Jeez this album kicks ass. Rocked the hell out of this in high school. The experimentation and funk mixed with the dark theme in the songs is the best Korn imo. They do it so well.
Yes, the funk and groove on Issues is amazing, I think it's their grooviest album yet but still somehow so dark at the same time. I loved how they fused everything together.
Honestly Issues is such an underrated album. I love their performance for the premiere of the album at the Apollo theatre. Such a brilliant performance. Also fun fact: Fred Durst directed the music video for Falling Away From Me
As a long time Korn fan, I can tell you this is peak Korn. The first two were very raw, which is good. The third was commercially successful. But Issues is what Korn does best, and I wish they would return to this kind of Jazz-Funk-NuMetal.
Definitely one of their strongest and most memorable albums for sure. Vocalist Jonathan Davis has said that he feels this is the Korn album where he finally found his voice. Very eager to see your reaction to the next album, Untouchables, another great album.
I'm not surprised Dirty was your favorite one, I feel like it sums up the whole album pretty well. Somebody Someone is the heaviest sound-wise, this album may not be as raw as previous albums and heavy hitting with the riffs, but the whole theme and lyrics is what makes it very dark. Have fun listening to Untouchables!
Been loving this journey of yours and how you present your reviews/reactions. By doing an entire catalogue by each band, and doing full albums, provides a really unique perspective. Your approach seems genuinely curious and your feedback is fantastic. I've loved many of these bands for 20+ years and really enjoy seeing them be "discovered" in this way. Keep it up and I hope for long success with your channel!
Thank you!!! I really appreciate the kind words, and glad you're enjoying the videos. I absolutely love discovering new music and bands, I'm glad that my curiosity and enthusiasm I have for music is translating in these reactions. I'm having a blast making them!
This is Korn's peak imo. The production and the songwriting is top tier. Even the interludes are great - 4U was Jonathan Davis's wife's favourite Korn song and they played it live after she passed away in 2018.
The lyrics are "You will never know what I've done for you. What you put me through. I do it for you." Here's my thoughts on the song.... Jonathan has been through ALOT of shit in his life. Alot of heartache. Lot of tragedy. When he let's it out, it's hard, but it's therapeutic in a way. It's hard for him to get it out, but it helps the listeners and helps the fans that have dealt with the same issues (no pun intended) as him. It's painful, constantly reliving the same pain over and over, but he does it for the fans. That's my thought of it at least.
imo their BEST album. its such a trip, and i love the little interludes, instrumentals, i think they work so well and Dirty is one of their most cathartic and intense songs to end an album with
This is Korn's best album, in my opinion. Because it flows perfectly. It's like a heavy/angst-filled Dark Side of the Moon at times. It begins with "All I want in life is to be happy" and ends with "I just want to laugh again", which only makes it more melancholy. The static at the end does kinda flow nicely into the beginning of their next and most experimental album "Untouchables".
You're totally right on the jazz elements on this record, this is korn bringing nu metal to the ball room and it works so well with their electronic elements sprinkled in and their use of start stop syncopation to their riffs.
Once time again, I was about to go bed lmao. Here we go again, sleep will be delayed for another 20 minutes! Edit: Done!, excellent analysis as always. As you mentioned this album in particular has a very eerie atmosphere to it and lots of J.Davis whispering. I love it and it gets better each time you listen to it. About the songs, it may be considered the most commercial of all in the record, but my favorite is Make me Bad, it just has a perfect flow and catchiness.
make me bad and dirty are by far my favorite songs from this album, although i grew up with korn and this has ALWAYS been my favorite album of theirs, there’s just this vibe to it that i literally can’t properly explain that’s addicting, love hearing your thoughts ! you’re very well spoken, great video :)
Heya Molly! Very glad you got to this one fast as well. BTW 4U was Jonathan Davis' wife Devon's favorite song. She passed away in 2018. 2 months after that Korn returns to the stage for the first time since she passed and 4U was on the setlist. It was a very sad but great performance. It is on RU-vid and you must give it a view for sure. Also when you get to your first listen of the album The Nothing that is what the album is mainly dealing with. His loss of her. Take care!
