Nu-metal godfathers Korn have begun the first leg of their 2013 Paradigm Shift Tour. The exclusive run kicked off last night at The Electric Factory in Philadelphia, PA. The 9-date trek are the first shows in support of their upcoming album, The Paradigm Shift, which drops on October 8 via Prospect Park Records. The tour features excellent support from Asking Alexandria and Love and Death, the side project of Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch. Korn have been relentless road warriors for over 3 years, and last night they breathed new life into their epic live show.
Special guests Love and Death and Asking Alexandria set the tone from the start last
night. Head’s band was given a warm welcome by the die-hard Korn fans, and AA cranked it up a notch with a brutally heavy set. The band played four songs off their new album, From Death to Destiny, which came out on August 6 and debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top 200. Asking Alexandria also churned out hits like “To The Stage”, “Reckless & Relentless”, and “The Final Episode (Let’s Change The Channel)”. The last time the band played The Electric Factory, frontman Danny Worsnop was unable to perform after seeing a vocal specialist in Philadelphia that day. The band still played their set, with guest vocalists from the other bands on the tour filling in, and they promised to return when Danny was better. That promise was kept.
Korn took to the stage and hit the ground running with their signature smash, “Blind”. From there, they unleashed a hefty 17-song set spanning the band’s entire career. They dropped songs off every studio album accept 2010’s Korn III: Remember Who You Are. The band debuted three new tracks off their upcoming studio LP – “Love and Meth”, “Prey For Me”, and “Never Never”, for which the band just released a new lyric video. The band has been steadily improving after the return of Head, and they were firing on all cylinders as they ripped through hit tracks like “Freak On a Leash”, “Got The Life”, “Falling Away From Me”, “Here To Stay”, “Twist”, “Narcissistic Cannibal”, and many more.
Aside from their killer set, the highlight of the evening may have been their re-vamped
stage show. This tour, fans will witness the return of the Korn Kage – a huge steel cage behind drummer Dave Luzier‘s kit where fans are locked in to watch the performance from the stage. The band has not used the Korn Kage on tour since their Issues Tour in 1999. In recent years, music has seen bands like Rob Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, Shinedown, Avenged Sevenfold, Skillet, A Day To Remember, and more accompany their sets with epic stage shows. It’s only fitting that a band as legendary as Korn joins the pack.
In 1994, Korn released their self-titled debut album, revolutionizing metal and music as whole. They created a whole new sub-genre, “nu-metal”, that fused traditional heavy metal with elements of alternative rock, grunge, and hip-hop. In the following decade, Korn would rule the airwaves. Topping the Billboard charts, garnering massive radio play, and consistently owning the #1 spot on MTV’s TRL, Korn became the biggest band in the world. The band has sold over 35 million records world-wide. The band has released ten studio albums, 8 of which have gone Top 10 on the Billboard Top 200 (five of them hit the Top 5). Eight of their albums have gone multi-platinum. They have been nominated for 7 Grammy’s, winning two of them, and 11 MTV Video Music Awards, winning 2 of them. Korn hit their peak when they released back-to-back masterpieces: 1998′s Follow The Leader and 1999′s Issues. Both albums hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200. Their last album, 2010′s Korn III: Remember Who You Are, hit #2. Korn are back near top of the music game with The Path of Totality, which hit #10 in Billboard in 2011. The band’s 11th studio album, The Paradigm Shift, is set to hit record stores on October 8 via Prospect Park Records. – by Matt Bishop
Thursday, September 26 – The Electric Factory (Philadelphia, PA)
Friday, September 27 – Roseland Ballroom (New York, NY)
Saturday, September 28 – The Palladium (Worcester, MA )
Monday, September 30 – Sound Academy (Toronto, ON)
Tuesday, October 1 – The Fillmore (Detroit, MI)
Wednesday, October 2 – The Riviera Theatre (Chicago, IL)
Thursday, October 3 – The Myth (Minneapolis, MN)
Thursday, October 10 – The Wiltern (Los Angeles, CA)
Saturday, October 12 – The Pearl Concert Theater (Las Vegas, NV)