Right Now. Bang, it was on! The long-haired little kid on his dad’s shoulders next to me had done a costume change – swapping his Dimmu Borgir shirt for a Korn one. Preparation is the key. The spotlights were squarely on the three original members Davis, Fieldy (bass) and Munkey (guitar). All three were dreadlocked and sporting black eye make-up (maybe some tips from Dimmu Borgir?).
Questions soon arose about the other guys on stage in the dark. The other guitarist was solid, the keyboardist gave heavy backing vocals, and the drummer…well. This sandy-haired menace has seemingly breathed new life into what had become a somewhat stale Korn outfit. His sheer power and technical prowess was jaw-dropping. He’s Ray Luzier, who’s played with Stone Temple Pilots, David Lee Roth and Army Of Anyone (just to name a few). He added drum fills and extra parts at will, along with solos throughout the set, none better than the one after Throw Me Away. Fieldy joined in rubbing and scratching his five string bass like a man possessed, making some wickedly dirty sounds
It takes guts for a band to include a large amount of new material into their set list, but the new album, Korn III, has some crankers like Oildale, Pop A Pill and Let The Guilt Go, so Korn threw them at the crowd with confidence. The first hour was made up of material from their latter albums, but that soon changed as they ripped out old favourites like Freak On A Leash and Falling Away From Me (featuring a death-like middle part breakdown). An encore of Blind, Clown, Shoots And Ladders and Helmet In A Bush – all from their first self-titled album – got the circle pits and a sit-down wall of death happening. At one stage they played the opening to Metallica’s One, just as a tease.
All night, Davis ran around the stage like a lunatic, at times he straddled and thrashed around his shiny-steel, naked-female microphone stand (made by HR Giger), with his screams as desperate and tormented as ever. Pics and signed drum skins were frisbeed into the crowd after the maelstrom of Got The Life – a sweaty conclusion to a ferocious set from a refreshed and invigorated Korn.
Korn plays December 5 at Festival Hall, tickets on sale now,
