Follow the Leader

One of the best albums to listen to if you have rage you need to release.

3.29

The Good: We get to pop some corn!
The Bad: We left it on the stove too long...
The Ugly: Following the smell of burned pop-corn...

What?

Yes!

At times I felt like I was listening to Linkin Park, or some such thing... it wasn't bad, it wasn't great...

I am also tired...

3*

Listened before? Yes?

Thoughts:
- I definitely had a nu-metal phase when I was maybe 11 or 12; probably because I wanted the boys in my class to think I was cool, lol. The Korn album I had at the time was "Issues" though. I couldn't tell you if it holds up better, because I haven't listened to it since then.
- I was actually having a good time for the first few tracks (Freak On A Leash basically sounds like a parody of itself, but that's fun at least). However, I think 3-4 Korn songs at a time is all I can handle.
- Worst of all is when Fred Durst shows up so they can call each other gay for 5 minutes because it's 1998 🙄
- It doesn't really get much better after that point.

I'd probably be pretty angsty too if every song I wrote was absolutely awful.

Follow the Leader by Korn is today’s listen and, unfortunately, this is exactly the type of metal that makes me think I don’t like metal.

It’s long, loud and incredibly boring. There’s plenty of aggression and noise, but very little underneath it that I could connect with. I kept waiting for a melody, a great riff or just something interesting to happen, but most of the album seemed to blur into the same unpleasant sound.

At over an hour long, this became a real endurance test. I know Korn and this album in particular were hugely influential on the nu metal sound, but it’s clearly not a sound for me. By the end, I was just relieved it was over.

An hour plus of my life I’m never getting back.

Favourite track: Couldn’t pick one.

Least favourite track: Take your pick. I struggled with every track.

Album artwork: Easily the best part of the album. Cool cover, shame about the music.

Rap parts are awful. Lyrics sound like they are written by (and for) an edgy 12 year old. Even the down-tuned metal-core riffs are unimaginative. I don't hate all nü metal but this sucks.

Just a bit off, especially that song where they call eachother slurs for 5 minutes straight. Embarrassing.

Homophobic slurs abound

🌽🌽

I bought this way back in probably 2001 or 2 and was so disappointed with it. I really liked Freak On A Leash back then but hated the rest of the album.

All these years later my opinion hasn’t changed really apart from I like FOAL a lot less now than I did then. Still like it enough for this to get two stars but I can near guarantee I will never listen to this album in full again.

I listened to this a long time ago and hated it. I was interested to see what I would think of Korn after so many years away, but this is honestly terrible. The riffs are incredibly basic, the mix is cheesy, the lyrics are cheesy, and the album is catastrophically long. There's almost nothing of the technicality and inventiveness that makes the best metal shine. In other words, its Nu metal.

0.5/5.0

decent music but i cant stand the growl scatting thing he tries to do. the first time it happens its interesting if a little weird and out of place. then it happens again and its just obnoxious. speaking of obnoxious id be remiss if i didnt mention the length. cut this in half and its decent 70 minutes is way too much

beach music

There’s loads of one star reviews being upvoted here, but there’s plenty to like on this album.

I personally like the weird and creepy guitar sounds that they have going on, and I’m fine with his manic vocal delivery and weird scat-thing. I like the big-sounding, swampy guitars. I like the unexpected Ice Cube collaboration, which works well and is an interesting clash of styles (the Fred Durst one has not aged well)! Mostly I really like the singles, Freak on a Leash and Got the Life, which I knew and liked already – but they’re proper tunes!

I will say, I found myself tuning out more as it went on; the tempo seemed to drop, with the quality dropping too. It felt overlong and outstayed its welcome.

Yeah….no. I was the perfect age for this when it came out. I hated it then. I do so even more now. Essential? Only thing essential about it is it wasted over an hour of my life. Revise this book. Update: the song with Fred Durst is truly the worst song I’ve ever heard.

A really rough listen. Just keeps going and just keeps getting worse.

‘What’s the best album ever?’
-Such a complex question and almost impossible to answer…. Do we mean most individually brilliant songs? Album as a coherent piece of art? The one I come back to most? The most universally loved? most influential to me personally? most influential to music itself? The one that moves me the most emotionally? The best musicianship? To be honest my answer probably changes by season, different stages of my life, my emotional state… I’d pick something different for a long drive vs late at night. How do you even compare a great jazz record to a great folk album, to legendary hip hop, to indie rock?

‘What’s the worst album ever?’
-Follow the Leader by Korn

Riffs are great.

I'm glad they regret some of the content of this album though because it is awful at times.

Deserves credit for putting nu metal on the map, whether you like it or not.

I like this every bit as much as I did when it came out. So much, even, that I would have sworn I was listening to it years before it actually came out. Seriously, why was I thinking this came out out in 94? Must have been the other KORN albums I was listening to at the time.

Anyway, hard, thrashy, angsty, fun bass guitar, and even the campy scatting have always just done it for me on this album. I haven't listened to this in probably 15 years, and I still know most of the lyrics and have the song order memorized. And I don't even like nu metal!

Really, my only criticism is it's about 15-20 minutes too long.

⭐⭐⭐⭐