Davis was said by author Doug Small to be "the eye of the storm around which the music of Korn rages." Small described the band as "a basket-case full of contradictions." Influences A few years before establishing Korn, James "Munky" Shaffer; Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu; and David Silveria (who were three members of the funk rock band L.A.P.D.), alongside friend Brian "Head" Welch, all had the common influences of Red Hot Chili Peppers and especially the Faith No More album The Real Thing. Likewise, Davis was greatly inspired by the adventurousness of The Real Thing upon its 1989 release: "It showed everybody you could do heavy music and not be 'metal'. It was something completely different." Munky later acknowledged the song structures and instrumentations of Faith No More in inspiring Korn's future songwriting: "Faith No More steered us in the direction where we ultimately ended up." They became "fanatics" of Faith No More singer Mike Patton, researched about him, and traveled to the band's hometown of San Francisco in order to watch them play. In this way, they discovered Patton's avant-garde metal band Mr. Bungle, whose 1991 self-titled album had a long-standing impact on Korn's experimentation, dissonance, and eccentric stylings. A notable example of Bungle's influence has been what Korn dubbed the "Mr. Bungle chord" (a flat fifth chord or "tritone"), which became a band trademark throughout their discography. Besides the projects of Patton, Korn had a wide range of influences that included groove-oriented metal acts such as Sepultura, Prong, and Biohazard, in addition to the dynamics and live performances of Rage Against the Machine and its frontman Zack de la Rocha. Head later explained that they tried to mix the weird elements of Bungle with catchy choruses and melodies, alongside the songwriting and grooves from those metal bands. On the other hand, Fieldy discards any influence classic rock groups like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin have had on Korn; "Nobody in the band ever listened to that stuff." Much of Korn's work has also been inspired by hip hop music, as suggested in the band's song "All in the Family" and the cover song of Ice Cube's "Wicked". The band imitated the samples used by Cypress Hill, with Davis going as far to say "If there's no Cypress Hill there would be no Korn." In the Guitar World section "The Album that Changed My Life" of January 1997, Welch