Album Review: Korn's The Nothing

Part 2 of the Summer of Nu ends today fellow Otaku & metalheads.

Around the middle of July I looked at Korn’s inaugural self-titled release. Like I said in that review, it’s remarkable at how well it’s managed to age in the nearly 30 years since it’s release despite it being a product of it’s time. Today however, we turn our attention to September of 2019. Nu Metal has long been out of favor by this point, but the boys from Bakersfield still hold the sub-genre aloft, and released what might very well be the darkest album in the band’s discography. So, let’s not waste anymore time, and take a look....at The Nothing.

Background
By the time 2018 rolled around, tragedy would punch Johnathan Davis right in the gut. For starters, his Mother would pass away on the 25th of February that year, and in August of that year his estranged wife Deven Davis would die due to a mix of 5 different drugs, but it would ultimately be ruled as an accidental drug overdose. To add further tragedy to her death, she was last seen a week prior at a sober house. Coupled with now being a single parent, not to mention bipolar & diabetic issues (I may be wrong about the diabetes), it’s easy to see why the beleaguered frontman would spiral into some of the darkest places in his entire life.

However, it was getting through this deep darkness, not to mention the support from the rest of the band, that gave Davis the fuel he need to help create what is quite possibly the bleakest album in Korn’s history, and it’s name.....was The Nothing. Released on the 13th of September, 2019, the album got it’s name from the titular villain in The NeverEnding Story, and it’s very fitting if you’ve actually seen the film. A year prior in August of 2018, tracking drums were being recorded, and not long after that everything else came in. The whole process was very therapeutic for Davis, who said:

“I went through hell last year and had to purge what I was going through and bring the listener through that experience. I don't know how to explain it but it takes me over. When you hear me break down and cry, that's not fake. It's how I get it out. Some people go to a shrink. My music is that for me.”

It should be noted that recording the vocals for this album was unusually long. As he stated in a Kerrang! Magazine interview, Davis said that he typically did it in about 2 weeks. For The Nothing, it took him 4 months to get the vocal tracks down.
 
The reception for The Nothing were pretty good upon it’s release. Over on Metacritic it is Korn’s highest rated album still to this day, scoring an 83 out of 100. Loudwire would name it one of the 50 best metal albums of 2019, and Allmusic gave it a positive review, stating that:

“Over atmospheric NIN-like piano and towering drums, he exposes his guilt-stricken soul in a final confessional. As the swell fades away, he weeps, "I failed, I failed." It's one of the saddest moments in their catalog, a low point that ironically elevates this album to one of their strongest statements. Korn have always excelled at pain, but with The Nothing, this is the most authentic it's ever been.”

The sales for The Nothing were also nothing to slouch at. It would debut at no. 8 on the Billboard 200 with selling 33,000 album-equivalent units, 29,000 of which were pure album sales. It wound up being the band’s 14th top 10 album in the United States, and by the end of 2020 it had sold over 80,000 copies.

Basic Description
Korn’s World Coming Down.

Before I go any further, I want to show a little irony. Like I said above, this same out on the 13th of September. A week later, and it was the 20th anniversary of Type-O Negative’s classic soul-crusher World Coming Down. Coincidence? I think not!

However, maybe it isn’t a coincidence. Like I said right above, this is Korn’s equivalent of that famous bleak Doom Metal icon. It is exceptionally dark, deals with death, personal failures, tragedy, and just being at the bottom of the barrel in life. Considering what was going on in Davis’s life at the time, it’s not exactly a surprise. That being said, it’s insane at just how much black the band was using in this release. Davis & the rest of the gang pull out the darkest of their souls kicking & screaming, and they’re making us listen to it whether we like it or not. There’s so much black on here, that it makes virtually every release prior to The Nothing look like fields of daisies & bunnies. That’s impressive if you ask me!

