More about: Korn

Lauded as one of the first groups within metal to fuse hip-hop with nu-metal, (not that they need the introduction), Korn are a notorious asset to the evolution of metal. Set to unleash their fourteenth studio album Requiem via independent label Loma Vista this Friday (4 February), Requiem welcomes honourable mentions from producer Chris Collier, mixer Rich Costey and an audio-visual playback experience in central London. 

Three years since their obliterating, introspective offering, The Nothing, (an album that famously saw Jonathan Davis openly reflect on the grief of his late wife), Requiem is a follow-up bound with huge expectations. Profound as a group that wear their heart on their sleeves, Korn, once again, have come together to channel their pain and suffering into annihilating bass wobbles, emotive lyricism, and obliterating hooks.  

Ahead of its release we spoke with Pennsylvanian drummer Ray Luzier — famous for his collaborations with Army of Anyone, KXM and of course, joining Korn’s line-up in spring 2007. Across this interview Luzier details the bands vision across their latest, loss and rebirth, and last and certainly not least, his euphoria for returning to Download Festival six years since their last slot.

“‘Start the Healing’, our first [Requiem] single, is definitely going to be fun to play live. There’s a song that I hope we release as a single too (there’s a couple favourites of mine on the record). But ‘Hopeless and Beaten,’ there’s a different vibe about this one that I’m really proud of, there’s something super special about it.” 

‘Start the Healing’ is a triumphant introduction, embarking on hellish vocal layering, heavy riffs and cryptic visuals taken and edited by Tim Saccenti. Whilst he’s looking forward to debuting this track the most across their tour, Luzier exaggerates some of his favourite Korn tracks and moments:

“It’s funny because when I got this gig in ‘07, Terry Bozio and Brooks Wackerman had done the new Untitled record that had just come out and Joey was filling in on drums on the Family Values tour. His last gig was when I was told I was going to fill in for a year. We did six/seven songs off Untitled. I loved that tour because I loved that record so much at the time. I’m a huge Terry Bozio fan so being able to play his drum parts on there was such a gas for me.”

Joining the group amidst the recording of their eighth studio album, Korn’s stance within the music industry had already skyrocketed to the top, with mammoth singles ‘Shoots and Ladders’, ‘Got the Life’, ‘Falling Away from Me’ etc. holding a force field around the circle of metal. Almost two decades since joining the group, Luzier emphasises that even with new material, there are always OG fans waiting to hear these staple numbers live in action. “Korn has such a ginormous catalogue now, there’s so much material, you always get the diehards that want the deep cuts, and then you get the ‘Freak on the Leash’ fans who want the big hits. You can never really please everyone, I was joking with the band and said we should do what Metallica do and play for like two/three hours.” (I think it goes without saying that Korn fans would happily sit through this...let’s make it happen!)

Continuing the topic of old gems, Luzier backtracks to some of his favourite, quintessential Korn songs to play on their tours. “You know, I think ‘Here to Stay’ is one of the heaviest riffs ever written in rock and metal. It’s so simplistic and it just annihilates when it kicks in! I used to love when we opened with that song: the curtain would drop and the crowd would just go mental, it’s not a hard song for us to play but the energy and vibe for it is just great".

He continues: "Of course, I love playing the new stuff too, I love ‘Rotting in Vain’, it’s so heavy and I love the way that song came out. There’re so many great ones, not many bands have this many hits. Most bands have two maybe three really big hits: Korn has such a giant list! Which is not a bad place to be in, there’s nothing like our audience.”

So far, the group have dropped two tracks, the distressed hyper-focused 'Start the Healing', and the alluring features of 'Forgotten’ have everyone itching to see just how dark the group are willing to go on this album. Talking about the group's progress, Luzier identifies what keeps the group authentic and fresh with each piece of work they release. “The bands been around for 27 years. This is my 15th year with them. We feel very fortunate and lucky to have all the fans that support us at this point in our career. We’re always trying to be a little bit hipper and ahead with videos, and artwork. We’re trying to really be artsy and not put something out just for the sake of it: we want to have a whole thought process behind it.”

Continuing: “We took our time with the artwork and recording process, we were able to pick who to work with and who sees eye-to-eye, it’s a great place to be in. We’re all 49-51 now, we’re not puppies anymore, we’ve had a lot of experience. We’re at the point now where we really want to make it special to the fans and special for the people who’re loyal to us.”

Collaborating with EFFIXX for the visuals, together Korn have curated a neat collection of distorted, flashing images. Across the album Korn have jam packed Requiem with some of their rawest emotions yet. Graphics for the album cover have struck controversy as an image that can either be perceived as a breath of new life, or a suction into the void. Discussing this very discourse, Luzier details: 

“We had quite a few ideas thrown at us with the title Requiem, which is why I love the animations and 3D visual that go with our first single ‘Start the Healing’. When Psang presented it to us, it struck us as a very cool art piece, because you can take it in many ways. Some people are like: 'that’s a very cool piece of art', and other people are like: 'is that a hand squeezing a baby’s head, I don’t quite get it?!' I always say this about all our album covers, titles and songs: take it how you want to, the direct meaning behind it has to do with Requiem, of course. That’s why we’ve named it that.”