This album was about Jon's sobriety. He quit everything cold turkey after he almost died on the follow the leader tour. This is the last album of korn for the early years. Untouchables is like the first album for the 2000s korn.
It's a beast of a track. What always gets me is that heavy ending right after the more melodic bridge, where Jonathan just starts yelling the vocals. Just a total release of energy.
Another flawless analysis! The thing I enjoy most about your work is that you truly rate each album on its own yet still compare it to other work of Korn's at the same time. This is definitely a different type of Korn album, but still Korn and still tremendous! Looking forward to more of your videos!
Thanks, glad you liked the reaction! Issues is certainly different, I really loved it though and I can say that it's been growing on me even more since doing my reaction to it.
This album got me through so many dark times in my life growing up. It was my antidrug for the chaos around me in many ways. Dirty is definitely one of my absolute favorites, but it's really hard to pick from this album because there are so many great tracks. Counting definitely has a rawness to it, and Beg for Me probably some of the punchiest drums on there. Was worth staying up to watch your review, thanks for keeping it going!
While 2019's The Nothing has recently narrowly overtaken Issues as my favourite KoRn album (and in fact my favourite heavy album ever tied with Metallica's black album) for an album experience as a whole, this album has been a huge part of my life for the last year and will continue to be. KoRn show themselves to be both master musicians and master songwriters on this record, as well as having the vision to make a cohesive artwork with the downbeat transition tracks and thematic condistency. It takes the refined sound of Follow the Leader and throws in the no risks approach of their first two records. Everything is more varied, the songs which feature gentle high pitched instrumentals (Falling, Make me Bad) can be so emotional, the songs with rolling percussion are so dynamic (Make me bad, No way), and every single chorus is catchy and impactful. Dirty is an incredible closer, I find it as moving and brutal as Daddy but more listenable (shorter and less actual crying), and I would not argue with anyone that told me Falling Away From Me is the greatest song ever written. I just want to reiterate that even though I ever so slightly prefer The Nothing, Issues is still a top fifteen album for me and is absolutely perfect and unfuckwithable. It can't be glossed over that both those records are very important mental health albums for a lot of people. Goddamn I love this record. Goddamn I love KoRn.
Thank you for the comment, loved reading your thoughts! What you said about how Issues takes the all out nature of their first albums with the polish and refinement of Follow The Leader is spot on, Issues is like a perfect blend of those two sounds with a splash of something new added. I can't believe how jazzy and groovy it is but still so heavy too, and of course it's very dark thematically. Dirty as the closing track is such a powerhouse to end it with too, my favorite track from the whole album.
I have lost touch with what Korn is up to now, guess I just got older and listen to less music now, but this album was my favorite Korn album, and definitely in my top 10 metal albums. The album plays on the struggles of substance abuse, something Rock and Roll is not a stranger to. And something Gen-X has had a bit of a problem with. A lot of bands took this angle. And a lot of great musicians were lost to this. But it's all the same theme. And for those who have had their own struggles with substance abuse, it speaks to them. I have been to enough rehabs and 12 step meetings to know. Known many addicts, ones who could solve their problem, and ones who sadly couldn't. This is Gen-X's dark side, we are not so proud of it, but those who did the 'sober' thing back in the day know.
I just want to thank you for diving into nu metal of all metal genres in particular, it gets so much hate from the community that sometimes it feels like it should be the worst thing ever (which it is not). Korn is one of my favorite bands of all time so hearing your thoughts on anything Korn related is so enjoyable to watch, oh and your intro is super cute.
This is my 2nd most favourite KoЯn album. I like the creepy and whispering vocals combined with the dark lyrical themes. Also the instrumentals are really dynamic and filled with various effects. This is an excellent concept album. But I think Untouchables does this even better, that's why it's my most favourite KoЯn record.
Aw thank you! Glad you enjoyed the video. I've seen some live videos of Korn performing on RU-vid (I know it's not even close to actually being there) but they are indeed incredible. Maybe one day I'll see them live too!
