I haven't heard any "new stuff," but I've heard all of their albums through untouchables in their entirety. They always struck me as having much more integrity than the majority of the "nu-metal" bands, though they aren't nearly as technically adept as Mudvayne or Slipknot. They really were incredibly innovative, and a lot of the bizarre sounds they produced (lots of whammy pedal, wah, etc on 'lead,' dissonant lines over the downtuned seven strings and always slapped bass) really still remain their sound alone, only blatant ripoff bands have ever sounded like that. Sure maybe it's cause it's a crappy sound, but they are definitely unique. The guitar interplay on songs like "Twist" is really just bizarre and I often wonder how they came up with that stuff, cause as far as I know there's no one else that sounded even remotely like that that they could have used for inspiration. Were they the first band to use 7 strings at all? Or just the first to bring any exposure to the instrument? I seem to remember Steve Vai using one now and then in the late 80s/early 90s, but maybe I'm wrong.
Anyway I actually think a fair amount of Korn's output is decent. I don't pay attention to the lyrics at all and can generally ignore the vocalist, I just like their grindy clunking sound some days. I have to be in the mood for them, but I would definitely never dismiss them as crap (yes, they have undeniably crappy songs here and there, I won't deny that). And I think their second to last album (Untouchables) actually showed the start of some musical maturity, they had acoustic guitars and more complex layering and lead lines and everything. Granted, based on what I heard of their last one (that stupid "yall want a single say fuck that"), it was a huge step backwards. So whatever. But I definitely don't dismiss them outright. It's obviously the "cool" thing to do.
Generally, with a few exceptions (like...SOULFLY, god max cavalera got terrible), I still like everything I liked in middle/high school. I can remember liking it and remember why I liked it, and just because I've heard stuff that's more complex and mature and good since then doesn't mean I can't still get a kick out of it. Abandoning old tastes just seems like evidence of being a huge poseur, like really do you just stop liking something when you hear something else that's better? With me it is just like OH THAT IS EVEN BETTER SO GENERALLY I WILL LISTEN TO IT INSTEAD, BUT I STILL LIKE WHAT I LIKED BEFORE!
So in conclusion I'll download this new album sometime, but it does sound like the single's pretty terrible