For Korn, interpretation is key, Luzier emphasises: “Everyone is in a different point in their lives right now, Jonathan of course with The Nothin, was in a very dark place with losing his wife. The Serenity of Suffering was kind of about revisiting things of the past and bringing it up to date, you know. The Paradigm Shift welcomed Brian Welch back into the band and Korn III (my first record), was with Ross Robinson. There’s always some kind of thing that goes with each record”. For each of their albums there is a different story to be told: perhaps Requiem could be a tool to overcoming your own demons.

For Luzier, Requiem is one of the band's rawest albums yet, composing and digesting each of their own struggles together into a mash-up of colossal hits. On Requiem we get to see Korn relish the ground their demons walked on. Talking about the making of the record, Luzier tells us: “We tracked guitar, vocals, and drums to 2" tape for this album, and that’s pretty old school for people in the recording industry: it’s a big headache. I love Josh Wilbur and Nick Raskulinecz the two engineers/mixers we had on our last two records, I hail them, they’re some of the best in the business and I love the way the records sound. But for this one we wanted to go in a different direction, so we had Rich Costey mix it, and Chris Collier (who’s a good buddy of ours), produce it”.

Returning to their roots with old school techniques for the making of this album, it goes without saying there is a great deal of nostalgia matched with this project amongst other themes. Today more than ever, the music industry is working at God speed, the technology is evolving, sub-genres are forever forming, and opportunities for women and POC are finally vastly improving. With the group wanting to experiment with an old technique for the making of this new album, Luzier emphasise just how hard it was to get right. 

“Jonathan has all of these old tape machines up in our studio, he had some cleaned out, some of them are very vintage, it took a lot of phone calls to get people to come out and service these machines. Everyone is computer age, everything has to be quick, but there is a beauty, and a warmth about using an old tape machine.” Despite these issues, Luzier empathises that there was something a lot more rewarding about taking a vintage approach. “Tracking drums to that and listening to it go around though my headphones, takes me back to when I first started doing records in the '90s, because I can hear the rewinds. I think it’s a really cool thing to use the word raw, because it’s the perfect way to explain it.”

For a lot of reasons, Requiem is a significant album for the group, as 2020 and 2021 saw the music industry stand still due to coronavirus and its deadly variant counterparts; this year sees Korn take back the time they lost and bring their latest album to life. In many ways, you could say that the pandemic brought the group together through their suffering, even though the music industry was forced to a halt, creativity was still able to prevail. Luzier emphasises how focusing their energy on new material was a great coping mechanism for each of them as they each faced their own battles. 

“Everyone knows that music is way more powerful than we think it is. In any genre, not just rock and metal, anything you listen to gets you through a death in the family, a divorce, a happy marriage.”

He continues: "It’s therapeutic, that’s why I think so many of us were freaked out when they took live music away. People need that: it’s food for your soul. We all need it, I’m a fan you know, I’m one of the weirdos at festivals at 3pm on the side stage, watching some up-and-coming band killing it, because they’re playing their balls off. I love watching the energy and connection between the band and the crowd, there’s a thing there.” (Imagine being in an up-and-coming band, playing a festival slot, unbeknownst that one of your biggest fans could well and truly be the drummer of Korn!)

The global pandemic wasn’t the only thing to pause the music industry: just last year the rock industry lost one of its biggest innovators, Joey Jordison. When the news had surfaced social media of his passing, the music industry was the saddest it’s been in a very long while. Notoriously praised for his work as Slipknot’s drummer, and guitarist of Murderdolls, Luzier and Jordison had found themselves to being close friends across their journeys within the music industry. With the devastating news of Joey Jordison passing in July last year, Requiem sees Luzier embrace this grief with the support of a nation of fans. 

“He had some demons, like a lot of people do, and I lost quite a few band friends, and people who I was quite close to in the music industry across the past two/three years. It’s never easy.

"It’s hard, you feel even worse when it’s not a natural death. I know Joey had a lot of health problems too, so it wasn’t just abuse, but no one wants anyone to go off that early if they could’ve been around longer. It’s much harder when something like that happens. Especially such a good dude like Joey: he had such good music in him. I say the word lifer a lot, because that’s what we are, till death: it’s in our blood, we eat, sleep, breathe music every day and he was definitely that. That guy would wake up and pick up a guitar because he had an idea. I love those kinds of people; I’m very attracted to that energy and mentality.”

Requiem represents so much for the group, and we cannot wait to see the sheer response of love, and support it’s about to get. This year sees Korn return to UK soil as they make a Sunday appearance at Download Festival alongside headliners Biffy Clyro. Returning to the festival six years since their last slot, (which saw them play the Lemmy stage alongside headliners Rammstein), Luzier boastfully details his excitement for their return. “We’re dying to come over there, we love the UK and Europe, we usually go twice a year, it’s so bizarre to have not been there in such a long time.” Adding: “I hope nothing messes it up, please, for everything holy up there! Some of my biggest memories are from Donnington, when I hit a bass drum or snare drum, I can see the wave of people and the sound going clear to the back of 80,000 people. There’s nothing like it, we love it, that’s one of the biggest things I’m looking forward to out of our four tours!"

2022 sees Korn unleash a mammoth new album, with a tour consisting of Code Orange and Chevelle as support acts. We are itching for this new phase of Korn mania and are already gearing ourselves up for Download 2022. See you in the pit!

Requiem arrives 4 February via Loma Vista Recordings.

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More about: Korn