Time was when Korn offered cutting-edge shit -- raucous, down-tuned, grinding songs like "Blind." If properly marketed, "A.D.I.D.A.S" could have been as been as big as Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Follow the Leader, their 1998 LP, could be rap-metal's high-water mark. Even the subsequent studio albums have had their moments.
Now Korn's just sad.
The band's new MTV Unplugged is unintentionally hilarious. You could easily mistake it for a Mad TV sketch. It has some of the funniest musical moments since Justin Timberlake's "Dick in a Box" and the Avril Lavinge-Sum 41 tribute to Metallica. Spinal Tap might be funnier, but that's just because it's longer.
Korn Unplugged sees the rap-rock kingpins making a desperate bid for artistic cred by aping their heroes in Nirvana, going way the hell off the reservation into music styles better left to... hell, anybody else. This is the quintessential drop-tune band. You can't go down to D in acoustic set. So what do they do? Bring along some cellists, a pianist, and some baffling guest stars, including the Cure's Robert Smith and Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee, as seen above in "Freak on a Leash."
Lee adds some vaguely world-musicy howls, proving once and for all that Korn may be nu-metal godfathers, but when you cut to the quick, they're just a buncha emo pussies.
The special is set to make its on-air debut February 17, with a set-list slated to include:
01. Blind
02. Freak on a Leash (feat. Amy Lee)
03. Falling Away From Me
04. Creep
05. Love Song
06. Got The Life
07. Twisted Transistor
08. Coming Undone
09. Make Me Bad / In Between Days (feat. Robert Smith)
10. Throw Me Away
"Creep" may be a cover of the Radiohead alt-rock classic, but if we spend another second researching this, we're gonna hurl. — D.X. Ferris
