Untouchables

Korn spent an almost unreasonable amount of time and money trying to make Untouchables sound immaculate. Korn’s fifth album took an enormous amount of time and money, with producer Michael Beinhorn pushing the group through months of detailed recording. Jonathan Davis later recalled spending nearly six months on vocals and an entire month being devoted simply to drum sounds. The result is heavy music rendered on a huge, unusually polished scale.

Korn began writing in early 2001, eventually moving to Scottsdale, Arizona in an attempt to escape tensions and distractions within the group before returning to Los Angeles to record. Sessions ran from April to November at Conway Studios in Hollywood and The Village in Los Angeles.

Beinhorn produced, Frank Filipetti recorded, Andy Wallace mixed and Howie Weinberg mastered. Wikipedia notes that it was the first album recorded in 96 kHz digital sound, fitting for a project obsessed with detail.

That expense would mean little if the songs could not carry it. “Here to Stay”, which later won a Grammy, opens the album with one of Korn’s great grinding riffs, but the production lets every layer register separately rather than collapse into murk. “Thoughtless” uses that clarity for a more wounded kind of aggression, while “Alone I Break” stretches the band’s dynamic and melodic range. The familiar low guitar tunings and Davis’s exposed vocal style remain, yet the surrounding textures are broader and more architectural than on the group’s earlier records.

Released on 11 June 2002, Untouchables debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with almost half a million first-week sales and was certified platinum a month later. The reported recording costs, around $3 million, became part of the album’s mythology, but the extravagance is audible in productive ways. Untouchables feels enormous because somebody worried over the size and placement of every element. Beneath that precision, Korn’s defining unease remains intact, which is why the record feels monumental rather than merely expensive.