Nu metal gods Korn return to the fold with their brutally heavy twelfth studio album that sees the ultimate misfits make a return to a more familiar sound. After spending recent years branching out into other genres including dubstep and even country, the California outfit have come somewhat full-circle with The Serenity of Suffering.

‘Rotting In Vain’, one of the singles from the album, really exemplifies this with guitarists James ‘Munky’ Shaffer and the recently returned Brian ‘Head’ Welch hammering out intense 7-string riffage in the classic Korn mould. This is combined with a breakdown that long-time fans will resonate with all too well, that’s to say, a typical Jonathan Davis scat-verse consisting of ‘oo-ra’s and ‘ee-ra’s aplenty.

From a musical and lyrical perspective, it is safe to say that this album nearly rivals the self-titled album in terms of heaviness (this is aided by a Corey Taylor cameo on ‘A Different World’), and possibly eclipses it in terms of complexity and variation. Songs such as the opening track ‘Insane’, ‘Black Is The Soul’ and ‘Everything Falls Apart’ contain some of the most hell-inspired breakdowns that the band has ever produced, while more interesting and thoughtful melodies feature on tracks including ‘The Hating’ and ‘Please Come For Me’, the latter being a stand-out from the album due to its insanely catchy chorus.

Nevertheless, while each song stands well on its own give or take one or two filler tracks, they all follow the same pattern: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, heavy breakdown, chorus. This is the formula that Korn have followed throughout the years, and while it has never done them any harm, the lack of variation in terms of song structure means that the album becomes predictable. In fact, it is safe to say that after all these years of soul-searching, nothing has changed at all in terms of their approach to song writing.

This translates to an album that will certainly provide moshers with fresh riffs to headbang to but, in The Serenity Of Suffering, Korn haven’t really transcended their earlier material.

Louis Juhasz

(Image: Team Rock)