Korn guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer gave an update on the band’s long-awaited follow-up to 2022’s Requiem in a new interview with Igor Miranda of Rolling Stone Brasil — and the short version is: it’s taking a while, and it’s intentional.
“It’s taking a fucking long time,” Shaffer said (transcribed by Blabbermouth). “We’ve gone through… I swear to God, we’ve written probably almost 40 songs, and gone through ’em, and rewrote ’em, and got rid of ’em, and tore ’em apart, and rebuilt ’em. And it’s been quite a long process because we’re very critical about what we do now. We’re very particular, because we wanna keep our original sound. You can’t really get away from that — when we start playing, it sounds like Korn, especially with all five of us.”
“And Ra [current Korn bassist Roberto Díaz] has actually been such a great addition to bringing a lot of energy in the rhythm section. And Ray [Luzier, Korn drummer] and him play really well together. And it’s fun to watch those guys work out parts, because they do some stuff that I wouldn’t think of. That’s been a big part of this writing process, is those two working together, because they’ve never worked together on a record,” Shaffer continued. “Obviously, they’ve worked together on the older songs and stuff. But I think that working on the older songs, those two, learning the rhythm parts, has really given some insight to what is on the back catalog, and they’ve brought a similar vibe into the newer stuff that we’ve written, and that is exciting.”
As for the direction: “We don’t wanna release something mediocre,” Shaffer said. “As an artist, you don’t wanna paint the same picture over and over again. You wanna add some flavor, add some color, add something new so it feels fresh, so the listeners still get a classic sound, but with fresh takes on things. So, it still sounds like Korn, for sure. There’s no heavy electronics, or you’re not gonna get anything too far out of left field. It’s still very guitar-driven and bass heavy.”
The extended writing timeline traces back to the pandemic and the touring explosion that followed. After COVID killed the planned The Nothing tour cycle, Korn went into lockdown mode and recorded Requiem — then spent the years since making up for lost road time. “We had quite an extensive touring schedule, especially after COVID,” Shaffer explained. “We were excited to get back out on the road… I think it’s just been a lot of touring and us taking our time to release something that… We didn’t wanna release something mediocre. I think we took a page out of the book of Metallica on that.”
Shaffer also addressed the prolonged absence of original bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, who stepped away from touring in June 2021. “On the last couple of records, he was kind of checked out, and trying to get him engaged was a little bit difficult,” Munky said. “He would always just kind of leave… He just kind of lost his ambition, I guess. But it’s okay. It happens. Everything goes in cycles. We’re definitely not mad at him or anything. We want him to be happy, and it didn’t really feel like he was happy being a working musician at the time. So it was a mutual sort of… I still use the word ‘hiatus’. I think he needed a break.”
“We work our asses off. Even when we’re not touring, we’re writing music or we’re working on things,” Shaffer added. “I just don’t feel like he had it at the time, or just had a lot of other personal stuff happening too. He wasn’t happy. It was obvious. And at the end of the day, he’s our brother, and we want him to be happy.”
On Fieldy‘s current state: “I’ve heard he’s doing well. I haven’t spoke to him personally in probably a few months. But, yeah, I see his kids. His son is playing bass and he’s doing a band, and I think Fieldy‘s been helping with that. He looks like he’s doing better, honestly, which makes us all feel great.”
In the meantime, Korn surfaced a new track — “Reward The Scars,” released in April as part of the Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred expansion pack soundtrack and debuted live at Sick New World festival in Las Vegas. The song marks their first new music since Requiem‘s release in February 2022, which entered Billboard‘s Hard Rock Albums chart at No. 1. The full new album remains in progress.
