Those guitars are presented as thick as possible too here right off the top, Korn proves (perhaps without meaning to) that Head really was an essential component of the band’s sound and, with him back in the mix, the results are just spontaneously better. Here, while he hasn’t started hardcore skatting as he used to do in the early days of the band, Jonathan Davis sounds energized and more muscular on the mike than he has in years (the mix isn’t overloaded with vocal overdubs either – it really sounds like Davis just pushing hard) and totally standing up to the perfectly renewed-sounding, two guitar assault that the band is packing.
Granted, the record isn’t perfect, but it’s at least a more solid and stronger effort than fans have seen from Korn in the last ten years.įrom the moment “Prey For Me” blows The Paradigm Shift open, Korn returns with a force so strong that it is impossible to do anything other than listen as the record plays. On The Paradigm Shift (the band’s eleventh album), Korn welcomes guitarist Brian “Head” Welch back to the fold, abandons a lot of the electronic accoutrements which had dogged every album the band released since 2002 and spontaneously revives the nu-metallic aggression within them all in one seemingly effortless step.
Now nineteen years after the band began and about twelve since they started losing band members and succumbing to the individual members’ own ambition and egos, Korn has done the totally remarkable thing and bounced back.