Best Track
Like I said when I updated the Korn overview, The Nothing has a triple header of best tracks in the form of Cold, You’ll Never Find Me, and Can You Hear Me. All 3 tunes are incredibly well made, and reflect the overall dark emotion of this record the best. That being said, I’ve found myself ever so slightly gravitating towards You’ll Never Find Me more in the years since this  album came. Maybe it’s because of the alien feel of the instrumentation, the bizarre nature of the sound effects, or Davis’s tormented vocal work, I’m not sure. All I know is that it’s an eerie experience, but one that’s oddly satisfying at the same time.

Cold

You’ll Never Find Me

Can You Hear Me

Worst Track
Like I said when I updated my overview on Korn, The Nothing is far in a way the single darkest album the band has ever done. Everything before was definitely not sunshine & rainbows, but there was always some sliver of light somewhere on a record, no matter how small it was. Not so with The Nothing: this release is bleak, soul-crushing, tragic, and exceptionally nihilistic. You will not be feeling good at all while you listen to the record, and that nasty feeling will stick with you for a long while after it’s done. Requiem from 2022 is in a fundamentally similar vein as The Nothing (You can read the review here), but that album is considerably lighter in vibes despite the still heavy emotions swirling around.

Other
If you’d like to listen to this album, then click on the link below:

The Nothing

Overall Impression & Rating
The Nothing is the first time that a Korn album sent absolute chills up my spine. There were a few songs prior to this that certainly did this to me, but for a complete record to do that is equal parts impressive & unnerving. Thankfully Davis didn’t kill himself, and he’s doing much better now than he was a few years back. But every time I load this album up, or even just a song or two.....I can only think “What If”.

The Nothing gets a 10 out of 10. As a piece of dark emotional art, it is genuinely perfect.

And that was my look at Korn’s final album of the 2010s, and the end of part 2 of the Summer of Nu. A bit of a downer to be sure, but at the same time is one of the band’s best releases in recent memory. Maybe even the best if you ask me. So, this festival is coming to a close next month, but I’m gonna take a look at Nu Metal bands that maybe weren’t quite as popular as they were when the subgenre was en vogue. See you soon!

Convention Review: Connecticon 2023

Another Connecticon is in the books, and boy oh boy was this a good one!

Connecticon 2023 was good. Damn good in my opinion. Outside of a dent or two, this convention was one of the most perfect I’ve been to in a very long. With things being tough for me & my family in recent months, I always knew that coming up to Hartford was just the (mostly) cure for how I was feeling. I confess I’ll probably be gushing quite a bit in this review, with nary a negative comment or something bad to say. So, with that out of the way, here is my review for Connecticon 2023. Enjoy!

Good Points
As usual, the Hartford Marriot is a perfect venue for a convention like Connecticon. The hotel itself always looks good, and outside of the “Up” escalator this year being broken, it was easy to get from point A to point B. The rooms as usual were well kept, spacious, and comfortable to relax in if needed. The center, as always, was a warm hug when I stepped inside. There’s been years where the amount of people there make things feel cramped, but this year was nice. There were a lot of people in cosplay or not (12K people to be exact), but it didn’t feel overwhelming strangely enough.

Yet again, the Dealer’s Room & Artist Alley always deliver. Though I had 1 issue this year (More on that in the “Bad Points” section), the depth of goods is always jaw-dropping. Cosplay parts, figurines, anime, manga, MTG and D&D in the dealer’s area, while things like webcomics, jewelers, soap, and tea makers occupy the artist’s alley. It’s always a sight to see, and definitely made me take a look at least twice.....and buy stuff I normally wouldn’t go for!

Panels & other events came back in force for Connecticon 2023. Though I didn’t go to that many panels this year, I was definitely impressed by the variety of things going on. Heavy Metal (A staple since 2018), Jon St. John’s Sexy Late Night Panel, Drunk “Con” History, and The Legend Of Zelda as a rock opera were just a couple of the ones that caught my eye. Main events have always been the big staple of Connecticon, and they did not disappoint this year. Cosplay Deathmatch has been a spectacle for over a decade, and an added safety measure was put into place for 2023. Some local marines were standing by the stage with Toys For Tots boxes so people could come up to donate any unused toys. If anyone recalls last year’s Deathmatch, you know about the bum rush of people that came running up to the stage, and stacking up plushies right by the god of the Cosplay Deathmatch. Odin is his name, if you didn’t know.

