Korn | Loathe
The Piece Hall, Halifax
9th August 2024
Nu-metal pioneers Korn bring their inimitable sound to Halifax as part of this year’s Live At The Piece Hall series of shows. Louder Than War’s Dave Beech was there.
If the concept of the California nu-metallers playing a town on the fringes of the Pennines seems strange, that’s because it is. Likewise, seeing so many goths, moshers and metalheads descending on such a town must be a little odd for its long-term residents. However they feel about it, there’s no denying the positive impact of such shows on the local economy. And as we arrive, first at the train station, and then at the venue, there’s an upbeat air of excitement permeating from the sea of black in front of us.
“What the fuck is up Halifax?” screams Korn frontman Jonathan Davies at the 6,000 fans in front of him. Clad in his trademark Adidas tracksuit, this time in glittery purple, he’s met with a deafening roar from an ecstatic crowd, before the five-piece launch immediately into Here To Stay; the entire Piece Hall erupting in mosh-pits as the first crowd-surfers of the weekend are propelled forward.
Not an hour previous and Liverpool metallers LOATHE are kicking off proceedings. An idiosyncratic blend of progressive metal and shoegaze, the quartet take things in their stride, rattling off a string of aggressive yet atmospheric offerings in the form of Gored, New Faces in the Dark and Is It Really You?. It’s a set back-boned predominantly with material from their second record, but with the band having alluded us up until now, it serves as the perfect introduction to their live shows, even if the bright evening light feels at odds with the woozy melancholy and uncompromising weight of their sound.
Not so the case with Korn, however, whose stage time coincides almost perfectly with sunset; a stage backdrop of storm-ravaged mountains giving way to blood, bones and viscera that feel like the perfect visuals to accompany the band’s bone-shaking bottom-end. Indeed, it’s a bottom end that’s prevalent across the whole of the evening. Tracks such as A.D.I.D.A.S, Got the Life and Falling Away From Me all threatening to shake the Georgian surrounds to their very foundations.
It’s not just the band’s trademark brutal weight that’s at play however, there’s more than enough melody to offset those really heavy moments. Emotion too. Looking around the crowd, it’s clear people are in their element; the importance the band has played in people’s lives is not something to underestimate. Of course, that being said there is still plenty of said weight on offer as well. Both Blind and Coming Undone showcase this perfectly; the latter featuring a snippet of Queen’s We Will Rock You, much to the crowd’s delight.
By this point, it’s clear that we’re into the homestretch. Shoots and Ladders see the band fall effortlessly into a section of Metallica’s Onebefore picking things up again, whilst Twist sees the crowd erupt into mosh-pits once more. Up to now, it’s already felt like a tour-de-force from the Bakersfield band, but final number Freak On A Leash sees things ramped up even further, with frontman Davis prowling the stage as the crowd in front of him loses their collective shit one final time.
Having only seen Korn previously at a festival once before, our interests were piqued sufficiently to know we needed to see them headline their own show, and know it would be good. What we didn’t expect was to be leaving the impressive surrounds of the venue safe in the knowledge that we’ve just seen one of the world’s best metal bands tear Halifax a new one. There’s a reason they’ve been doing this for 30 years.
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Korn can be found on their website and Facebook.
Dave Beech is a music writer based out of Manchester. Links to his work can be found over at his blog, Life’s A Beech, as well as his Louder Than War Author Archive. He also tweets as @Dave__Beech.
Photos by Neil Chapman by Neil Chapman (Unholy Racket). You can visit his author profile for Louder Than War . He is usually found on Facebook or Instagram and he tweets as @unholyracket
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