Korn blasts its rebellion in elaborate production

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Concert review

Korn, Staind and "Spike & Mike's Twisted Animation Festival," Monday night at KeyArena, Seattle Center.

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It's Korn's turn.

There's always one key rock band that taps into the pent-up frustration, aggression and rebelliousness of every generation of teenage males. Right now that band is Korn.

And Korn's "Sick and Twisted Tour" reflects its position at the top of the testosterone hit parade. It's the biggest, most elaborate production yet for the California band, with a huge stage, blinding lights and a sound system said to be in the Guinness Book of World Records as the loudest.

The hugeness of it all was fully revealed at the second of two long encores, when a mammoth replica of the band's distressed teddy-bear logo - an apt symbol for the end of childhood innocence - appeared onstage, from out of nowhere. It was as tall as a two-story building. A dozen or so pillars of fire erupted around the stage to greet the monster teddy.

Musically, Korn has never sounded so tight and powerful. The head-banging rhythms of drummer David Silveria and bassist Fieldy never let up. Lead singer Jonathan Davis screamed, whispered, growled and babbled in tongues like something out of "The Exorcist." He wore a black priest's cassock for most of the show, changing into a black kilt for the encores.

What sets Korn off from previous bands of its genre - such as Kiss, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Motley Crue and Marilyn Manson - is the shimmering, electronic buzz and spacey, other-worldly overlay from the dual, seven-string, open-tuned guitars of James "Munky" Shaffer and Brian "Head" Welch.

Emphasizing the most popular cuts from its four albums, as chosen by fans on the band's Web site, Korn kept the capacity crowd pumped with nonstop songs about being lonely, afraid, picked on and dumped. Songs like "Am I Going Crazy," "Freak on A Leash," "Dead Bodies Everywhere" and "Falling Away From Me."

The whole main floor of KeyArena was packed solid with roiling, fist-waving, slam-dancing, tightly squeezed bodies. A dozen mosh pits erupted around the floor, with shirtless guys violently smashing into each other in time to the music. Down near the front of the stage, a steady stream of body-surfers rolled over the top of the crowd. By the end of the 90-minute set, most seemed to have vented their frustrations.

The show also included rude and dirty cartoons from the longstanding "Spike & Mike's Twisted Animation Festival" and a short set of metal from a band called Staind.