There is so much you can say about Issues that I dont even know where to start. Korn was massive at this point in 1999, Follow the Leader was a huge success, and I mean huge, Backstreet Boys/Britney Spears huge; MTV, VH1, Much Music did several one hour Korn special, then it came Korn's iconic Woodstock 99 performance (where they actually premiered 2 Issue's songs) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4ECISjA0Uqc.html and they follow up that with Issues... and everybody was caught by surprise. First, Issues wasnt as advertised as you might imagine it would be, and then the record got very mixed reviews at the beginning and ended up alienating a lot of the new fanbase that they got from Follow the Leader, to the point that a lot of people abandoned the band to some degree (Linkin Park was getting massive at the time so a lot of people hungry for more of the hip hop metal thing went with them), at least until Untouchables came out. It was called inconsistent (which i agree to be honest), rushed, uninspired, unnecessarily dark (i dont know whats that supposed to mean), a let down in quality. It was strange not only by the content but by the circumstances. Issues is very dark, is basically another genre, while Follow the Leader is the quintessential Nu metal album, Issues is a Hardcore/Alternative metal to the likes of Biohazard and even Anthrax, with the unique Korn twist to it, so that broke a lot of people's expectations of what a follow up to Follow the Leader had to be. Although Jamiroquai and Red Hot Chili Peppers were huge back then, this album introduced a lot of people to groovy sections, very funky ensembles and, as you said, a jazzy sound here and there. That was the first exposure to those sounds for a lot of teens of that era (not to me tho), who for whatever reason only constrained themselves to metal. The funky parts are so important than in 2007 Davis when into a solo tour which was... funky covers of Korn, this is the version of Hey Daddy of that tour, you will love it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8RgWJA6b4NM.html this cover is such a testament of the actual sensibilities of Davis and the rest of the band that it is incredible those sensibilities didnt surface before Issues. On the content side, which incredibly enough is even more relevant, this was the first record after Davis went sober, but the withdrawal effect was so powerful Davis when into anxiety attack episodes and he was in a very dark place, that of course originated with his very traumatic childhood ('fatherhood' is a theme in all albums for a reason), so they clearly abandoned the "cool" hip hop rooted sounds for more honest ones, to the point that Issues is comparable to Grunge albums like In Utero from Nirvana and Dirt from Alice In Chains of how honest, raw and alternative they were. Issues is the actual Korn sound, no filter, no hip hop (not that there is something wrong with it), not even the first album is this raw because that album is pure anger, but Davis wasnt enraged, he was depressed, he didnt know that until Issues, and you will discover that moving forward the experiments they did on Issues are actually expanded again and again in the following records, more often than not unsuccessfully if im frank with you, I think Korn went downhill from here (which isnt surprising because this is their highest point). This in turn made Issues their more mature album even to this day. There is a lot of confessional themes in the lyrics, not only in term of openness but in terms of taking responsibility of one's actions and being honest to ourselves. Both lyrics and music where written (according to Davis himself) to vent his anxiety and depression, that is why is no longer aggressive in the sense of speed, but just dark and low and even weird. I actually commented in a previous video that Issues is, by far, the album from Korn that has aged the best. The first three albums are pretty much from their era, and thats fine, but Issues is modern for today's standards both lyrically and musically. This became the most important album to me: i did get the experimental side of it when it was released (the album was successful, it just wasnt as big as the previous ones), but i was 15 years back then, all the subtext (both lyrical and musical) was missing until... i grew up and lived my own problems and found myself in a similar place than Davis did but in my case it came almost 12 years after the release of the album. It was just then that a lot of the album clicked with me and i discovered a huge space to reflect and to think with these songs. Thrash, Hey Daddy, Dirty, Make Me bad; Somebody, Someone just hit different and now they are part of a core of my life experience i way it couldnt be possible in 1999. It was like Korn (the whole band) said: hey, this album will be here when you need it, maybe thats not now, but it will be here for you. It is kind of a cliché at this point to say this about anything, but Issues was indeed ahead of its time for metal, and that doenst mean perfect (as I said, i think the album is a bit inconsistent due its experimental nature), it means it was speaking for their present and the future of their fan base. After 23 years since its launch and 10 albums later, Issues is still Korn's highest point. Their first is their best for a lot of reasons, but Issues is their most atemporal and transcendental one. It will never sound like an album of a bygone era. Im so glad you are doing this channel, not only because you picked up a lot of the cues from this album in particular, but because it is amazing I can share with a completely different generation what I thought is a very personal experience that to some degree was lost in time. I was looking forward for this because this is one of the most important albums of my life. Keep it up and take care.
