Follow the Leader

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Follow the Leader
Studio album by Korn
Released	August 18, 1998
Recorded	March - May 1998 at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California
Genre	Nu metal
Length	70:08
Label	Immortal/Epic
Producer	Korn, Steve Thompson, Toby Wright
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Billboard (favorable) link Entertainment Weekly (B-) link The New York Times (mixed) link Robert Christgau (C) link Pitchfork Media (6.9/10) link Rolling Stone link Yahoo! Music (favorable) link
Korn chronology
Life Is Peachy (1996) Follow the Leader (1998) Issues (1999)
Singles from Follow the Leader
"All in the Family" Released: 1998 "Got the Life" Released: November 23, 1998 "Freak on a Leash" Released: May 25, 1999 "Children of the Kornfeat. Ice Cube" Released: 1999 "B.B.K." Released: 1999

Follow the Leader is the third studio album by American nu metal band Korn, the album was released on August 18, 1998.

Album information

Follow the Leader is recognized as their mainstream breakthrough, and the album that ultimately ushered nu metal and re-ushered heavy metal into the mainstream. With more than 5 million copies sold in the U.S. and 4 million copies sold out of the U.S., it is their best selling album.

The album features numerous guest vocalists, including Ice Cube on "Children of the Korn", Tre Hardson of The Pharcyde on "Cameltosis" and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst on "All in the Family". Actor Cheech Marin provides vocals on "Earache My Eye", a cover of the song from the Cheech and Chong movie Up in Smoke, with the rest of the band trading instruments for the song.

The album begins on track 13, following 12 tracks of silence. The reason, as mentioned in an interview with Metal Hammer UK around the time of release, was that Jonathan Davis did not like the fact that the album would have ended on the thirteenth track (due to superstition), so they preferred to start that album on that track instead. An alternate explanation for the reason the song started on the 13 track is that the first 12 tracks were 5 seconds of silence each adding up to one minute of silence in honor of Justin, a young fan of the band that died of cancer. Justin also has a song on the CD named after him.

The B-Sides "Camel Song" (released on the "End Of Days" soundtrack) and "I Can Remember" (on the "Got The Life" single) were both recorded during the album sessions.

The album cover was drawn by Spawn comic artist Todd McFarlane.

Reception

Follow the Leader has sold over 5 million copies in America by the RIAA count. The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.66) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's."

Rolling Stone (9/3/98, pp.97-98) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...true to an older, vital hard-rock tradition of cleansing brutality and transcendent guitar choler--Blue Cheer's 1968 Vincebus Eruptum; early Metallica and very early Black Sabbath....their best album..."

Robert Christgau- "C" - "I'm parent enough to hope they can find a more fully formed designated someone than a guy whose idea of transgressive art is netcasting soft-core s&m to any teenager with a logon [of course, that would be Jonathan Davis]."

Spin (10/98, pp.135-136) - 7 (out of 10) - "When Rage Against The Machine, the band Korn most resembles, borrow from hip-hop, it's a multicultural gesture that rocks like Everest. But Korn are, ahem, post-p.c.: They See foul-mouthed, brawling rappers as expressing Ultimate Taboos, and they feel right at home."^[1][2]

Track listing

1. "It's On!" - 4:28
2. "Freak on a Leash" - 4:15
3. "Got the Life" - 3:45
4. "Dead Bodies Everywhere" - 4:44
5. "Children of the Korn" - 3:52
6. "B.B.K." - 3:56
7. "Pretty" - 4:12
8. "All in the Family" - 4:48
9. "Reclaim My Place" - 4:32
10. "Justin" - 4:17
11. "Seed" - 5:54
12. "Cameltosis" - 4:38
13. "My Gift to You" - 15:40

Credits

• Jonathan Davis - vocals, bagpipes
• Head - guitar
• Munky - guitar
• Fieldy - bass guitar
• David Silveria - drums
• Fred Durst - vocals
• Tré Hardson - vocals
• Ice Cube - vocals
• Todd McFarlane - artwork
• Greg Capullo - artwork
• Joseph Cultice - photography
• Tommy D. - programming
• John Ewing, Jr. - engineer, assistant engineer
• Thomas Kornacker - performer
• Stephen Marcussen - mastering
• Brendan O'Brien - mixing
• Steve Thompson - producer
• Don C. Tyler - digital editing
• Justin Z. Walden - drums, programming
• Toby Wright - producer, engineer

Charts

All charts listed below are part of the Billboard Music Charts, North America.

Album

Singles

References

1. ^ Spin: 135–136. October 1998. 
2. ^ "Korn Follow The Leader CD". cdUniverse.com. http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1090140. Retrieved 15 August 2009.