KORN's MUNKY Says Next Album Will 'Feature More Guitar' Than 'The Path Of Totality'

KORN's latest album, "The Path Of Totality", saw the band teaming up with dubstep producers and DJs to add a whole new electronic layer to their sound. The band's guitarist, James "Munky" Shaffer, tells the Phoenix New Times in a recent interview that while KORN's sound will continue to evolve, it is unlikely that the band's next CD, which the group is currently writing, will be like its predecessor. "I wouldn't say it's a 180[-degree turn] from the last album, but we're definitely taking a different approach," he said. "We're not going with the dubstep style, but we are using a lot of interesting recording techniques.

Asked if the next album will be a bit heavier than "The Path Of Totality", Munky said, "I think it will be. I think once Jonathan [Davis] puts vocals on it, it has...it's more melodic and the guitars are more aggressive and much more in your face. I think what we did before was bold and took a lot of balls, in regards to the album devoted entirely to dubstep. To me it's very much a KORN album, but I want to feature more guitar on this album, on the one we're writing right now, we still have one foot in the electronic [style], not necessarily the dubstep [sound], and we still have a fresh approach on the guitar riffs with some melodic vocals. Jonathan is great at sort of delivering the aggressive lyrics and vocals."

According to Munky, he was receptive from the get-go to the idea of adopting a more experimental songwriting approach on "The Path Of Totality". "I wanted to change things right away, you know, because for so long we were writing songs with the same method," he said. "You know, drummer, guitar, bass. And it was nice when we wrote the new record and we just felt like, you know, this feels like it needs something. Jonathan has been really into doing deejaying and is into the more aggressive style of dance music, and we also wanted to keep it simple. So that's why we decided to try some of the dubstep stuff. We've always been a band that's tried to reinvent themselves and innovate what we do, I think. We were at the point in our career you know, our tenth album, like, let's go for it! And if we don't like it, we don't have to put it out. Let's just try it and see if it works. And working on the song 'Get Up', it was just so refreshing so after that we thought, like, let's just do a whole album [in the same style]."