LOS ANGELES (AP) - It's been almost two years since the music world last faced the wrath of Korn, and no one's more anxious for some fresh material to sprout up than the band's frontman, Jonathan Davis.
While the follow-up to 1999's
Issues remains without an official release date or even a title, the music has all been recorded with Michael Beinhorn, a producer new to the Korn camp whom Davis described as "very, very incredible" to work with. The bagpipe-blowing singer is now in a Vancouver studio, where he'll remain for the next few weeks to record his vocals.
"It came out really good," Davis said of the instrumental framework of Korn's fifth album.
"I know we always say this about [our] albums, but this is the heaviest and the best thing we've ever done. I'm really excited about it."
Davis isn't alone in his enthusiasm. Many fans of the new breed of metal that Korn helped usher in with their 1994 self-titled debut have been anticipating the band's next salvo. The years between albums haven't been squandered, but, to cite the name of their last album in an example of life imitating art, Korn had to face some issues before they could carry on.
Drummer David Silveria's wrist injury, which forced him off Korn's tour in March 2000 and fostered rumors that he was leaving the band, was perhaps the weightiest quandary (see).
"It's taken us a long time. We've gone through so many different ups and downs � waiting for David's arm to get better and hoping he could still be in the band, that was a scary ordeal," Davis said. "If the surgery didn't work, he couldn't play. The surgery was successful, and he's back in, so we had to give him time to recover and not play. So we had to sit on our hands.
People have got to realize that this is the longest we've been off tour and not doing anything, so we've been going crazy. We want to hurry up and get out there as soon as possible and get back to doing what we know. All I can say is that [the new album] is going to blow people's minds."
If Davis' numerological theory on his band's albums holds, the odds are good that his fifth LP will indeed be ranked among Korn's finest crop. "It seems like our odd-numbered records are the ones ... that are really good," he said. "Korn was the first one, and that was awesome � that's the heavy one. It seems like [our third album,] Follow the Leader, has become the classic Korn album because it's got all the singles on it. And now this one. I'm not dissing any of the other albums � 'cause I love them all � but it seems like that's how it goes. We do an album, then we rush an album and we're pissed that we rushed it. And then we finally kick back and take our time and do another great one."
