Jonathan Davis Jonathan Howsmon Davis (born January 18, 1971), also known as JD or JDevil, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman of nu metal band Korn, who are considered a pioneering act of the nu ...

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu m ...

Korn Korn (stylized as KoЯn, or occasionally KoRn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The band is notable for pioneering the nu metal genre and bringing it into the mainstream. Originally formed in 1993 b ...

Sumerian Records Sumerian Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and London. The label was founded in 2006 by Ash Avildsen.What It Is", was released on January 26, 2018 as part of the soundtrack to the movie ''

American Satan ''American Satan'' is a 2017 American supernatural musical thriller film directed by Ash Avildsen, who also wrote the screenplay with Marty Beckerman. It was released in theaters on Friday October 13, 2017 and stars Andy Biersack, Ben Bruce, ...

''.

Background

Jonathan Davis had hinted at a solo album for a number of years, first working without his bandmates in

Korn Korn (stylized as KoЯn, or occasionally KoRn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The band is notable for pioneering the nu metal genre and bringing it into the mainstream. Originally formed in 1993 b ...

when he collaborated on the ''

Queen of the Damned ''Queen of the Damned'' is a 2002 vampire film directed by Michael Rymer, loosely based on the third novel of Anne Rice's ''The Vampire Chronicles'' series, '' The Queen of the Damned'' (1988), although the film contains many plot elements from t ...

'' soundtrack. Word of a full solo album began to circulate in the mid-2000s when Davis began touring and writing with his solo band,

Jonathan Davis and the SFA Jonathan Davis and the SFA (Simply Fucking Amazings) was an American alternative metal band, formed as a side project for Korn frontman Jonathan Davis. The band functioned as a musical collective, with a rotating cast of musicians involved with ...

, with whom he released two live albums, ''

Alone I Play ''Alone I Play'' is a live album by Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis, released on 10 November 2007. It was recorded and videotaped at Malibu's Woodshed Recorder on 7 November 2007, the day before Davis embarked on his first solo tour, the ''Alone I ...

'' (2007) and ''Live at the Union Chapel'' (2011). The SFA was disbanded after the death of guitarist Shane Gibson. Over the next decade, Davis would continue to write solo material while performing with Korn, and in January 2018 announced a North American and European tour in support of a new album that would come out later in the year. That same month, he released the song '' What It Is''. In March 2018,

Sumerian Records Sumerian Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and London. The label was founded in 2006 by Ash Avildsen.Ray Luzier Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gr ...

,

Wes Borland Wesley Louden Borland (born February 7, 1975) is an American rock musician. He is best known as the current guitarist and backing vocalist of the rap metal band Limp Bizkit, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative and industrial ro ...

,

Miles Mosley Miles Mosley is an American musician, producer and composer from Hollywood, California. He is known for his vocal and bass skills, as well as his abilities as a composer, arranger and music producer. He is also a founding member of the West Coa ...

, Mike Dillon and Shenkar have all made appearances on the album.

Critical reception

"Black Labyrinth" received generally favorable reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 64 based on 5 reviews.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians *

Jonathan Davis Jonathan Howsmon Davis (born January 18, 1971), also known as JD or JDevil, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman of nu metal band Korn, who are considered a pioneering act of the nu ...

– vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming, violin, sitar, production *

Wes Borland Wesley Louden Borland (born February 7, 1975) is an American rock musician. He is best known as the current guitarist and backing vocalist of the rap metal band Limp Bizkit, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative and industrial ro ...

– guitars (tracks 2, 5, 8, 10, 13) *

Miles Mosley Miles Mosley is an American musician, producer and composer from Hollywood, California. He is known for his vocal and bass skills, as well as his abilities as a composer, arranger and music producer. He is also a founding member of the West Coa ...

– bass guitar (tracks 2-8, 10, 12) *

Zac Baird Zachary Baird (born February 16, 1971) is an American keyboardist known for collaborating with the nu metal band Korn.http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1051801/korn-goes-experimental-vents-anger-on-new-album ''Korn Goes Experimental, Vents ...

– keyboards (tracks 1–3, 7-10, 13), programming (tracks 4, 9) *

Ray Luzier Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gr ...

– drums (tracks 1, 3–8, 10, 13) * Mike Dillon – percussion (track 2), tablas (track 8, 12) * Shenkar – violin, additional vocals (tracks 2, 8, 13) *

Djivan Gasparyan Djivan Gasparyan (var. Jivan Gasparyan; hy, Ջիվան Գասպարյան, ; October 12, 1928 – July 6, 2021) was an Armenian musician and composer. He played the duduk, a double reed woodwind instrument related to the orchestral oboe. Gaspary ...

– duduk (track 2) *

Byron Katie Byron Kathleen Mitchell, better known as Byron Katie (born December 6, 1942), is an American speaker and author who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as "The Work of Byron Katie" or simply as "The Work". She is the founder of Byron Katie Int ...

– sample (track 11) Production *Jim Monti – recording *Tiago Nunez – additional production *Josh Wilbur – mixing *Kyle McAulay – mixing assistance *

Vlado Meller Vlado Meller is a Slovak audio mastering engineer, currently with Vlado Meller Mastering in Charleston, South Carolina. Meller works across many genres of music, with credits on rock, hip-hop, pop, jazz, metal, dance, opera, Broadway, and classic ...

– mastering *David Stoupakis – artwork *Daniel McBride – logo *Carly Sarno – logo *Jonathan Weiner – photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2018 debut albums Jonathan Davis albums Sumerian Records albums