Cosplay Championship Wrestling was another big plus. Being at Connecticon for the 3rd year in 2023, the independent & lo-fi wresting group once again put on great show after great show. The one thing I loved this year was the surprising attention to story detail. Specifically, the downfall of Green Arrow into heel status, and his desire to take the title from Little Mac to spite him & his former partner Black Canary. Coupled with new wrestlers D.Va, Shego, and Neagan (The highlight of the new combatants), CCW continues to be a fantastic alternative to the likes of WWE, AEW, and TNA Wrestling, while being a fantastic promotion in their own right!

Another positive about this year’s Connection may be a little small for some of you, but for me it was big, and that happened to be the game room. If I recall correctly, 2022's go around didn’t have board games, or if it did I either never noticed or there wasn’t enough. In 2023, we got them back & then some. In addition to the normal board games, there was also some demonstrations of new ones throughout the weekend. Even Steve Jackson, the creator of Munchkin, had a table in the game room showing off some stuff. That’s neat if you ask me!

Finally, the last positive about Connecticon 2023 was one panel in particular. One that virtually everybody knew about, much less attended.....and to think it all happened because the guy thought it would be a joke, but wound up being perhaps the biggest highlight of the weekend. What panel am I talking about? A link is right below:

https://www.facebook.com/Kamfan88/posts/pfbid0tsAWmFBruGSKArW9xAK4e5p6vzgjDZuTgdkBwdNf3M3YEZhRdep9yNdm5EDEuWeel

Okay Points
Kinda like last year, I found the lack of masks/Vaccine Card entry requirement to be a little creepy. Ironically, I wasn’t as creeped out by it this time: with the amount of normality we’ve been getting back since around the middle of 2021, it seems that some sense of sanity has been coming back. I championed the mask & Vaccine Card entry requirement back in my review for Connecticon 2021, and I still stand by that. However, it feels weirdly refreshing to not have to worry about losing my Vaccine Card & seeing people’s faces once again.

Bad Points
For starters, there was an odd lack of sellers that had things I wanted to purchase. Not that I didn’t purchase anything, because I definitely did. What I mean to say is that there was hardly any anime sellers (Media Blasters was the biggest seller, and they always deliver), hardly any manga sellers (Outside of used sellers & hentai sellers), and even MTG sellers (There was only 1 stand that had big products, and a tiny few others that were selling just singles). To play devil’s advocate in one case, Otaku Joe’s wasn’t going to be there because he was going to take a break (He told me this back in February at Katsucon), but I found it baffling that the sellers of those product weren’t in as big of numbers as they were in prior cons. Ironically, the lack of Manga sellers did push me towards purchasing from the Dominic Deegan/Star Power, and I intend to do so next year!

Ironically enough, this next bad point didn’t even involve me, but rather an acquaintance. As he was telling me this past Sunday, a group of cosplayers were outside the upper part of the convention center (Outside where the coffee stand), and this was Friday if I recall correctly. Anyways, he was telling me that this group was trying to get it to avoid getting wet & pelted on by hail, but they were told to go the other way to get back in. Not only did some of them have cosplay that got ruined, but some got hurt by the hail! In that kind of situation, I think it’s perfectly for the center staff to say screw the rules.....AND LET THEM IN!

(There may be a detail or two in that story I’m getting wrong. If any of the cosplayers in that situation see this, please let me know what I got wrong or missed.)

The final bad point also was a problem, but not for the convention. The one thing I love about the hotel is the little Starbucks on the Lobby level. I can get my coffee, something small to nibble on, etc. I don’t know what the hell it was this year, but deal god were the workers getting overloaded! In prior years they definitely could get overwhelming, but they seemed to have been under a lot of pressure in 2023. Lines were long, food & drinks were taking a bit, and some people didn’t know their stuff was out. Maybe it was because there were too many people this year, I’m not sure. All I know is that maybe next year they have a few more people working behind the counter to not have any kind of overload.  