THANK YOU! I loved reading this comment, you gave me some really insightful info on this album and the headspace of the band around when they released Issues. I love the funkiness and groove Korn implemented in their sound on this one (that version of Hey Daddy is great!), although I can see why it might have been a turnoff for fans of their more nu metal, hip hop style from Follow The Leader. You said it really well, how Issues is an album that ages beautifully due to its experimental style and the fact that it doesn't really fit one genre. For that reason it does have a modern edge to it, despite being over 20 years old. Definitely their most modern sounding record of the four I've heard so far. Thanks again for taking the time to write this and share your thoughts, I can't tell you how much I appreciate each and every comment I get from all of you on these amazing bands and records. :)
I'm so happy you loved Dirty. By far my favourite Korn song. so heavy, so melodic, so creative. I love it's the last song on the album therefore only real fans know it well. It's almost like a special gift from the band to the real ones.
You should check out their newest album “requiem” its really cool too hear how Jonathan Davis was able to preserve his voice unlike other metal artists like Manson.
You’ve almost reached the end of Korns classic era! Great reaction! Untouchables is the last classic Korn album in my opinion. The best way to describe it is a major wall of sound. It’s great and I’d totally react to it!
Love this album. This one and Untouchables are easily my favourites. This is the album where Jonathon first showed that he can really fucking sing. Some of his vocals are incredible on this one. I’ve always liked my aggression to be balanced with melody rather than a constant bombardment.
Issues is a really solid departure from their prior stuff, really has held up nicely over time. I always thought the extra effects in the production fit Korn like a glove and helped diffuse their sound so it didn't sound so muddy. Oddly - I probably listened to Issues more than any other Korn album but I definitely wouldn't have considered it my favorite for some reason. Glad you enjoyed it, appreciate the observations and insights ✌️
Yep I agree, I love the added effects and electronic touches on the production of this one. I wouldn't have thought I would have enjoyed it as much as I did, but it pairs really well with their heavier sound.
There's such a dark swagger to Trash's instrumentals that I've always been fascinated by. The boom-bap drums on the verses that you'd hear in a 90's east coast hip-hop song. They were/are so innovative when it comes to their sound.
Follow The Leader и Issues определенно лучшие альбомы в дискографии за все время существования группы и так же круты даже в нынешнее время,просто два идеальных альбома где нет ни одного слабого трека,альбомы после 2013го тоже весьма неплохие но повторить успех тех двух будет очень очень сложно,группа не стоит на месте и постоянно экспериментирует даже сейчас,одни из лучших в своем жанре далеко не каждая группа может выдать очень сильную дискографию из 14 альбомов,да есть неудачные моменты но их очень очень немного да и спустя время оно не становится хуже что вообще замечательно,ожидаю обзор на See You On The Other Side
Next 2 albums are good then your gonna want to skip a few, start again at the path of totality or paradigm shift. Can’t wait till you get to 2016’s The Serenity of Suffering which is in my opinion Korn’s best album and one of the heaviest with some unbelievable tracks🤘🔥. As a long time Korn fan since 96 I actually burst into tears of joy when I heard that album, I knew right then they were truly back and firing on all cylinders.
The best songs on Issues are Trash, Somebody Someone & Dirty. It's pretty much their Wall [ref Pink Floyd]. It was definitely more of a grower on me when it was first released but over time it actually provided much more replay-ability than some other albums such as Follow The Leader,
Issues was honestly the best and my favorite album from Korn. It was truly when they matured their sound and messaging. This was also during the period of time where the singer and stepped away from alcohol and drugs. A lot of great lines in this album but from Dirty "I feel so bad inside. I wish you could see the world through my eyes", this is probably peak depressive thoughts.
