Korn - Take A Look In TheMirror

Sat 17th Apr, 2004 in Music Reviews

Before this album was released I heard that Korn wanted to take a ‘step back’ in their song writing to create songs with more energy to enhance their live show, along the lines of earlier releases such as Life is Peachy and Follow the Leader.  Korn have definitely achieved this with their latest effort Take a look in the Mirror after some poor sales of their 4th and 5th releases Issues and Untouchables.

Korn took a new direction with their production values with Issues and Untouchables, including quirky and subtle guitar riffs to go with their grinding ‘in your face’ guitar and vocal sound.  There is less subtlety on Take a look in the mirror, with Korn choosing to use simpler guitar riffs that result in a sound that is more accessible, and should please old school Korn fans who love to get physical when listening to their metal.

Lyrically the band have not changed, continuing to explore themes such as love, hate, pain, betrayal and loss, this time in a more direct way.  Korn’s Jonathan Davis told MTV.com: “The previous albums I did, I think the last three, I was coming from a place of hurt. And I just finally got to the point where I’m done hurting and I’m just pissed off about it now. It’s turned back to just sheer hate and anger. And it definitely comes across on the album.” 

Tracks like Break Some Off and Lets Do This Now have some of the most brutal vocal performances that I have heard from Korn… as Jonathan said: sheer hate and anger.

Rapper Nas Jones also appears on the album in the track Play Me, bringing back the hip hop/metal combination that has not appeared on a Korn Album since Ice Cube and others appeared on ‘Follow the Leader’.

Jonathan Davis also does his Best James Hetfield impression in a secret track, a loose live version of Metallica’s One.  An interesting addition to the album, though it is not something that I will go out of my way to listen to very often.

There are many stand out tracks on Take A Look In The Mirror.  I find myself skipping over fewer tracks than any other Korn album to date.  I rate this latest release a very close second with what I think is still their best album to date, Follow the Leader.