ROCKET REVIEW: KORN – “The Nothing” (CD)

Nu metal veterans KORN have released a new studio effort in 2019 titled “The Nothing,” and it is undoubtedly one of the year’s best.

Last year, vocalist Jonathan Davis mother passed away and six months later, his ex-wife Deven, died due to an accidental drug overdose. There is a seriously dark vibe on all of the songs as the listener feels the pain the singer still lives with currently. After kicking off with the eerie “The End Begins,” the musical assault jumps to a new level of grim and depressing with stellar cuts “Cold”, “You’ll Never Find Me” and “The Darkness Is Revealing.”

Next up “Idiosyncrasy” will have you banging your head and on the track “The Seduction Of Indulgence,” the band offers a frightening interlude on which Davis repeats, “skinning me, stabbing me, touching me, licking me, raping me” over pounding drums, crying out ‘Daddy’, on which he sings about being sexually molested as a child. The momentum does not slow down with the brutally perfect “Finally Free”, “Can You Hear Me” and “The Ringmaster.” The album concludes with erratic “Gravity of Discomfort”, “H@rd3r”, “This Loss” and “Surrender To Failure.”