thePULSEJASON SAVIO
KORN – REQUIEM
Jonathan Davis and the boys in Korn are back with Requiem, their fourteenth studio album. Requiem is the follow up to 2019’s surprisingly good, The Nothing, which was Korn’s best album in a long, long time. Although Requiem doesn’t live up to The Nothing, it’s still worth a listen.
Most of the songs here will appeal to fans of Korn’s newer music, with some nods to the band’s past for older fans. As always, Jonathan Davis’ continued struggles with his demons are on full display in The Nothing. However Davis’ lyrics as of late have skewed more toward trying to fight through the darkness to provide a spring of enlightenment and hope for not only himself but also his listeners who are coping with their own problems. The appropriately titled “Start the Healing” is a good example of this, with Davis offering lines of encouragement and guidance rather than simply wallowing in despair, when he confidently sings “break apart the pain to start the healing.”
On the reverse of that is “Hopeless and Beaten,” possibly one of the heaviest and most demonic sounding songs the band has ever recorded, complete with Davis growling “Hopeless and fucking beaten!” This is Korn, after all.
“Let The Dark Do The Rest” is the most memorable song, with a creepy opening that explodes into a heavy jam in a prime Korn sequence. It has a strong melodic turn coupled with a big chorus, and the band does itself a favor by getting out of their own way to really let the song breathe in the breakdown and allow a hook to
develop.
Davis does his patented voice scatting in the speaker-busting closer, “Worst Is On Its Way”, that will get your head bopping. Also of note in the final song’s outro is a tease of a classic bass line that older Korn fans will recognize. With bassist Fieldy recently saying he will be taking a hiatus from the band, is this him signing off?
Clocking in at just over thirty minutes long, Requiem feels more like an in-between album featuring a batch of songs not likely to stick around on any live set list for very long. While it certainly isn’t Korn’s best work, it is by far nowhere near their worst. It’s a good listen overall and continues the band’s positive trajectory with their recent past releases.
SAXON – CARPE DIEM
The title track and opener starts off with a dramatic intro like something out of the movie “Gladiator”, then cuts right into swinging metal ecstasy with high-pitched vocals and galloping power chords as singer Biff Byford shouts, “Carpe diem/seize the day!”
What is the catalyst for this surprise punch of renewed energy from these aging rockers? Some of it might have to do with singer Biff Byford suffering a heart attack in 2019. Either way, the lyrics are fitting and combined with fierce riffs that are sure to get you pumped up.
They keep the energy level high throughout almost the entire album, save for a couple of breathers with “The Pilgrimage” and “Lady in Gray,” the latter being a somewhat somber song about a ghost. But the epic lyricism never wavers, nor does the underlying urge to face adversity head-on.
The theme of fighting in wars and never relenting to your enemy covers both time and space on Carpe Diem. “Dambusters” is about the true story of Operation Chastise, a 1943 bomb squad attack on water dams in Nazi Germany with the newly invented bouncing bomb. The apocalyptic outer space drama of “Supernova” is the perfect soundtrack to the end of the world with Byford singing, “It’s the planet’s turn to die.”
Do some of the songs on Carpe Diem sound aged, like they belong to the 80’s metal scene? Sure, of course they have some of that unmistakable DNA, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and even the ones that may tip-toe a little too closely to that spectrum are still enjoyable. The main point the guys in Saxon are making here is to use Carpe Diem to your advantage and follow its advice. As Byford sings in the closing “Living on the Limit,” “Don’t be afraid to ride the storms/Just take the bull by the horns.”
For more, visit: www.saxon747.com/
