Follow The Leader officially confirmed Korn as nu metal superstars. It also sent the band flying off the rails
It’s almost 30 years since Korn erupted onto the metal scene, and the sounds they created back then sound almost normal by today’s standards, a template that’s been endlessly copied, but rest assured they are not normal. Korn were – and still are – one of a kind: ever evolving, always leading where others follow.
It began in 1994, with their phenomenal self-titled debut album, a bolt out of the blue that was, to all intents and purposes, the birth of what became known as nu metal. An album so darkly brilliant that, even for Korn, it was difficult to supersede. By comparison, 1996’s Life Is Peachy seemed formulaic and rushed, by the band’s own admission a “fast food” album to capitalise on their success. “It had its moments, but half of us didn’t really like Life Is Peachy compared to the first album,” guitarist Head admits today.
But still, the eyes of the music world were upon Korn. Playing the Lollapalooza tour in 1997 with the likes of Tool, Snoop Dogg and Tricky, they were all over MTV, their audiences growing from clubs and theatres to ‘sheds’, playing to thousands of people. The big question was, what were they going to do next? Would they sink or swim? With Korn’s trademark sound already being aped by other bands, would Korn just sound like a copy of themselves?
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