Follow the Leader

FOLLOW The LEADEЯ  is the third studio album by KoЯ n, the album was released on August 18, 1998.

Album information
Follow the LeadeЯ  is recognized as their mainstream breakthrough, and the album that ultimately ushered nu metal and re-ushered heavy metal into the mainstream. With more than 7 million copies sold in the U.S. and 7 million copies sold out of the U.S., it is their best selling album.

The album features numerous guest vocalists, including Ice Cube on "Children of the Korn", Tre Hardson of The Pharcyde on "Cameltosis" and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst on "All in the Family". Actor Cheech Marin provides vocals on "Earache My Eye", a cover of the song from the Cheech and Chong movie Up in Smoke, with the rest of the band trading instruments for the song.

The album begins on track 13 or 7, following 12 or 6 tracks of silence. The reason, as mentioned in an interview with Metal Hammer UK around the time of release, was that Jonathan Davis did not like the fact that the album would have ended on the thirteenth track (due to superstition), so they preferred to start that album on that track instead. An alternate explanation for the reason the song started on the 13 or 7 track is that the first 12 or 6 tracks were 5 seconds of silence each adding up to one minute or thirty seconds of silence in honor of Justin, a young fan of the band that died of cancer. Justin also has a song on the CD named after him.

The B-Sides "Camel Song" (released on the "End Of Days" soundtrack) and "I Can Remember" (on the "Got The Life" single) were both recorded during the album sessions.

The album cover was pencilled by Spawn comic artist Todd McFarlane, with inked embellishment by Greg Cappello.

Reception
Follow the Leader has sold over 5 million copies in America by the RIAA count. The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.66) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's."

Rolling Stone (9/3/98, pp.97-98) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...true to an older, vital hard-rock tradition of cleansing brutality and transcendent guitar choler--Blue Cheer's 1968 Vincebus Eruptum; early Metallica and very early Black Sabbath....their best album..."

Robert Christgau- "C" - "I'm parent enough to hope they can find a more fully formed designated someone than a guy whose idea of transgressive art is netcasting soft-core s&m to any teenager with a logon [of course, that would be Jonathan Davis]."

Spin (10/98, pp.135-136) - 7 (out of 10) - "When Rage Against The Machine, the band Korn most resembles, borrow from hip-hop, it's a multicultural gesture that rocks like Everest. But Korn are, ahem, post-p.c.: They See foul-mouthed, brawling rappers as expressing Ultimate Taboos, and they feel right at home."

Track listing

 * 1) "It's On!" - 4:28
 * 2) "Freak on a Leash" - 4:15
 * 3) "Got the Life" - 3:45
 * 4) "Dead Bodies Everywhere" - 4:44
 * 5) "Children of the Korn" (feat. Ice Cube) - 3:52
 * 6) "B.B.K." - 3:56
 * 7) "Pretty" - 4:12
 * 8) "All in the Family" (feat. Fred Durst) - 4:48
 * 9) "Reclaim My Place" - 4:32
 * 10) "Justin" - 4:17
 * 11) "Seed" - 5:54
 * 12) "Cameltosis" (feat. Tré Hardson) - 4:38
 * 13) "My Gift to You" - 15:40 (contains hidden track "Earache In My Eye" featuring Cheech Marin)