After a three-year hiatus recording their recent 'Untouchables' album (at a reported cost of $1million) Korn's return to the live arena has been hotly anticipated. We should be honoured that they've graced us with their presence in the UK, considering their reluctance to repay fans loyalty in the past. The nu-metal overlords with a reputation for uncompromising lyrics and, in Jonathan Davis, a distinctly unhinged frontman, have a fearsome reputation as a live force has much to live up to.
Before Korn, however, there is the little matter of Puddle of Mudd. Never, it seems, in the history of music has a band been so aptly titled: their sound mirroring their unimaginative moniker. A dull, colourless, pedestrian trudge through murky, standard issue US angst rock, watching their 45-minute support slot is rather like trying to walk waist high across a dense swamp in a pair of concrete waders. Please, someone stop Fred Durst signing any more bands. Immediately.
Korn's arrival is predictably greeted with wild pandemonium. Their backdrop is a huge video screen displaying slightly cliched horror B-movie imagery, all zombies and dead bodies, while the band themselves are kitted out in somber black attire and their trademark dreads. Davis cuts a dashing figure in a fetching gray sarong and with personnel all present and correct they launch into a crunching, shuddering riff.
As proceedings continue however Korn's limitations are exposed for all to see. For a band hitting the road for the first time in years they seem a little jaded and lacklustre. Davis rarely engages the crowd, only occasionally asking them to go crazy and jump about a bit. The band stays mainly static attempting an imposing and unemotional presence while Davis with his shock rock credentials and serial killer hobby is also decidedly tame.
'A.D.I.D.A.S', 'Freak On A Leash', and recent single 'Thoughtless' provoke mass moshing but thanks to the usual sports hall acoustics the sound gets bludgeoned to death. With their contemporaries opting for more lavish shows - Marilyn Manson's traveling, baroque goth-panto for instance - Korn's decision to keep it relatively minimal and rely on their video visuals leaves them low on spectacle and devoid of excitement.
Could the pampered millionaire lifestyles they now lead have finally robbed Korn of their once limitless appetite? No longer Untouchable on this form, just a bit Korny.
