On November 16, 1999, Korn's fourth album, "Issues", was released, the album in which everyone was "clear". So here are some interesting stories about the album that celebrates its birthday today...
Strong lyrics as always
After the insane success of the third album "Follow the Leader", the band was considered one of the leading bands when the Nu-Metal genre, began to erupt in the US and around the world. Jonathan Davis like the rest of the band had a crazy life of drugs, alcohol, parties, sex, and total insanity. At that time Davis' first son Nathan was born and he married three years later. So he decided to pull himself together and went to rehab, believing it would clear out all his paranoias, but the opposite have happened. Davis was afraid to get out of bed and felt that the whole world was sitting on his shoulders. In addition, he developed existential anxieties and anxiety about bacteria. He refrained from eating because he was afraid of bacteria in food and lost a lot of weight. It was even difficult to take the pills due to fear of bacteria or toxins in the pills. He was also afraid that the pills will impair his ability to write or sing. Finally, he relented, and indeed the use of pills affected him for the better and he felt more positive. That is why the first sentence that opens the album is: "All I want in life is to be happy ". Davis released everything he experienced before rehab on the album.
The role of the educator
As they gathered for the work on the album, all the band members decided that this time they needed to change the form of the work and act differently from the previous albums. This time they wanted to work neatly, and professionally without the distractions of sex, drugs, and alcohol. To that end, they enlisted producer Brendan O'Brien who was known for his rigid and thorough form of work. Davis said they wanted Brendan because they knew he would not let them go wild and crazy like what happened during recordings on previous albums. Although the industry has raised an eyebrow at the combination of the grunge and hard rock producer with the rejected metal quirks, the combination has proven to be a winner both in the work on the album and in the result.
(Photo: Robin Platzer)
Musical characteristics
Work on the album began in early 1999, when Munky, Head, Fieldy, and drummer David Silveria began writing the music for the album. By June they had already finished writing more than 15 songs and enlisted Davis to work on the final product. A month later they had already started recording with O'Brien. It took only three months to complete the recordings that took place at A&M Studios in Hollywood. The band members said they wanted to get to a simpler but fuller sound, riffs, and heavier groove than the previous two albums. In addition, they also wanted to achieve a more powerful melody in Davis' singing that was reflected in higher abilities than previous albums.
The iconic doll
In order to create the album cover, the band, in collaboration with MTV, launched a campaign to design
the album cover by the band's fans. MTV published and produced the competition in which the band's fans were invited to create an original album cover and send it to the band. The final cover that won the contest was Alfredo Carlos's famous doll. He designed the cover that will become one of the band's famous icons. In addition to Alfredo's work, 3 other covers were chosen that came out in different versions of the album.
End of continuity
This is the band's first album that does not hold a hidden track at the end, instead, at the end of the
album after the song "Dirty" there is a static silence of more than four minutes, which finally ends with nothing.
Another interesting thing is the link to the previous album. The music video for the first single from the album "Falling Away From Me" which was an insane success and played non-stop on MTV, begins where the music video "Freak on a Leash," from the previous album ends. The music video opens with the same animation in which the clip from the previous album ends.
Listen to the album on: Spotify, Apple Music