Suicide song РІР‚СљFalling Away From MeРІР‚СњРІР‚в„ўs piercing riff doesnРІР‚в„ўt sound eerie or unnerving anymore, just comical, especially as its put to slow death over light piano chords. We should doubtless be thankful this is the only cut taken from their masterpiece debut, still a swirling coil of pure, undisguised anger, as none of the others could possibly have survived such utter mutilation as this. The rage and menacing guitar lines have been sapped into a folky, bouncy, happy tune. ThereРІР‚в„ўs no better example of this than on РІР‚СљBlindРІР‚Сњ. Chester Bennington is in the audience, learning how Linkin Park can do the same thing in a few years time, and Jonathan Davis himself, not a great singer in the first place, but able to wring his roars with testosterone-fuelled emotion when he chooses to, is exposed as woefully thin and grating in this setting. On the up side, РІР‚СљFieldyРІР‚Сњ can still squeeze his stringy bass sound into an acoustic bass, but possibly worst of all is the tin-can drumming, omnipresent and impossible to ignore. ItРІР‚в„ўs saying something about a band when keyboardist Zac Baird, РІР‚Вsession memberРІР‚в„ў, gets more attention than the bandРІР‚в„ўs guitarist, James РІР‚СљMunkyРІР‚Сњ Shaffer, who plays a few notes throughout the whole thing and must have looked bored out of his mind. Here, itРІР‚в„ўs replaced with piano and the violin or cello arrangement, and you have to wonder if the band is actually trying to be aesthetically pleasing. That, and the absence of their downtuned guitar assault. Taking the anger out of Korn, as this show does, makes them look both limp and pitiful.

The tortured music theyРІР‚в„ўve crafted for over ten years now is of more importance than their talent, their musicianship, and the members behind it.

There have been a few exceptions, Nirvana and Alice in Chains coming to mind first here, and Korn wants to join them with their own performance, but just canРІР‚в„ўt. When it comes to the rock band, itРІР‚в„ўs no secret that MTV Unplugged can be sometimes nothing more than old men getting out acoustics to show that they can play them.

No one can deny itРІР‚в„ўs an interesting idea, if done well, to show that the veterans of angry music are serious about their evolution, and it must be acknowledged that Korn can do it live: last yearРІР‚в„ўs Live & Rare proved that. This tactic has worked, to an extent, in KornРІР‚в„ўs favor, keeping their heads above the water while bands like Limp Bizkit crashed and burned ( The Unquestionable Truth, anyone?), and as the band started to turn their maturity obsession towards the acoustic guitar in another attempt to broaden their audience, we should have guessed it would be inevitable they would eventually go and give us an MTV Unplugged. Frontman Jonathan Davis is now 36 parental angst is probably no longer ideal for someone of that age. Since the departure of Brian РІР‚СљHeadРІР‚Сњ Welch to Christianity, the band has desperately been trying to mature and outgrow the nР“С-metal stereotype they were until then credited with, perhaps realizing that they need to have something to show for the fact theyРІР‚в„ўre getting older too. Over the last few years, the members of Korn must have had something of a guilty conscience.

When was the korn unplugged