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The Path of Totality

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Untitled

The Path of Totality is the tenth studio album by American nu metal band Korn, released on December 2, 2011 in Europe and December 6, 2011 in the US.[1] The album was produced by various dubstep, drum and bass, and electro house artists due to the band's desire to fuse their traditional sound with electronic elements. The lead single, "Get Up!", is one of three tracks produced by Skrillex, and was released as a digital download on May 6, 2011. "Narcissistic Cannibal" was released as the second single on October 18, 2011.

Regarding the album, vocalist Jonathan Davis stated: "I want to trail-blaze. I want to change things. I want to do things we're not supposed to do. I want to create art that's different and not conform to what's going on. We didn't make a dubstep album. We made a Korn album."[2] The album was made available for pre-order on Amazon and iTunes on October 21, 2011; as well as special bundle packages available on Korn.com.

Background

The album features production by Skrillex, Datsik, Feed Me, Excision, 12th Planet, Flinch, Downlink, Tylias, Kill the Noise, and Noisia. Datsik, Downlink, and Jim "Bud" Monti contributed to the mixing process.

The band recorded The Path of Totality with electronic producers back in Davis's home studio in Bakersfield during inspired sessions. It was revealed by Jonathan Davis that vocals were actually tracked in the singer's home theater or in closets and hotels everywhere from Korea to Japan.

Music and lyrical themes

The Path of Totality fuses Korn's traditional sound with dubstep music.[3] Korn collaborated with a number of producers for the album with each producing their own individual tracks. Roadrunner released the following statement:

The Path of Totality is unlike any previous Korn release; it's an experimental record which finds the band shifting gears and exploring new territory. For the record, Korn collaborated with some of the leading dubstep and electronic music producers in the world, including Skrillex, Excision, Datsik, Noisia, Kill the Noise, and 12th Planet. The result is something completely new, yet utterly and definitively Korn.[1]

Korn frontman Jonathan Davis describes the new album as "very well-rounded, with a mix of mellow, upbeat tracks; possibly the most well-proportioned Korn album of all time."

In a new biography on Roadrunner Records' official website, Jonathan Davis declares The Path of Totality as "future metal." "We're mixing metal and electro music, and you're not supposed to do that. Since day one, Korn has always been all about going against the grain, experimenting, and trying to take music different places."[4]

Album title and packaging

The album title was revealed as The Path of Totality. "The title The Path of Totality refers to the fact that in order to see the sun in a full solar eclipse, you must be in the exact right place in the exact right time," says Jonathan Davis, explaining the story behind the name. "That's how this album came together. I think all the producers feel the same way. I'm not sure it could ever happen again."

Munky stated; "I wanted to come up with a name that felt otherworldly," Shaffer explains. "A shadow is cast on the earth when a solar eclipse occurs. The moon has to be perfectly aligned with the sun to create this flawless shadow that completely covers the sun from the earth. Similarly, all of the producers and writers had to come together at the perfect time to cast these songs onto tape."

The album is a standard 11-track album, with the deluxe edition featuring extra songs and The Encounter as a bonus DVD. The bands website is also offering special pre-order packages that include a Path of Totality T-shirt and signed lithograph as well as the CD/DVD deluxe combo. Hot Topic is also offering a signed lithograph when you pre-order either the standard edition or deluxe edition, for a limited time.

