See You on the Other Side is the seventh studio album by American nu metal band Korn. It was released on December 6, 2005, by Virgin Records. It is their first album as a quartet after the departure of long-time guitarist Brian "Head" Welch and the last album with original drummer David Silveria before he had departed from the band in December 2006. The album was first certified gold in the United States on January 12, 2006; a subsequent platinum record certification was awarded on March 16, 2006.[4] In the album, Korn experimented with different musical styles and even collaborated with pop music producers The Matrix.
Critical reaction of the album was generally positive. However, criticisms of the album focused on the musical production by The Matrix and songwriting.
Production
After completing their record deal with Sony BMG in 2004, Korn partnered with EMI Records and signed to Virgin Records. As part of this innovative arrangement, Virgin paid Korn $25 million in exchange for a share in the profits of See You on the Other Side and the band's next album, including tours and merchandising. Virgin also received a 30 percent stake in the band's licensing, ticket sales and other revenue sources.[5][6] The album was recorded in Jonathan Davis' home studio which was used for the previous album, Take a Look in the Mirror, as well as the Queen of the Damned soundtrack and score. Davis stated "We went through a lot of drama with Head leaving and getting off our label and making the album by ourselves."[7] Regarding Brian "Head" Welch's departure, James "Munky" Shaffer recalled "There was kind of a moment where we didn't know what we were going to do and how we were going to continue. We kind of decided, 'OK, we can just sit back and we can put out a greatest hits album and end this or we can use this opportunity and instead of looking at it as a loss, reinvent what we do.'"[7]
Cover art
The album features layout design and an original painting by the American surrealist/gothic painter David Stoupakis on the cover. Eleven more paintings by the artist appear as additional artwork on the deluxe special edition.
Promotion
The lead single, "Twisted Transistor", premiered on KDGE 102.1 FM The Edge in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and was officially released to radio on September 27, 2005. Brent Decker e-mailed the disc jockey of the night, Ayo, with a request to play the rumored single. The band also did a See You on the Other Side world tour to heavily promote the album, which included a special performance of "Here to Stay" on a plane from London to New York City.
A screenshot of the music video for Korn's song "Liar", which has computer animation.
With regards to the album's musical direction, frontman Jonathan Davis commented,
It's funky, it's heavy, it's dark, and sometimes, industrial-tinged. Working with so many different people and everything, it's made it out to be a really well-rounded album of a lot of different things. It's definitely Korn, it's definitely groove-oriented. But it's our most experimental album to date. We're very excited. We're all sitting around, when we listen to it, looking at each other going, 'I can't believe that's us.' I think people are really going to dig it.
See You on the Other Side had a Metacritic average score of 64 out of 100 points, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11] The involvement of producer The Matrix, whose background was primarily in pop music, had varied reception. For The New York Times, Jon Pareles praised The Matrix for "[adding] depth and dynamics rather than blatant hooks".[16] Grading the album with a B-plus, Michael Endelman of Entertainment Weekly called the album "sonically stunning" and noted the wide range of styles in "sweeping goth anthems and trippy electronica".[8] Erin Fox of metal website The Gauntlet rated the album five out of five points, describing it as "perhaps the definitive representation of artistic expression" by Korn.[14]
However, the production and lyrics were received negatively by others. For Blabbermouth.net, Don Kaye rated the album six out of 10 points and found "a curiously distant, mechanical sound" resulting from the production, for instance the "heavily multi-tracked" vocals of Jonathan Davis.[13] Kaye also panned the songwriting: "...between self-pity and adolescent sex talk."[13] However, Johnny Loftus of Allmusic was more complimentary of the song subject matter, as an "acknowledgement that their life isn't all that bad, and it's time to party", while conceding that the album sounded "a little too processed at times" in a three-and-a-half stars out of five review.[12]
Rating the album three out of five stars, Virgin Media called "Twisted Transistor" the strongest track while criticizing the production of "Hypocrites" and "For No One" as having "layer-upon-layer of distortion and effects rather than stripped down to its raw elements."[20] Niall O'Keeffe of Yahoo! Music was especially harsh, regarding Korn's style as outdated: "The nu-metal scene for which they were standard-bearers is ancient history, even in its heartlands."[21] O'Keeffe also objected to sexual lyrics in "10 or a 2-Way" as written in the "crassest, most misogynistic way imaginable."[21]
The album was ranked second in Ultimate Guitar's Top 10 albums of 2005 poll.[22] In 2022, Revolver ranked the album the tenth best of Korn's 14 albums.[23]
Commercial performance
See You on the Other Side sold more than 220,000 copies in its first week, debuting and peaking at number three on the Billboard 200.[24] The album managed to stay in the top half of the chart for thirty-four consecutive weeks.[25] It has accumulated 1.2 million copies sold in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan.[26]
Track listing
This album was released with the Copy Control protection system in some countries.
The album contains 14 to 16 tracks depending on the version purchased; a special edition of the album contains 20 or 22 total tracks plus two live performance videos.
