Music Ranking
This album was a lot of fun. I appreciated how edgy it was and really loved the features. I love that Fred Durst appears on our list twice on different albums by different bands. The album really needed more bagpipes.
8.7/10
Album Art Ranking
Fits the music well, don’t love the art style. I do love the concept. Reminds me of “Where the Sidewalk Ends”
8.3/10
Music Ranking
Korn is a band that dares. I almost liken them to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Imagine Tchaikovsky waking up one morning and deciding, “I’m going to compose an overture — and I’m adding church bells and cannons.” And then actually doing it. And it's just working.
Korn has that same audacity. “Yes, we’re a metal band,” they seem to say, “but let’s add bagpipes.” And somehow, it just works.
Whether you call Korn metal or place them squarely in the nu-metal subgenre, their music feels timeless because it explores enduring themes: isolation, abuse, and uprising. These are emotional currents that don’t age.
Critics often dismiss metal as loud, harsh, or “not real music.” But I would challenge anyone making that claim to try playing the intricate guitar, bass, drum — or yes, bagpipe — sections themselves. I think the album is very musical.
It also says something that artists across genres were drawn into the project. Fellow nu-metal figure Fred Durst appears, alongside hip-hop artists like Ice Cube and Slimkid3. That kind of collaboration reflects their popularity, and cultural gravity.
6.2/10
Album Art Ranking
I have been drawn to this image of a child hopscotching away from the death and destruction behind into the unknown of the abyss. Powerful, beautiful, dark.
8.9/10