Promotion

Korn will commence a world tour to promote the album named The Path of Totality Tour, which will also offer special VIP packages.[5][6] "Get Up!" was released as a promotional single, becoming a top ten hit on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs chart. The digital single has sold over 150,000 downloads in the US according to Nielsen SoundScan. A lyric video for the single was released on YouTube which accumulated over 3 million views and more than 35,000 likes. The second single, "Narcissistic Cannibal", was released to radio stations and digital music outlets on October 18 and October 24, respectively;[7] a music video was filmed in Hollywood by ShadowMachine (Moral Orel, Robot Chicken). Jonathan Davis plays a bonus track from the album titled "Tension", featuring Datsik, Downlink and Excision, during DJ events. A number of new songs have been added to the tour's setlist, including "Kill Mercy Within", "My Wall", and "Way Too Far". "Narcissistic Cannibal" leaked onto YouTube on October 11. It was later released for free download on Korn's official website as a WAV file. A lyric video was also released on both Korn's official YouTube channel and Roadrunner's channel as well. It has since accumulated more than 461,000 views and 6,200 likes. Hot Topic premiered a new track, "Sanctuary", on November 16. Roadrunner Records and Korn started streaming the album in full on December 1, as well as offering lead single "Get Up!" as a free download.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic49/100[8]
Review scores
SourceRating
Close-Up Magazine
Rock Sound
The List[9]
Rhythm Magazine[10]
Sputnikmusic[11]
BBC MusicMixed[12]
The New Review[13]
The Music Fix[14]
Allmusic[15]
NME[16]
The Skinny[17]
The A.V. Club[18]
Spin[19]

The album has received mixed reviews ranging from highly positive to strongly negative[8]. Swedish heavy rock magazine Close-Up gave the album an 8/10 rating, citing "[the band] has created an album with content just as dramatic and atmospheric as the title". Rock Sound also gave the album an 8/10 rating, remarking that "It may not be perfect, but Korn have thrown caution to the wind and set out an impressive template for a future sound, for a band doing that nearly 20 years into their career, they deserve your respect". They do note however that the album sounds "a little formulaic" and "monotonous" at times. Spin Magazine gave the album a 7/10, saying "Thing is, dubstep's slithering textures actually suit Davis' demented croon". Henry Northmore from The List gave the album a rating of 4/5 saying that "the purists (both metal and dubstep) will probably hate it, but if you are willing to have your brain assaulted from every direction by a new Frankensteinian metal/beats hybrid, you’ll find an album packed with pure adrenaline". Allmusic gave the album 4/5 saying that "despite all the electronics, there’s no mistaking The Path of Totality as a Korn album...and one of their better ones to boot". Revolver has named The Path of Totality album of the year in their 100th issue.[20]

On the other hand, Alistair Lawrence from BBC Music criticized the album saying that "once the novelty of the squelching, space-aged din they’ve birthed fades, what’s apparent is how little Korn have to say for themselves these days". Sputnikmusic strongly criticized the album giving it a score of 0.5/5 stating that "The Path Of Totality is a truly horrible album, built on a foundation of tired and overwrought stereotypes put together not by just a clueless band, but a bunch of equally confused artists who truly have no proper understanding of the genre they claim to be a part of". Mark Shukla from The Skinny has also given the album the lowest score 1/5, citing "filled to buggery with pointless robot noises and ultrahardcore WUB WUB WUB-iness, The Path of Totality finds Korn welding their own brand of tired miserabilism to aggro productions from the likes of Skrillex, Excision and Downlink". Jason Heller from The A.V. Club gave the album an 'F' stating: "To Korn’s credit, The Path Of Totality is its most radical reinvention to date. It’s also the worst slab of sludge it ever shat."

British music portal The Music Fix gave the album a 5/10 rating, saying that the album is "a pretty flat record with little going for it; the majority of the tracks blur into one another in a haze of over-zealous digital mimicry, and outside of the noted exceptions illicit little excitement or even variation". They note however that "the finale of Bleeding Out does a good job of trying to redeem this hodgepodge of an album". The New Review gave the album a 3.5/5 saying that "while The Path Of Totality is different from every other Korn album to date, I won’t go as far as saying it’s as “innovative” or “groundbreaking” as they want you to believe it is" noting however that "tracks like Chaos Lives In Everything, Kill Mercy Within, Narcissistic Cannibal, Burn The Obedient, Get Up and Way Too Far find the band (and fellow electronic cohorts) really hitting their stride and unleashing some of the coolest and most memorable tracks of their career". NME gave the album a 6/10 saying that it's "not quite a car crash, but a near miss" and jokingly asking: "What do you do when you’re 10 albums into your career, sliding down festival bills and trying to bury the tag of creators of a genre you now despise? If you’re Korn, you Google ‘2011 music’ and rope in a bunch of DJs for a ‘dubstep’ album, of course".

