Riff Police! Pull Over! #72: KoRn Vs Pantera!

When it comes down to brass tacks, we are of the opinion that the freshly released KoRn album “The Nothing” is the most consistently good album they’ve put out since the first quartet of records. Outside of those first four, the Bakersfield Californian Nu-Metal pioneers have show glimpses of what they can do without quite managing to hit the nail on the head for the whole of an album. That’s why we chose to write a review for it – because most of the time we only review stuff that we think is good – and like bands such as In Flames for example, every other person will be letting you know there opinion on it, whether it’s good or not. One of the surprises of the album is how aggressive it is with driving brash riffs and Jonathan Davis offering a previously seldom used unclean vocal. One such song is “Idiosyncrasy” which is catchy and loaded with dark lyrics like “God is making fun of me” that points the finger at the sky around the death of his wife.

If you’ve read our review of the album, then you probably know what’s about to come next. Rolling Stone Magazine voted the Pantera classic “Vulgar Display of Power” as 10th on their list of “The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time” in 2017 and frankly so they should. It’s a masterpiece from start to finish, arguably created the Groove Metal sound and has received more critical acclaim than System Of A Down fans eat seeds as a pass time activity. If you listen to the opening riff salvo from “Idiosyncrasy” and don’t get “A New Level” from it then we’d be highly surprised. How could KoRn guitarist duo James “Monkey” Shaffer and Brian “Head” Welch not be influenced by it? They grew up with it appearing two years before the KoRn debut, the bands toured Ozzfest together and they’ve probably both played the riff a thousand times on those infamous All Star nights with jam bands playing covers at The Whiskey A Go-Go you read about. It’s a no brainer.