Final Thoughts & Rating
Connecticon 2023 was near perfect in my opinion. The lack of sellers & that one story not withstanding, one of my many geeky home away from homes was as fun as it has always been. I won’t go into details, but things have been rough for me the past few weeks, so to come back to this slice of heaven in this sea of hell we all call Life is nothing short of quasi-spiritual for me. I may be getting close to 40, but coming to places like Connecticon makes me feel young again.....if just for a weekend.

Connecticon 2023 gets a 9 out of 10.

So that was Connecticon 2023. An absolute banger of a convention this year, and one that’ll stick with me for the rest of the year. I will say beyond a shadow of a doubt.....I will be back in Hartford in 2024 for damn sure. In any case, part 2 of the Summer of Nu ends next week. See you then!

Album Review: Korn's Korn

Welcome back to the Summer of Nu fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

So last month I took a look at 2 album that would help form the foundation upon which later bands would shape it further. Now, we reach the point in time where Nu Metal truly would become a sub-genre all on it’s own, and one band in particular would be known by many as the group that no only brought it into the spotlight, but would also be the ones to give it a name. For nearly 30 years, Korn has dished out the hard-hitting style to the masses, and in the almost 3 decades since their debut, then still continue to champion Nu Metal despite it not being a popular style anymore. So, to honor the legends of this left behind subgenre, let’s take a look at the record that helped them get their foot in the door. Let’s begin.

Background
Taken from Wikipedia:

“Before Korn developed a name, they had moved into a small house together in Huntington Beach, California, south of Los Angeles, where they began working on songs. Soon after moving, they rented Underground Chicken Sounds, a recording studio, from Jeff Creath, who had previously allowed lead singer Jonathan Davis to live in his garage. While they were recording at the studio, they attracted a crowd of people when performing the prelude to "Clown". The band's bass guitarist, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, said that the crowd gathered because the band's style sounded so "different".

Korn was formed in 1993. Within two weeks of their establishment, they recorded a demo containing "Blind", "Predictable", and "Daddy". A couple of weeks later, Korn played their first-ever show at a club called California Dreams in Anaheim. Korn began playing gigs in the summer of 1993. While performing at Huntington Beach, the band was spotted by Immortal/Epic A&R Paul Pontius. He approached the band offering to record an album through their company. Although the group had offers from several other labels, Korn went with Immortal/Epic because they did not want to "sign away all of their creative freedom".”

Korn would go on to be received quite well upon it’s release. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave Korn a positive review, calling it "a powerful sound and one that actually builds on the funk-metal innovations of the late '80s/early '90s instead of merely replicating them". In the original review in 1994, the Los Angeles Times wrote "Kindred to such bands as Tool, Rollins Band and Rage Against the Machine, Korn and its singer-lyricist, Jonathan Davis, make their core ethic fairly explicit in songs like "Predictable", "Lies" and "Fake": the world is a torment-filled morass that leaves us seething with deep, internalized fears; virtue lies in confronting those painful truths unflinchingly and screaming them to the world". A year later in 1995, Jason Arnopp of Kerrang! wrote that Davis' "voice overflows with cracked, frustrated emotion, often lapsing into uncontrollable screams like a mental ward". He go on to describe how Korn have "injected their own special insanity into the music, crafting a horribly sleazy sound that matches their bleak outlook on life". He’d also note that the "general aggression" of the self-titled album could delight fans of Prong, Pantera, and Rage Against the Machine. Arnopp would go on to rate Korn 4 out of 5 and mentioned the "band's cult stature" a year after the album's release. Finally in 1996, music journalist Manuel Rabasse described Korn as "an almost dadaist record – little or no melody, structures cut out in spite of common sense, guitars deliberately out of tune – with, to top it all off, a hysterical vocalist playing the bagpipes" and also said Korn was "a group of crazies". Rabasse also found that the album "marks the awakening of a metal-hardcore a little too primal".

