It's been a weird week for musicians to declare what is and isn't metal. Earlier in the week, Mastodon's Brent Hinds couldn't fathom how anybody considered Judas Priest a metal band.
Today, Jonathan Davis questions how people consider Korn a metal band. Davis tells Full Metal Jackie:
“I’ve always had a problem with the term ‘metal.’ We never were that. I mean, just go back to the beginning when Korn started out. We came out of Huntington Beach, California, and they didn’t know what to do with us. The first tour we went out was with Biohazard and House Of Pain. Second one was, I think, Sick Of It All, Orange 9mm and us, and then we went out with, like, KMFDM.
“And we played shows with No Doubt, Cadillac Tramps and Pennywise, and just stuck us all over the place. So I think that we went out and did all that stuff, and it seems like the metal community took us in. We were like the black sheep—we had no place to really go—and I really appreciate and I love the metal community. But as far as us being a metal band, a metal band, to me, is, like, Judas Priest or Iron Maiden—that’s a metal band. I don’t think Korn does that.”
It's hilarious to me that Davis does not see himself as heavy as other metal bands like Judas Priest, when earlier this week Brent Hinds essentially implied Priest weren't heavy enough to be a metal band.
When Davis was asked to clarify what he considers Korn's genre to be, he said:
“I think we’re just heavy rock. I mean, I don’t like categories, period, but we’re more of a heavy rock band than just straight metal. I’m coming from when metal was, like I said, Priest and that era… Dio and those [bands]… singing about swords and dragons, and I love that. You know what I mean? To me, that was real metal music, and I love it.”
Oh, okay, that clears it up. In general, I feel when you get down to the nitty gritty of labeling, it starts to get silly. Just enojoy the music.
Korn are hitting the road with Stone Sour and Babymetal for a confirmed tour. There are also a rumor that they might be touring with Rammstein soon.
[via MetalSucks / Blabbermouth]
