Issues

To avoid treading water Korn once again switched producers for their fourth album. With Issues producer Brendan O’Brien, best known for his work with Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Rage Against the Machine, helps to emphasize Korn’s latent but liquid sense of funk. The quieter rhythmic passages in “Somebody Someone,” “Wake Up,” and “Beg for Me” are even reminiscent of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. However the album is not defined by its groovy chops but by its crushing choruses. Issues delivers some of the band’s most furious chants to date, including “Trash” and “Let’s Get This Party Started.” Even better are “Falling Away from Me,” “Make Me Bad,” and “Counting,” which actually reveal hummable melodies under layers of down-tuned, corrosive sludge. The short interludes scattered throughout Issues are disposable, save for “Dead,” an abstract hymn tinged with bagpipes that serves as the perfect prelude to the band’s torrential expulsions.