Korn would go onto Gold status on January the 29th in 1996, and just a few days later on the 10th of February it charted at no. 72 on the Billboard 200. The record entered the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand charts on the 23rd of June in 1996, where it would stay for 30 weeks, and peak at no. 10, but it left the charts nearly a year later of the 18th of May in 1997. It would go on to achieve Platinum status in the U.S. on the 8th of January, 1997, and then Double Platinum on the 10th of November in 1999. Korn would also go on to chart in the UK in February of 2001, and on the Dutch Megacharts in July of 1999.                     

Basic Description
Nu Metal Classic.

I just want to say that it’s incredibly frightening at just how well the band’s inaugural album has aged. Despite being nearly 30 years old in 2023, it still somehow manages to sound & feel so fresh and new from beginning to end. Not only that, but nobody heard anything like this coming from the Heavy Metal scene of the early 90s, and there was still a little bit of that badass 80s skin the genre was shedding off. The unique way the guitar & bass were being played, the unique way the drums were crashed down on, and even Jonathan Davis’s way of singing was something new. Very few groups have been able to sound like this in the decades since Korn’s self-titled album came out, but the band themselves continue to carry this sound in a seemingly near-flawless manner.

Best Track
Even before I listened to the album proper, I was always hooked on the opening track, Blind. An exceptionally rhythmic tune (On an album filled with rhythmic songs is saying something), the instrumentation flows like an early 90s rap song: mot too fast, but not too slow, yet still carries a lot of intensity behind the whole thing. Davis’s singing is particularly on point, as when he hits the high notes his voice never cracks. Yet, it’s the portions where he talk-sings that an absolute chill is sent up your spine, and that coldness stay for a bit even after the song is done. If there was a track I’d point someone towards to show that Nu Metal is a legitimate sub-genre, this would be one of the first songs I’d steer them towards.

Blind

Worst Track
Like I said above, Korn’s self-titled debut has aged remarkably well in almost 3 decades, and I still stand by that. However, at the same time you can tell that the album is a blatant product of it’s time. For better or for worse, the record is practically saturated in the early 1990s vibe. So, while it’s weathered the ages & still continues to sound amazing, it’s also a relic of a less insane time.

Other
If you’re curious about listening to this album, then click on the link below:

Korn

Overall Impression & Rating
Korn’s self-titled release was a watershed for the newly born Nu Metal subgenre. Yes, it’s still a product of the early 90s, but simultaneously still sounds just as fresh as it did in 1994. Though they would practically dominate the rest of the 1990s with future releases that were even better, the self-titled album still manages to really go in just about every way. If you’re curious as to why Nu Metal was popular in the last decade of sanity, then look no further than Korn. You won’t be disappointed.

Korn gets a out 9.5 of 10.

And that was a look at Korn’s inaugural album. A monster of a release in a new subgenre at the time, it still manages to send a ripple or two out whenever sometimes listens to it. So, join me towards the end of July for a glimpse into their (Relatively recent) history, as I’ll be looking at what is quite possibly their darkest album ever. In the meantime.....expect a Connecticon 2023 soon!

Game Review: Duke It Out In D.C.

Hi fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

I hope you’re enjoying this fine Fourth of July. I feel a bit more of the patriotic spirit this time around as opposed to last year, but whether you’re sipping on a glass of iced tea, munching on a burger or hot dog, or enjoying a fireworks show, I hope your day is going well. However, for those who are staying indoors, whether it’s because of bad weather in your area, sickness, or you just want a more quiets kind of day, I figured you deserve a little treat. So, for your pleasure, here’s a murican & surprise review of Duke It Out In D.C.!

Story
As with all the other Duke games, this one is no different in terms of a silly story. Aliens have invaded Washington D.C., and kidnap (then) President Bill Clinton in the process. It’s up to Duke Nukem to traverse the city, mow down alien scumbags, and rescue the president.

Like all the Duke Nukem stories so far, it’s simple, I can get behind this.

