Jonathan Davis - Black Labyrinth

Korn frontman Jonathan Davis needs no introduction really. A truly unique and (though some would like to believe otherwise) influential and innovative vocalist, Davis’ voice has been a cornerstone of Korn’s sound since their inception, and it has weathered the many storms of Korn’s constant touring (and their early years of dangerous drug use) quite well. Detractors of course often discredit his legitimacy and talent with the suggestion of his need for inserting scatting and tormented hyperventilating into Korn’s material being an attempt to avoid vocal shortcomings. Yet Korn has kept that aspect of their sound to a minimum lately, with their throwback-ish 2011 effort being a sole outlier, and it’s shown how capable Jonathan Davis is with traditional vocal techniques, as well as how the distinctness of his voice is inherent and not simply the sum of his “gimmicky” vocal flairs.

Being such a recognizable component of Korn’s sound, Jonathan Davis’ voice is hard to separate from his longtime band, yet Black Labyrinth certainly accomplishes the task because (despite how comfortable Davis sounds across it) it sounds like nothing Korn have ever made.

Tinged with a variety of influences, Black Labyrinth is mostly comprised of industrial-rock-laden alternative metal, and it’s pretty ambitious for the most part, clearly making a conscious effort to avoid falling into the usual typicalities of the style. The interesting songwriting and the diversity across the album is what sells it, and I’m honestly impressed with how consistently intriguing and compositionally focused the album is from front to back.

While the premise of numerous musical influences might be troubling, Davis actually makes confident use of them all, and he integrates them well into the compositions on the album. Middle Eastern percussion and strings find their way into the smokey “Final Days”, “Gender”, and “Basic Needs”, and plenty of glitchy industrial experimentation works its way onto nearly every song in some way, shape, or form. “Gender” (for most of its early length), “Underneath My Skin”, and “Walk on By” are fun industrial rockers that do well to break up the melancholy and discomfort covering most of the record, well-cultivated by moody Reznor-esque pieces like “Medicated” and “Please Tell Me”. Even the more straightforward industrial metal bangers like “Everyone”, “What You Believe”, “Your God”, and “Happiness” have individually unique feels to them and add to the dynamic of the experience of the album.

The longest song on the album, “Basic Needs”, though perhaps a tiny bit drawn out, is a sprawling, subtle catharsis of anguish channeled as tactlfully as Davis always has at his best and is a certain highlight of the record for Davis’ performance as well as its compositional progression.

Jonathan Davis of course sounds on point and dedicated to his performances on every song here, further cementing his respectability as a clean, traditional singer, supressing any hint of scatting and using growls only once on the whole project.

As far as complaints go with this album, the lyrics are never really much to write home about at best, and regrettable at worst. Davis’ lyrical style has always teetered between channeling the gripping rawness of psychological discomfort and overly simplistic cheesiness. There’s really no diversion from that trend on this album, but the vibrant garden of sounds beneath are plenty enough to distract from the lyrics they support. I would also say the acoustic-led, slower-tempo, alternative rocker “What It Is” is probably the album’s most palpable blemish, and its role as the closing track does a bit of a disservice to the preceding experience.

I wasn’t expecting a massive flop or anything (like I said, J.D.’s still got it, and I respect and enjoy his work wholeheartedly), but I was still pleasantly surprised by what this album brought to the table. I was worried it was going to be an unnecessary-feeling Korn B-project, with obviously little investment into it, but I was happy to find it to instead be a clearly hard-worked and well-groomed project. I will definitely be enjoying this album for a long while, reveling in its array of sounds and its dynamic experience.