Korn: Parents hate 'em, kids love 'em

Just as it's always been with rock 'n' roll, the more kids love it, the more Mom and Dad are bound to hate it. And, oh boy, do the kids love Korn.

Riding high on the pummeling success of its fifth album, "Untouchables," Korn is still outraging most grown-ups with profane death-rap-meets-death-metal stylings, and still thrilling their mostly youthful fan base with same.

Korn has amassed a fiercely loyal following since its single-handed invention of a punk/metal/hip-hop sub-genre almost a decade ago. The emphasis is decidedly on fierce, as anyone who's been exposed to the cult of Korn can vouch.

Cult leader is dreadlocked frontman Jonathan Davis, who's used his abundance of inner demons to fuel lyrics that are the epitome of gloom-rock darkness.

Along with guitarist bandmates "Munky," "Head," "Fieldy" and nicknameless drummer David Silveria, he's spawned an earsplitting movement that's also made stars of runners-up like Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Godsmack and System of a Down.

Much has been made among Korn fanatics of how each album takes the band in a new direction at the same time it leaves the glut of imitators in the rubble. To outsiders, it probably all sounds like so much angry noise. But "Untouchables" has been viewed by those in the know as more of a return to form, with some of the darkest, heaviest and downright melodious Korn numbers ever.

That's certainly true of the album's first single, "Here to Stay," with its churning riffs of slap bass and guitars, tuned and played brutally low in Korn's signature style. But, hey, is that a tuneful pop hook buried inside Davis' pained wail?

Other songs have less to do with pop and more to do with the curse-ridden angst that has endeared Davis and Korn to so many.

"My life is such a waste / Begging for something to work this time / But why can't I relate?" are lyrics from "Hating."

From "Wake up Hate": "I am the burden of my everything / And of its scar / I'll be reborn in hatred / Feeling I can't love no more."

Feel-good music? It is undeniably so for legions of skaters, punkers, metalheads and ordinary fans who can't get enough of Korn, especially when it's served up hot and fresh in the mosh pit.

Ted Fry: tedfry@earthlink.net.