 
After 2005’s “See You On The Other
Side”, Korn have been stuck in a bit of
a downward spiral - not aided by 2007’s
“Untitled” album not being received
in such a positive way - and the band were at
risk of fading away. 2010 however saw the band
re-emerge with a much needed return to form with
their original writing style on “III: Remember
Who You Are”, due to lots of promotion and
a built up hype the band appeared to be back on
winning form. Apparently that wasn’t enough
for them and this year they decided to really
shake things up by collaborating with renowned
dubstep artist Skrillex on a single “Get
Up!” which had mixed receptions across the
board, a lot of people loved it and a lot of people
hated it. The controversy has skyrocketed the
band’s name right back into the public eye,
since the band announced a full album of dubstep
collaborations entitled “Path of Totality”.
This move I feel is to ride the “controversy
rollercoaster” milking if as much as possible
to assert themselves back on top in the charts,
I was a fan of the“Get Up!” single
but I had very low expectations of the album because
they were at risk of every song sounding exactly
the same, even using numerous different DJ’s
I’m still really sceptical. I’ve now
thoroughly listened to it now and have sufficient
knowledge to comment on it. The first song is
anotherSkrillex collaboration called “Chaos
Lives in Everything”, very groovy but with
a sinister tinge about it, just some of the ominous
tones andJonathan Davis’s distinctive frightening
vocals. As well as that you can feel more of Korn’s
style rather than being overwhelmed with electronics,
I like the Skrillex collaborations they’re
quite true to Korn just with large electronic
presence, there’s 1 more Skrillex collaboration
on here alongside artist Kill The Noise which
is the second single called “Narcissistic
Cannibal”, you can definitely see the difference
that Kill The Noise brings to the mix, Skrillex’s
style is deep and thick where as Kill The Noise’s
is more atmospheric and distortion related.
So far so good then, but there’s still 8
more songs with a range of different DJ’s,
I don’t feel the rest of the songs are as
strong as those 3. I first looked at“Sanctuary”
featuring Downlink; here the balance has shifted
from being heavy to more of a depressing dance
track, it’s not the only one like that thought
the same can be said for “Way To Far”
featuring 12th Planetand “Let’s Go”
with Noisia, those 2 tracks might be quite depressing
and lacking compared to the other 3 but I don’t
hate them, I still enjoy them.
It took me a long while to make up my mind on
this album, hell I don’t think I’m
100% sure to this day but what I do know is that
I really enjoy the 3 Skrillex collaborations even
though I’m not a fan of his own music, I
still am not a fan of dubstep and I really don’t
like many other songs on the album. Do I think
this album should have been released? Yes. Do
I think it’s going to be the bands next
big direction? Dear God I hope not. Only time
will tell how they will incorporate this into
their live show and as to what future material
will sound like but I’m not going to hold
my breath for something spectacular.
3/5
Review by James Webb
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