 Korn begins with " Blind " , starting with the dueling riffs of James Shaffer and Brian Welch . Lead vocalist Jonathan Davis ' first line is " Are you ready ? ! " , which is now one of the band 's trademarks . Davis told Metal Hammer that on the album 's second track , " Ball Tongue " , he " didn 't sing a goddamn word in that song . I couldn 't describe what I wanted to do , so that 's how it came out . It 's a really heavy sound . " " Shoots and Ladders " is about Davis ' disgust with the society . The song explores the concept of nursery rhymes . Davis relates : " ' Shoots and Ladders ' uncovers the hidden messages in nursery rhymes , the first songs many of us ever hear . ' Shoots and Ladders ' , to set the record straight , calls out nursery rhymes for what they really are . I choose each rhyme for a different reason — ' Baa Baa Black Sheep ' has racist overtones . ' London Bridge ' talks of all the people of London dying ( from the Black Plague , as does ' Ring Around the Roses ' ) . Then there 's ' Little Red Riding Hood ' — one story tells of the wolf raping Red Riding Hood and killing her . " 
