These Are Jonathan Davis’ Favorite and Least Favorite Korn Albums

Jonathan Davis is the latest prominent metal musician to potentially enrage fans by daring to rank his own discography.

The PRP reports that during a recent appearance on the podcast Lead Singer Syndrome, host Shane Told asked Davis which Korn albums were his most and least favorites. He awarded the former honor to 2002’s Untouchables…

“My favorite Korn record hands down is ‘Untouchables.’ It was a record that we made that couldn’t be made in this day—we spent over four million bucks doing that. Most of that money went to keeping our entire crew on retainer for two and a half years. That was just mistake #1, but we spent two and a half years working with an amazing producer, Michael Beinhorn, recording in different studios.

“I did it in Canada. I recorded some of the vocals up in Vancouver in Horseshoe Bay and I’m digging that. But then I got bummed out, it was too pretty and too amazing and [I’d] go and boat all day and cruise around the bay and all that it just got… That wasn’t the right vibe so I came back and we finished the vocals in the Village in Hollywood, err, Los Angeles.

“But that album is perfect. I call it the heavy metal ‘Aja’ [referring to Steely Dan‘s 1977 album ‘Aja‘.] Sonically, and you hear ‘Aja’ from Steely Dan—that is a perfect record.

“I think this one [‘Untouchables’] is for heavy music is that, sonically. And for us one of the best musically. It’s just unreal how good that sounds and how much work we put into it.”

…and the latter disgrace to 2003’s Take a Look in the Mirror:

“My least favorite… probably ‘Take a Look in the Mirror.’ ‘Cause ‘Take a Look in the Mirror’ was a reaction to what we did with ‘Untouchables.’ We spent two and a half years, we did all that and that was the only album we ever did where we self-produced it. I mean some of the songs on there were cool; sonically it sucks. We did it in my home studio. It lacks… I helped produce it with the band and we just didn’t know what the hell we were doing.”

I would argue that Korn have never known what the hell they were doing, but, hey, that’s just me. For whatever it’s worth, I do find the Untouchables track “Here to Stay” to be slightly less offensive than most Korn music.

You can listen to the entire episode here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYtW6bCZVCE