The Paradigm Shift

The Paradigm Shift is a fulfilling work on which Korn, around low, undulating guitar, bouncing rhythm and nervous vocal expression, powerfully regained the band’s own uneasy groove. It is a record that drew great attention for the official return of the founding guitarist Brian “Head” Welch, who had been away from the band for years. The songs are certainly heavy, yet the deft spaces of the riffs and the distinctive shading of the melody always firmly keep the tension. A powerful record on which the twin guitars returned. From the aggression of the opener “Prey for Me” and the painful popular “Love & Meth” to a cut like “Spike in My Veins,” every song is engaging, while cuts like “Never Never” and “What We Do” convey the work’s fullness. Jonathan Davis’s emotional singing and the twin-guitar interplay by Head and Munky powerfully revive. A record on which, while firmly digesting the dubstep-like experimental elements of the previous work, its sound is thoroughly modern, thick and powerful. It powerfully sounds both the sure groove that stays in the body and the instability that stays in the heart at once. An engaging record of Korn adorning the great milestone of Head’s return — a record where the band’s reunion shines.