KORN Drummer Explains Why ‘Requiem’ Contains Only Nine Songs

In a new interview with Midwest Beatdown, KORN drummer Ray Luzier spoke about the fact that the band’s new album, “Requiem”, consists of only nine songs, with just one being more than four minutes long. “We tracked about, I wanna say 16, 17 tunes or something like that,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “And there’s a lot of records where if you think a song is a filler, it doesn’t necessarily mean the next guy thinks it’s a filler; they might like the songs that aren’t singles better than the singles, so everyone’s got opinions. But on this record, we tracked a lot. There’s some that didn’t make it [where] I was literally, like, ‘Wait. How can that not make it? That’s an amazing song.’ But when you listen to ‘Requiem’ as a whole, I really believe that that’s the best possible material we could pick at this time. It’s like giving birth — there’s your babies, your songs, and you want everyone to hear ’em and receive them as well as they possibly can.

“We just had such a great time making this record over COVID,” Ray continued. “There was no rushing. We just went, ‘Hey, let’s meet in Bakersfield,’ our California studio; Head [guitarist Brian Welch] and I live in Nashville. And we’d fly out there and just take it little by little. There was no, ‘Oh, let’s rush this [before] we have to go on tour.’ It was, like, ‘Hey, let’s just make good music’ and come back and listen to it and weed out the bad and really make the good stuff stick.”

“Requiem” was released on February 4 via Loma Vista Recordings. The band celebrated the LP’s arrival with a special record-release event on February 3 at the Hollywood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, California. “Requiem Mass” saw the Southern California heavy music pioneers perform an intimate set in front of a 300 attendees.

“Requiem” was produced by Chris Collier and KORN.

“Requiem” entered Billboard‘s Hard Rock Albums chart at No. 1. The band sold 23,000 equivalent album units in the February 4-10 tracking week, according to Billboard. Of that sum, 20,000 units are from album sales. “Requiem” also landed at No. 2 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums charts. On the all-format Billboard 200, it arrived at No. 14.

The album’s first single, “Start The Healing”, is at No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.

KORN kicked off a short run of shows with SYSTEM OF A DOWN on January 31 in Phoenix, followed by dates in San Diego (February 1) and Los Angeles (February 4 and February 5). KORN‘s headlining tour with CHEVELLE and CODE ORANGE will launch March 4.

Photo by Tim Saccenti

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