Track listing

Standard album [21]
No.TitleProducer(s)Length
1."Chaos Lives in Everything"Skrillex, Jim Monti (add.)3:47
2."Kill Mercy Within"Noisia, Jim Monti (co.)3:35
3."My Wall"Excision, Jim Monti (co.), Downlink (add.)2:55
4."Narcissistic Cannibal"Skrillex, Jim Monti (add.), Kill the Noise (add.)3:11
5."Illuminati"Excision, Downlink, Jim Monti (co.)3:17
6."Burn the Obedient"Noisia, Jim Monti (co.), Tylias (add.),2:38
7."Sanctuary"Downlink, J Devil (co.), Jim Monti (co.)3:24
8."Let's Go"Noisia, Jim Monti (co.)2:41
9."Get Up!"Skrillex, Jim Monti (co.)3:43
10."Way Too Far"12th Planet, Flinch, Downlink (co.), Jim Monti (co.)3:49
11."Bleeding Out"Jon Gooch, Jim Monti (co.)4:50
Total length:37:51
Special edition
No.TitleProducer(s)Length
12."Fuels the Comedy"Kill the Noise, Jim Monti (co.)2:49
13."Tension"Excision, Datsik, Downlink, Jim Monti (co.)3:57
Total length:44:37
  • (co.) denotes co-producer
  • (add.) denotes additional production
  • The special edition DVD will feature the complete Korn Live: The Encounter performance.

Chart performance

The album sold 55,000 copies in its first week to debut at number 10 on the Billboard 200,[22] making it Korn's eleventh album to debut within the top 10.

Charts

Personnel

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Korn

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Production and additional music

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Other credits

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References

  1. ^ a b c "Korn To Release New Album "The Path Of Totality" December 6". Roadrunner Records. 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  2. ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/artists/Korn/
  3. ^ http://www.nme.com/news/korn/60697
  4. ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/artists/Korn/
  5. ^ http://www.korn.com/news/47591
  6. ^ http://www.korn.com/news/47743
  7. ^ "Today's Dirt". HardDrive Radio. 2011-09-14. Retrieved 2011-09-14.
  8. ^ a b http://www.metacritic.com/music/the-path-of-totality
  9. ^ http://www.list.co.uk/article/38914-korn-the-path-of-totality/
  10. ^ http://www.kornspace.com/main/comment.php?comment.news.3830
  11. ^ http://sputnikmusic.com/review/46804/Korn-The-Path-of-Totality/
  12. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/8qd3
  13. ^ http://thenewreview.net/reviews/korn-the-path-of-totality/comment-page-1
  14. ^ http://www.themusicfix.co.uk/content/review/16084/korn.html
  15. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-path-of-totality-r2311367/review
  16. ^ http://www.nme.com/reviews/korn/12520
  17. ^ http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/reviews/albums/300704-korn_path_totality
  18. ^ http://www.avclub.com/articles/korn-the-path-of-totality,66406/
  19. ^ http://www.spin.com/reviews/korn-path-totality-roadrunner
  20. ^ http://www.revolvermag.com/news/exclusive-interview-korn-frontman-jonathan-davis-on-revolvers-album-of-the-year-the-path-of-totality.html
  21. ^ "Korn - Path of Totality". Amazon.com. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  22. ^ http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart-watch/week-ending-dec-11-2011-albums-naughty-nice-144905472.html
  23. ^ "australian-charts.com - Australian charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
  24. ^ "dutchcharts.nl - Dutch charts portal" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-12-09.
  25. ^ "charts.org.nz - New Zealand charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  26. ^ http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp?interpret=Korn&titel=The+Path+Of+Totality&cat=a
  27. ^ "Korn Album & Song Chart History". Billboard. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  28. ^ "Chart Highlights: Hot Chelle Rae Heats Up Adult Pop Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. December 12, 2011. Retrieved December 13, 2011.
  29. ^ "Korn Album & Song Chart History". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
  30. ^ "Archive Chart: 17th December 2011". The Official Charts Company. 2011-12-17. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
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