I like this format of album reaction. Got me to sub! Personal opinion. A lot of korn songs have parts that cement the memory of the song, for example falling away from me, I can relate to this song way too much if you understand the meaning. But there's a part where he says. "Twisting me they won't go away so I pray go away" you can just barely hear a flange vocal and it's so powerful and emotional
Nice review, I love to watch your Korn reaction series I always drop what I do and react to your video. I cant wait for your next review on there next record (untouchables), I’m also very exited for a review on my favorite album by them (see you on the other side). And I’ve seen people really hate this album and it’s more pop like sound, but I think you should react to it, it has some nice hits like (twisted transistor) (Hypocrites) (coming undone) and (liar) it also has not as good tracks that get old when you listen to it but in the end I love every song on it.
Glad you're enjoying the Korn videos so much! I'm loving their music, all of their albums have brought something new to the table which I love. Can't wait to hear Untouchables and See You On The Other Side now :)
"Issues" is easily my favorite Korn album. A little bit of nostalgia, I'll admit, but it's always good to see someone vibing with it. Such a great band, and as someone mentioned earlier, can't wait to see you react to "The Nothing," an incredible album that is "Issues" reborn in my humble opinion. Can't wait.
Never in my life did I ever fathom I would sneak out of middle school…but I did for this album. It had 4 distinct covers. I wanted them all. Shout out to the guy at Best Buy that stole a copy of Rogue Squadron to give to me because he was super pumped I wanted to hear the new Korn album.
Loving all these reviews. When Korn dropped this album. It was the biggest thing. #1 video on trl and they were buzzing everywhere. Hilarious reaction to Hey Daddy 😂
I remember getting an early copy of this album and passing it around to all my friends. It wasn't as popular as Follow the Leader, but I really liked the darker tone, the boost in melodic structure, and what I viewed at the time as gothic textures. May I recommend Alice In Chains' self-titled? That or the album Dirt. Heavy, dark, weird... you know, the good stuff.
Fun fact and one huge Korn fans from 99 will remember because we were planted in front of the TV...... Falling Away from me, the lead single, was premiered on an episode of Scooby Doo...... There was an advertisement with a snippet of the song and I can remember how hyped my friends and I were...... It did not disappoint. Also, even though I loved issues on release, it was my least favorite of their 4 albums....... Life is peachy was tops for me... . Oddly, issues has aged the best while peachy didn't seem to age so well and became my least favorite of their first 4.
My top 7 From Issues 1. Falling away from me 2. Trash 3. Dead 4. Hey Daddy 5. Make me bad 6. Wake up 7. 4U when i do something I always hear this album first before the rest becuase is so awesome
Issues is amazing, it was the start of a big change for the sound of the band, but man oh man, I can’t wait for you to get to the next album, untouchables.
@@BreakingNVain Take a look in the mirror has great hook melodies and heavy riffs, but untouchables was the most creative album for me. It started going all downhill from there, so yeah, I think Untouchables was def their magnum opus.
@@mollyesanborn My only gripe with the album is that there’s so much going on instrumentality, so it would be hard to hear everything on a first listen, good luck, been loving the series.
To this very day, every time I see the video for "Falling Away From Me", the tears just roll. Thanks for the reaction, Molly!! I was 23 and living in downtown Chicago when this album came out. Man I am getting old. 😋
Havent heard this one in years. Probably my favourite Korn album still. Would love to see you react to Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins. One of the best albums of the 90s with an amazing guitar tone.
My first KoЯn album I've listened till the end. Dark and depressive, just as I like it. Looking forward to your review of Untouchables album 😉 Hope you 'll enjoy it, great work as well!
Great video once again My all time favorite song from Korn Is No Way Love JD delivery on the chorus Everyone always say that Issues Is their magnums opus And I can't really disagree
Oh nice, NIN is my favorite band too! And yes, Issues is a really great record. I pick up on more and more that I appreciate about it with each listen.
