6.
Korn – Issues
Going on my experiences as a kid, I think you can blame Korn for nu metal. I was sort of into Korn when the first record came out. I remember when Issues came out, you had all of these kids who would have previously beaten you up at school walking round in Korn hoodies when you saw them down at the shopping centre at the weekend. I don’t know… for me, I’ve always ignored every single thing that has come out of Jonathan Davis’ mouth and all of his lyrics because they’ve always been cringeworthy. It’s a stereotypical attempt to appeal to teenagers, and there is all of this gross angst in there that has never appealed to me. I was never into fucking emo so I wasn’t into his lyrics either. But if you put all that to one side, the riffs are amazing and the musicianship’s really good, and I think they were genuinely trying to do something different. They were one of the first bands that I knew to use seven string guitars and it gave it this super low sound which wasn’t even tonal anymore, it was just rhythmic. The two guitarists were on a totally different level in the way that they used effects. Like them or not, Korn were a really innovative band.
