Review: KORN Play To A Reduced Crowd In Korea

January 30, 2004

O Youn-hee and Andrew Petty of The Korea Herald reviewed KORN's January 29 concert with the hugely popular local rock artist SEO TAI-JI show at Olympic Park in Seoul, Korea.

"Before KORN took the stage, a chunky portion of the audience left — mostly people who had not heard of the American band," they wrote. " 'I don't like heavy metal, but I like SEO TAI-JI's music. It doesn't seem that hard,' said a girl leaving the concert early.

"With the back rows looking like Swiss cheese, the true headbangers stuck around for the final act, which many said blew away SEO TAI-JI's show. KORN is a physically and audibly larger band, but their set was scaled down in special effects, with a bagpipe solo being the biggest crowd-pleasing prop. The focus was on the music, which did not fail to entertain: KORN's tempo changes at any given moment from angelic to hellish. Lead singer Jonathan Davis hits vocal strengths that the high-pitched SEO TAI-JI can only squeak at.

" 'KORN's show was so exiting and different. It made me realize they are much better than any other Korean performers,' said 18-year-old Park Kyoung-jung.

"The Korean crowd appeared to have memorized all 17 songs played in the set and faithfully chanted "Kohn! Kohn! Kohn! Kohn!"

"It's been a challenge for the industry to introduce new metal music to Korea as most prefer the older acts such as METALLICA and MEGADETH, bands that people in their 30s heard when metal began.

"Local industry insiders say the Korean market is concentrating on introducing hip-hop culture — heavy metal and other forms of rock may arrive much slower. However, fusion forms debuting here are helping everyone." [Read more]

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