BLIND KORN (1994)
With detuned seven-string guitars and a hip-hop influence in the mix, the boys from Bakersfield delivered the big bang of nu-metal
hen Californian nu-metal pioneers Korn released Blind as their debut single in 1994, they were well aware they’d created something bold, powerful and new. That said, even by their own admission, they had no idea it would start a whole movement of heavy bands from the mid-90s onwards. And a sizeable amount of that sonic originality could be attributed to the instruments in the hands of guitarists James ‘Munky’ Shaffer and Brian ‘Head’ Welch – the very same Ibanez Universe seven-strings which had been co-designed by Steve Vai a few years prior, although rarely seen outside of the world of shredders.
As Munky put it, Blind “hit people over the head with the sound of detuned seven-string guitars” in a way that was “like nothing they’d ever heard before”. But it needed the right introduction – the kind of thing that would have first-time listeners perched nervously on the edge of their seats, drowning in the all-encompassing suspense and unable to process what might be coming next. “I specifically remember we wanted listeners to be really taken off by starting really small,” Munky revealed. “So, we thought let’s start really unusual with the ride cymbal. Who starts a song with the ride cymbal?”
Then there’s that scratchy D tritone chord that Munky repeats, with Head and bassist Reginald ‘Fieldy’ Arvizu responding in due course with their own individual lines. It’s a musical conversation that takes the listener right into the band’s sweaty practice room – like front row seats to witness a song coming to life. “There’s that dissonant chord I do,” Munky explained, “which is some D diminished whatever, played through an old Silvertone amplifier that was built into a case. By the time Jonathan [Davis] sings, ‘Are you ready?’, you’re gonna get clobbered by this arsenal of giant guitars!”
Clobbered is certainly the right word for it. With their Dimarzio-equipped Ibanez seven-strings tuned an extra step down to ADGCFAD, the near-galactic weight of powerchords played down low turned Korn into one of the most talked about metal bands on the planet. To make their tones even more gargantuan, high gain Hughes & Kettner and Peavey amps were cranked for maximum muscle. It wasn’t all just sub-sonic riffing, either – the Phrygian-flavoured verse sections, much like many of the band’s anthems to come, would involve atmospheric lines for one of the two guitarists higher up the neck. And then of course there’s the outro, which takes more cues from hip-hop than anything metallic, where guitars used more like a sound effect or sample, bearing closer resemblance to a police siren than a string instrument. As opening gambits go, few songs have encapsulated a band’s greatness as precisely and succinctly as Blind did for Korn. Imitated but never duplicated, Blind was groundbreaking.