Korn II

The untitled eighth studio album by KoЯ n was released on July 27, 2007, through Virgin Records. The standard edition holds thirteen tracks, the deluxe fourteen. The album was intentionally released without a title, as vocalist Jonathan Davis reasoned, "why not just let our fans call it whatever they wanna call it?"[1] The most common colloquial title used by fans is Korn II, due the emergence of Korn III: Remember Who You Are a few years later.

The album has been certified Gold in the U.S.[2] It is the band's least successful release to date, with the album barely surpassing sales of 500,000 copies.

Musical style
"We always wanted the atmospheres, and to really go deep," guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer told Billboard. "It wasn't until this record that we really felt comfortable to do that. As records progress, the urge to do that becomes greater. We feel like we've finally solidified ourselves in the rock world, and wanted to take this one a little deeper into that direction. It's less pop, and it's more experimental." Munky said of the songs, "I don't want to say that it's heavy, because that pisses the other band members off. It's still the Korn sound, but it's also very atmospheric."

Critical reception
Critical response to the album has been mixed, with the most positive reviews coming from IGN, The Gauntlet, and Billboard. IGN noted that "There's an overall cohesion from start to finish, and repeated listens continue to reveal new and intriguing elements at every turn, which bodes well for the future", while The Gauntlet wrote " "Untitled" is the most articulate recording the band has delivered to date." Entertainment Weekly also praised the album as being the band's best release "since 1999's 'Issues'".

On the contrary, Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that the band is going through a "middle-age slump" and that the album "doesn't break them out of it." Rolling Stone asserted that Korn sounds "wounded and diminished", while PopMatters agreed, calling it "tired, bland and dated... merely going through the motions rather than creating honest music." Also fan reaction to the album has been very mixed; some fan have complained that the album is too much of a change from the band's past sound when compared to the band's past albums Untitled is much less aggressive and songs like Kiss and Hushabye are much softer and more complex than anything the band have ever done before while other fans think that the album's change in sound is a good change and shows the band's maturity and is a move away from the Nu Metal sound.

The album's Metacritic score is 51, while the user's average score is 7.2/10.

Track listing

 * Bonus DVD
 * Making of documentary
 * Korn photo slideshow