The album – which was “born of time and the ability to create without pressure” – arrives February 4
(Image credit: Jeff Hahne/Getty Images)
Following 2019's The Nothing, Korn have announced their 14th studio album, Requiem, and shared its first single, Start the Healing.
A rollercoaster in dynamics, the track sees Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer deploy a series of slow-burning 7-string guitar riffs underneath Jonathan Davis's signature vocals, before offering some expansive open powerchords and massive-sounding octave lines in the choruses.
The track's accompanying music video is directed by Tim Saccenti – who has worked with the likes of Flying Lotus, Run the Jewels and Depeche Mode – and depicts a “live action and animated visual feast about death and re-birth amidst an array of preternatural creatures and humanoids”. Check it out below.
“Our idea for this video was to mutate that aspect of the DNA of Korn, of what makes them so inspiring, their mix of raw power and transportive aesthetics and human emotion,” Saccenti says.
“I wanted to take the viewer on an emotional journey, as the song does, a visceral, cathartic death and rebirth that will hopefully help transport the listener through whatever their personal struggles are.
“Collaborating with 3D artist Anthony Ciannamea, we tapped into Korn's mythology and explored their vast well of light and darkness to create a surreal, liminal-pace body-horror nightmare.”
Korn's forthcoming album, Requiem, was “conceived out of very different circumstances than the majority of the band's catalogue”, as due to the Covid pandemic, the record was “born of time and the ability to create without pressure”.
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2021's been a hell of a year for nu-metal lovers; in the past month alone, we've also seen a new album from Limp Bizkit and a pummelling new single from Slipknot, The Chapeltown Rag.
Requiem arrives February 4 via Loma Vista Recordings. Check out its tracklist below.
Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.