Settings
As the name of this expansion pack states, the game takes place in Washington D.C. To name all of the sights, Duke journeys through the White House, Washington Monument/Lincoln Memorial, FBI Headquarters, Smithsonian Institution (More on this level in a bit), Capital Building, D.C. Metro, a warehouse filled with conspiracy theory stuff (Secret Level), the D.C. Sewer System, a submarine dock, and finally Norad. Though there aren’t portrayed even remotely accurately to the real thing, the spirit of those places infuse their video game counterparts. All of these locales aren’t even remotely portrayed like their real-life counterparts (Save for the warehouse), they are perhaps the most realistic levels ever made for Duke Nukem. There’s a hint of believability to them when you compared them to most of the “realistic” places in the base Duke Nukem 3d, and despite one weird level quirk with all of them (More on that below), they are interesting to traverse. If I had one complaint in this regard, it’s that I don’t find them to have as much of a personality impact when compared to DN3D & the other 2 Duke expansions to come out much later in 1997. If you’ve played Duke Caribbean or even Nuclear Winter, you’ll know what I mean.

Characters
There’s Duke. Nuff said!

Gameplay
Just like the base Duke Nukem game, Duke It Out In D.C. follows the step-by-step plan of finding weapons, kill aliens, solve small puzzles, find keys to unlock doors, etc. Having said that, there are some minor changes.

For starters, there’s no new enemies to fight. Despite being finished around the time of the Atomic Edition of Duke Nukem 3d, the Pig Cop Tanks and the Queen Protectors are nowhere to be found, despite them being available to put in. Instead, we’ve got the same crew of enemies from DN3d, but without any new skins. It would have been cool to see the Pig Cops look like Secret Service agents, but I guess some things just weren’t meant to be.

Secondly, despite the overall more realistic approach to the level design, there are some that can  be confusing to traverse. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fourth level of the pack, Smithsonian Terror. When I first played Duke It Out In D.C. back in 2009 and got to this level, it took me almost 40 minutes to beat, simply because of it’s design (It was based off a portion of the actual museum if I’m correct), and just how large it was! I eventually found my way out of the place, but man did it take me a while!

Finally, we come to a more minor complaint about this pack. If don’t know if it’s me, but I swear to god every level has air vents to crawl through. Sometimes it’s only a portion or two, but other levels seem to have a spider web of air vents. Does anybody else have the same opinion as me!?

Graphics & Sounds
One thing that’s different from Duke It Out In D.C. when compared to the original DN3D is the textures. The individual that made this pack created some original textures, just to use in this game. Custom signs, custom pictures, and custom floor & wall textures can be found in many of the levels. Other than that, it’s still the Build engine underneath everything. The sounds are the same as well, with Jon St. John coming back to voice the starring lead. Like Duke: Nuclear Winter, he has no new lines at all, save for one in the last level. As you make your way down an elevator, and into a control room, there’s one lone alien. After you bump him off, Duke promptly says “What, there’s only one of you!?”. It’s great to hear at least one new line, but a couple more would have been appreciated.

One other thing. The soundtrack for Duke It Out In D.C. uses the music from the 3rd episode of the original game. It’s disappointing that there’s no new music, but at the same time episode 3's music was pretty damn good.

Overall & Rating
If Duke: Nuclear Winter was the worst of the three Duke packs from 1997, and Duke Caribbean is the best of the 3, then Duke It Out In D.C. is the middle one (Despite the praise it got back then). It’s got it’s problems, but at the same time there’s plenty of fun to be had. Despite being designed weird, the levels are pretty damn good to move through & explore. It’s only weaknesses are a lack of new enemies and weapons, no new one-liners, and a rehash of game music. A lot better than Duke: Nuclear Winter, but still not fully up to snuff.......especially with what would come by the end of 97.

Duke It Out In D.C. gets a 7 out of 10.

Hope your Fourth of July is nice. Until the next time I see you, stay Otaku!


*
For more info on Duke It Out In D.C., click on the link below:

http://dukenukem.wikia.com/wiki/Duke_It_Out_In_D.C.

If you’d also like to see a walkthrough of the pack, click on the link below:

Duke It Out In DC 100% Walkthrough