Korn: video preview of new Reconciliation documentary
“I feel like I’m back from the dead," says guitarist Brian "Head" Welch, of his reconciliation with Korn and the experience of rejoining the band that he had split from in 2005. "I was content, living my life, doing new things, and suddenly the Korn thing came back into my life. I never thought that I would have that again. I was given a gift that I didn’t know I wanted. But I did, and to be back in the band is cool beyond words."
Korn's dynamic new album, The Paradigm Shift, is out today (October 8th), and it features the first studio recordings of the band lineup consisting of Welch, guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer, vocalist Jonathan Davis, bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu and drummer Ray Luzier.
Also out today with a purchase of the Deluxe Edition of the album is a new 60-minute documentary called, appropriately enough, Reconciliation, which details how the band came back together with Welch and the recording of The Paradigm Shift. On the following pages, MusicRadar premieres three preview clips from Reconciliation, and following that, Brian "Head" Welch discusses six songs from the 11-track The Paradigm Shift.
You can order The Paradigm Shift right here, and to purchase the Deluxe Edition, click here. For more information, visit the official Korn website.
Korn: video preview of new Reconciliation documentary
“Being back with Korn is sort of the same as it was, but obviously it's way, way better," Welch tells MusicRadar. "We’re excited to be doing this. I figured out that our flirting with the idea and talking about it, it just wasn’t the right time before. We had to get to the right point to be able to reconcile and make some new music. This year, it all came together."
Korn: video preview of new Reconciliation documentary
“The getting-to-know-you-again period between Munky and me wasn’t really difficult or awkward," Welch tells MusicRadar. "The first day, there might have been a little ice-breaking going on, but after a week, we’d be like, ‘Whaassuuppp?!’ when we’d see each other.
“Munky got better on the guitar, too. You could tell that he’s a clear-headed monster and is just ready to go for it. A lot of the things that he did on the album are my favorite guitars parts. He’s making me work harder. [Laughs] We really get on well together and complement each other. The things that he struggles with on the guitar, I make up for, and vice versa. It’s a team thing."
Love & Meth
“Munky and I are the moshpit metalhead guys in the band," says Welch. "This song came about in 2011, when I was in Nashville writing songs for the Love And Death record. I had a rough recording of it and was thinking of putting vocals on it, but it really wasn’t in my range. I saved it, kind of thinking that maybe some other band should use it, but when the Korn thing happened I said to Jonathan, ‘Hey, check this out…’
“He liked it right away, but we had so many songs that we didn’t know if it would fit. After doing a few tracks that went a little outside the normal Korn realm, we wanted something really heavy, so we asked Don to work on it with Jonathan. I remember him telling me after Jonathan did the vocal, ‘Man, you are gonna love what happened with Love & Meth!’ And I did – it was amazing.”
Prey For Me
“This was in the first batch of songs that we wrote, so it was pretty early in the game," says Welch. "To be honest, I wasn’t so crazy about it at first, but now it’s one of my favorites on the album. When the vocals happened and we worked out the breakdown section, it all came together. Now I totally love it.
“All of the band members minus Jonathan had input into the instrumental part of the song. The way the main riff went, the verses, the choruses – we worked really well on it. We clicked as a unit – I guess you could say the unity was there. But like I said, it wasn’t until I heard the vocals that I was like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty great!’ Jonathan did a brilliant job on it.”
Spike In My Veins
“Jonathan worked with these electronic artists, Noisia," says Welch, "and this is one of the tracks they came up with. Munky, Ray, Don Gilmore and I then worked on it. We rewrote the bridge and did a few other things, but this is really what Jonathan did with the Noisia guys. We just put our touch on it to some extent, but there it is. It's a killer track.”
What We Do
“Korn wrote some songs in 2010 and brought them to management," says Welch. "They said something like, ‘We don’t know if you should do these ones. Maybe you should go in another direction.’ So a few songs were put on hold for a while.
“What happened was, we put two of those songs together, and then I worked on them with Don Gilmore and they became What We Do. It’s one of my favorites. The vocals are killer, and the guitars do this crazy stop thing that’s just incredible. It’s got a lot of energy. I guess the lesson here is to never throw your old songs away. You never know what they can become."
Never Never
“This is another Jonathan song," says Welch. "When he started working with us, we’d already been doing some stuff for a while. He was coming off the medications that he’d been on for two years, so he was something of a wreck. It was hard getting him in the studio at first – he had so much anxiety.
“To get him going, Don Gilmore told him, ‘Hey, just to get started, maybe come in and try something upstairs.’ That's how Jonathan came up with Never Never. When we heard it, it was really electronic. I didn’t hear a lot of guitar stuff that I could do on it ‘cause I was looking for some moshpit metal stuff. The rest of the guys and I didn’t know if it was going to make the record.
“Jonathan said that he wanted to finish it, so when I was on tour with Love And Death, Munky and Ray laid down their tracks. We still didn’t know about it, though. But Jonathan and Don worked on the vocals, and that’s when it clicked – the tune really came around. Everybody fell in love with it at that point.”
Lullaby For A Sadist
“Jonathan used to play this acoustic thing since, like, ’94," says Welch. "We’d hear it and say, ‘Well, that’s nice, but it’s acoustic, so it’s not really Korn.’ All these years, he kept playing it. It’s another one of the songs that they threw down in 2010, and man, when I heard it, I was so happy they saved it. I wanted to work on it – again, everything in its time. Now was the right time for the song.
“I got to add some real creepy stuff to it, and with everything we did, it became a Korn song. It starts out acoustic and goes into a freaky weird section – it’s a great dichotomy."
