So yeah, Korn from Bakersfield. These guys have been around since ’93 and pretty much invented nu-metal, which is both a blessing and a curse depending on who you ask. By the time Issues rolled around in 1999, they were already riding high from Follow the Leader’s massive success, so expectations were through the roof. Jonathan Davis and the boys had established themselves as the kings of that heavy, groovy, bagpipe-infused sound that somehow worked way better than it had any right to.
Issues is basically Jonathan Davis taking you on a guided tour through his therapy sessions, except with crushing riffs and Fieldy’s ridiculous bass tone. The album opens with “Dead,” which is just Davis singing over bagpipes about wanting to be happy, real uplifting stuff to start with. But then “Falling Away from Me” kicks in and you remember why these guys were so massive. That track hit number 7 on the rock charts and it’s easy to see why, it’s got this creepy industrial vibe that perfectly captures that late 90s angst. “Make Me Bad” is another standout that shows Davis at his vocal peak, going from smooth to absolutely unhinged within the same verse. The guy had serious range when he wasn’t completely wasted.
The whole thing was produced by Brendan O’Brien, who somehow managed to make their chaos sound cohesive. You can actually listen to this thing front to back without wanting to skip tracks, which is saying something for a 16-song album. Songs like “Trash” and “Somebody Someone” keep the momentum going, and even the weird little interludes work within the context. It’s heavy as hell but also atmospheric in a way that their earlier stuff wasn’t quite pulling off yet.
Look, if you’re gonna check out one Korn album, this is probably it. Issues captures them at their creative peak before they started getting too experimental or too clean. It’s dark, it’s heavy, and it’s got enough hooks to keep you coming back even when you think you’ve outgrown nu-metal. Plus, it was their last truly essential release before things got a bit wobbly, so consider it the final word on classic Korn.