By Jill Earl 

Roadrunner photo

Metal heavy-weights, Korn, will play the EnCana events centre June 29. 

DAWSON CREEK- Californian metal-heavy weights Korn will be making a stop in Dawson Creek as apart of their The Path of Totality tour on June 29. 

The stop is one of 29 shows on their third leg of the tour. The tour is scheduled to end in India in September, and will have been going for nearly a year as it unofficially started last October. The Path of Totality Tour is promoting the bands tenth full-length studio album of the same name. 

“It’s a pretty kick-ass show, if you leave there with any energy left you’re not getting it, most people leave pretty exhausted,” said Ray Luzier, who has been drumming with Korn since October 2007. 

The band has been together since 1994, and though they have been through a member switch-up, Korn currently includes singer Jonathan Davis, guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer, bassist Reggie “Fieldy” Arvizu and drummer Luzier. Being together for nearly 20 years means that their concerts pull from a huge catalogue of songs and their shows include a lot of variety, says Luzier. He explains that the current concert is split into three sections, playing older songs in the first section, their new songs in the second, and a mishmash in the third. 

In the past, Korn’s elaborate sets and stage props have included two huge oilrig replicas, laser shows, and stunning pyrotechnics. This time they have switched out the big sets for skinny modern lights and JumboTrons. 

“The cool thing about our band is we can go out and play a scaled down show and just play with nothing…With this band I fully believe that we can go out there with a couple lights on us and a good sounding front of house guy and really deliver a powerful show and that’s saying a lot, some bands hide behind pyro,” Luzier said. 

Like fans after their shows, touring for almost nine months has band members exhausted. They occasionally take breaks in between parts of the tour, and are never away from home for more then four or five weeks Luzier says. Those necessary breaks keep their passion alive. 

“We’re all very passionate about the music we play and we love going out and doing it. There are bands that sometimes we tour with that are like ‘oh God, not another show,’ we’re never like that. Sure touring gets fatiguing, especially when your going to Asia and you’re dealing with 1,600 time changes and your not sleeping, it gets brutal but we really love it, we live for it,” said Luzier. 

“When we’re up there we give it everything we got, every night, not matter how jet legged we are or whatever,” he adds. 

Korn has always attempted to get closer to their fans, in 1998 they even produced their own weekly online TV show, documenting the making of music videos and their album and answering fan questions. They continue that frame of mind, now offering VIP packages through their tour, giving the opportunity for fans to meet the band, play video games with Davis and have a one-on-one drum lesson with Luzier. Luzier said that through these packages he’s met a die-hard fan that has been to 47 Korn concerts. His drums lessons are always booked and sometimes non-Korn fans will even book lessons just because they admire his skill. 

Luzier says that he’s a fan of other bands himself; he knows how it feels to meet an idol and appreciates all the fan support. 

“They are the reason you’re there, if it wasn’t for them going and buying your records, you wouldn’t even exist…It feels great, it feels amazing to do all of this, I just wanted to make a living playing and give back the feeling I got when going to a show…If I can do the same thing, then I’m fulfilling my goals,” Luzier said. 

In their latest album Korn has introduced electronica into their signature metal sound. Davis has always been a dubstep fan, and after his band mates heard a sample they started working on a few songs incorporating that genre and bringing in other dubstep artists to collaborate. 

“We thought that we were only going to write a four or five EP thing, but it evolved…The next thing you know you’ve got a whole record, so at first I was a little sketchy because obviously the drums are so massive and they have to be programmed…I was ok as long as I got to play every thing live and that’s what we do,” Luzier said. 

During the writing process band members weren’t too concerned with how their fans would react to the electronica influences, adopting a ‘you can’t please everybody’ attitude. Luzier says that they have lost fans and gained fans by producing the album. 

“It’s kind of cool to branch off, there’s risks involved of course…You just gotta do what you believe in and stick with it and the people that have open minds are going to except it and the people with closed minds are going to hope you make another record that sounds like what they want,” he said.  

Luzier says that the band is always working on music and is adamant that Korn will produce another album in the future.  

“We’re going to keep going that’s for sure, no stopping in near sight…it’s just so awesome that everyone’s so passionate about it and want to keep going and bringing it to the people,” he said.