Maps of Music

Take a Look in the Mirror (2003)

Where the lyrics of Take a Look in the Mirror take you, and where it was really made.

The album came out on a Friday instead of the usual Tuesday, which cut its first-week sales.

Key places

Jonathan Davis's home studio, Los Angeles (2003)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — The album's recording location lists Jonathan Davis's home studio in Los Angeles. The pin marks the city centre, not the studio itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Elementree Studios, Tarzana (2003)

Recording site Can-Am Studios — According to the album credits, the main recording and mixing took place here. The pin marks the city centre of Tarzana, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Piety Street Recording, New Orleans (2003)

Recording site Piety Street Recording — According to the album credits, additional recording for the album took place at this studio. The pin marks the exact building address. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Take a Look in the Mirror: sixth studio album by American nu metal band Korn
• Released 21 November 2003 through Epic Records and Immortal Records
• Last Korn studio album to feature the full original lineup
• Last studio album by Korn under the Epic and Immortal labels
• Original guitarist Brian "Head" Welch left the band in February 2005 and returned in 2013 with the album The Paradigm Shift

Background

• Debuted at number 19 on the chart and peaked at number 9
• First-week sales of about 179,000
• Release date moved up to a Friday, which gave fewer sales than a standard Tuesday release would have
• "Did My Time" was previously released as a CD single for the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life
• The video for "Right Now" was a provocative cartoon animated by Spike and Mike
• "When Will This End" is followed by a long silence before a live cover of Metallica's "One" starts
• A "clean" version was also released, using backmasking and growling in place of profanity
• Sold over 1.2 million copies in the US and over 2 million outside the US according to Nielsen SoundScan as of January 4, 2013
• Certified platinum on December 16, 2003

Recording

• Recorded and mixed at Elementree Studios in Tarzana, California
• Additional recording at Piety Street Recording in New Orleans, Louisiana
• Mastered at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California
• Jonathan Davis said the band produced the album themselves
• Davis later admitted in interviews that the album was written at a rushed pace, due to the lower than expected sales of Untouchables and the time limit of that summer's Ozzfest tour

Cover

• Dark cover showing a large gothic table mirror, several glasses, and a goat skull with a glass on top
• Some editions include a separate booklet with the word "skrapbook" in place of the cover
• Other editions contain only the booklet with the cover printed on its first page

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993 by James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and David Silveria, former members of L.A.P.D.
• Name styled KoЯn; the backwards R was borrowed from the Toys R Us logo.
• Demo Neidermayer's Mind (1993) pioneered the nu metal sound.

Members

• Current: Jonathan Davis (vocals), James "Munky" Shaffer (guitar), Brian "Head" Welch (guitar, returned 2013), Ray Luzier (drums, since 2008).
• Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu (bass) departed in 2021; Silveria left in 2006.

Career

• Debut album Korn (1994); Life Is Peachy (1996) brought commercial breakthrough.
• Follow the Leader (1998) and Issues (1999) both debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
• Over 40 million records sold worldwide as of 2021; two Grammy Awards from eight nominations.
• Fourteen official releases reached the Billboard 200 top ten; the band is credited as the originators of nu metal.

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: mixed or average reviews, with a weighted average score of 49 out of 100 from 9 critic scores
• AllMusic's Jason Birchmeier: called the album a little paradoxical, but interesting especially for longtime fans, and said it ends before listeners know it, leaving them wanting more Korn
• Entertainment Weekly: scored the album a D, saying Korn remain technically proficient but the genre has screamed itself into caricature
• NME: gave a negative review, criticizing the album as a self-parody and as sterile studio rock built around bassist Fieldy's mid-range
• Rock Hard: ranked the album number 384 in its book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time (2005)

Reappraisal

• 2013: guitarist Head cited the album as the worst record the band made
• 2015: Jonathan Davis ranked it his least favourite album in Korn's discography

Records

• Debuted at number 19 and peaked at number 9
• First-week sales of about 179,000
• Certified platinum on December 16, 2003
• Over 1.2 million copies sold in the US according to Nielsen SoundScan as of January 4, 2013

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The release date was moved to a Friday, which lowered first-week sales compared with a standard Tuesday release.
• "Did My Time" appeared earlier as a CD single for the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life film.
• A live cover of Metallica's "One" starts after a long silence following "When Will This End"; the Spanish Wikipedia page calls it a hidden track.
• "Alive" is a reworked and rerecorded version of a song that had only appeared on the band's first demo, Neidermayer's Mind (1993).
• "Play Me" features rapper Nas.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

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