This is probably top tier Korn - I think there’s songs they’ve made since this album which are better but as an overall album - hard to top this album imo
@@mollyesanborn Sadly I gotta say, that after Untouchables it starts to go down hill a few years until The Paradigm Shift. Bandmembers left and they became a bit confused and stall, IMO
Nov 16th 1999 is the date we got this in the UK. I preordered it with all the bonus stuff like posters and bits and bobs. The Radio 1 Rock Show debuted Trash a while before the album came out and taped it...I counted my listens in the first day on my walkman...43! I went through a couple of sets of batteries with all the rewinding. Then Wake Up was released on a Kerrang CD and was amazing. I remember collecting the album and then listening to it on my CD walkman on the bus on the way to college. It was amazing but such a change for Korn, although I do absolutley love it. I had this record and Slipknot to fight for the place in the CD player at the time though. It was a hard battle. Its a wonderful album and with Jon playing drums on lots of it, its so different to what had come before it. Seeing them on the Issues tour in May 2000 at Wembley Arena was incredible...and loud as it set the record at the time for the loudest indoor show. I have all 5 covers and also a Whitfield Mastering Studios pre-release promo that I got in 2003 (there are only 100 of them!). Korn are the best band ever and this record is such a wonderful part of their catalogue.
They played this entire album live on the radio from NYC - I taped it and listened to it all month. Korn is the first band to at really hooked me with how eclectic and bizarre they were. I have a Korn tattoo now and got to meet them a couple of times - incredible.
This is one of my all time favorite albums. Every band member combines to make this amazing and unique atmosphere that still stands up more than 20 years later. I love playing this at night.
This was the album I heard as a teen that made me fall in love with the band, along with initially being introduced to them when I read Spawn comics. McFarlane & Korn collaborated on projects together and I thought it was a match made in heaven.
Your comparison with Massive Attack is something I never encountered or thought about but it makes so much sense. Mezzanine was out just before this album came out and took the world by storm... it might have something to do about the atmosphere on Issues. I know Munky is a fan of that album. Amazing videos keep it up!
That does make a lot of sense, there is such a strong atmospheric/electronic undercurrent to Issues. Maybe it was the direction a lot of artists were going in around that time period.
Untouchables took me a couple of years to get into as Issues had such a profound effect on me. But the untouchables album closure “no one’s there” is perfect!
"Everyone's got Issues" "Do you?" It was the words that appeared in the trailer while the hanging lights box/room scene from the Falling Away From Me video was in the background, with that mysterious and dark atmosphere that the song has. When you released "Follow The Leader" I told you that the JD voices on this album were on a totally different level, later similar or equally unique things would be heard in their productions, but never something same. Guess, the next album is another change of sound and style. It's a little more aggressive and heavy like the first albums, but now the electronic arrangements take on a greater role. In Untouchables there are songs with more futuristic synthesizers and guitar effects (All Issues songs lag behind in this sense) but it also has experimental things (You will remember a lot of this when you listen to Hollow Life) And also returns a characteristic of Korn that was present in the first 3 albums but was missing in Issues. I am very, very intrigued by how you are going to react to the "BALLAD" called Alone I Break, where the guitars are not aggressive but clean, with the drama of JD's voice, and an *ORCHESTRA* accompanying this very different song. I really like your videos, keep it up :D P.D: I didn't think your favorite would be Dirty, I saw you more in the style of singles like Falling Away From Me, Make me Bad or Somebody Someone, lol.
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to hearing the sound that they're going to embrace on Untouchables. And I love going into these album reactions with no knowledge of what tracks are considered the popular ones, it's always interesting to see which ones end up being my favorites.
Favorite Korn Album. Great job. I was also listening to RATM-Battle of Los Angeles, Incubus-Make Yourself, and Beck-Midnite Vultures. Please get to those and I will watch. Fun revisiting these records with you.
Awesome review as always! I'm curious to see how you like untouchables, as (not to spoil it too much) it takes a pretty large shift in sound, similar to this album. Much darker lyric tones and lots of heavy tracks. While their first three albums are 10/10, untouchables and issues stand as my favorite albums!