Experimentation in the heavy metal world can sometimes be a dicey or even thorny proposition. Unlike the realms of pop or hip-hop, where fans want their artists to expand and try new things, rock and metal fans tend to show loyalty to artists that stay true to who they are or who the fans think they are. It’s not that hard rock and heavy metal bands cannot expand their musical palette, but the reaction is not always what the artists might expect.
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The Path to Dubstep
One case in point is when Korn released The Path of Totality in 2011. It was their 10th studio album and a foray into dubstep, the then-fashionable EDM subgenre defined by dark sounds, syncopated rhythms, and heavy bass. Frontman Jonathan Davis was already a fan of the genre so it’s not like the idea just came out of thin air. While doing press for the album he even proclaimed the band was “dubstep before there was dubstep.”
This was not the first time the Bakersfield, California, quintet had experimented with dance music. Back in July 1997, the Spawn movie soundtrack featured heavy metal musicians collaborating with various electronic dance music artists of the moment. Whether that was a direct collaboration or a remix may have depended on the song. Some were done very quickly. The team-ups included Filter with The Crystal Method, Metallica with DJ Spooky, Tom Morello with The Prodigy, and Korn with the Dust Brothers on the song “Kick the P.A.,” which was reportedly an outtake from their 1996 album Life is Peachy.
In the late ‘90s the nu-metal realm was downtuning guitars a la Korn into a heavier place, and different people were injecting influences like rap and funk into their music. By the time Korn brought in dubstep sounds over a decade later, they were looking for something fresh. Ironically, Korn had probably faced initial resistance from old-school metalheads who did not like how they were combining heavy guitars with hip-hop sounds when they first began releasing music with their self-titled debut album in 1994.
A Breath of Fresh Beats
A New York Times article published in December 2011 with the headline “’90s Angst Bobbing to Dubstep Beats” began with a peek inside a listening session where five Korn fans paid close to $350 apiece for a VIP meet-and-greet that included listening to their dubstep-influenced album in advance of its release. It didn’t sound like the fans were too impressed.
“Rock ‘n’ roll’s been boring for a long time,” Davis told reporter David Peisner. “I’ve always been into electronic music, but it’s been blowing up. I thought this was the future.”
Guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer told Peisner, “The characteristics between dubstep and what we do is very similar. Our influences come from hip-hop. The low bass stuff is something we’ve been trying to accomplish ever since the band started.”
It is easy to see why the veteran band would want to try something different. Korn had already released nine albums of downtuned, aggro metal with varying approaches, and they often looked for something different to inject into the mix. To be fair, The Path of Totality has a lot of interesting songs on it. The rhythmic ideas and sonic textures of dubstep actually fit in rather naturally with Korn’s style of metal. The many artists they collaborated with for their album included Skrillex, Noisia, and Downlink.
Even though some fans may not have taken to it, The Path of Totality produced a pumped-up song called “Get Up!” which is the only Korn single to sell half a million copies. So there’s that. And a number of tunes like “Chaos Lives in Everything,” “Narcissistic Cannibal,” and “Sanctuary” are compelling tracks. Even looking at more recent YouTube comments on videos for the album, some fans who did not take to it then like it now or, even if they don’t, at least respect the band for trying something different.
An Interesting Detour
In the end, Korn’s experimentation with dubstep was not a blight on their career. However, on the next album The Paradigm Shift, guitarist Brian “Head” Welch returned to the fold, having left eight years earlier after becoming a born-again Christian on his path to sobriety and relinquishing his rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. (He had departed prior to the recording of See You on the Other Side, Korn’s 2005 album with industrial, goth, and new wave influences.) While The Paradigm Shift was considered by many to be a return to classic form for the band, one must consider how the experimentation on an album like The Path of Totality paved the way for that.
The New York Times article implied that Davis and Korn had been looking for something to revive their artistic and sales fortunes. Their previous album Korn III: Remember Who You Are was their first not to be certified Gold or Platinum, which likely was affected by streaming cutting into album sales for many artists. But they had also not had a multi-Platinum release since 1999’s Issues. The Path of Totality did not improve their sales situation, although it continued what would become a streak of 12 Top 10 albums. The group remains a popular live act, and that’s where musicians tend to profit from these days.
Although Welch was not thrilled with the dubstep direction that Korn took, he seemed to have understood it. In 2023, Korn released Requiem Mass, a deluxe edition of the Requiem album with five bonus tracks recorded live with a choir at the Hollywood United Methodist Church. It was another way for them to try something a little different. And let’s not forget that Korn is that rare metal band to bring bagpipes into a live setting.
Perhaps The Path of Totality did not succeed in the way that Jonathan Davis had expected, but in retrospect it was an interesting detour that actually made sonic sense.
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Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for SiriusXM
