Korn is the band that cemented nu-metal as a genre just as it is the group that signaled the subgenre's creative death a few years ago.
Life was peachy in the mid-'90s when the California quintet assaulted the mainstream with its blistering, unfaltering approach to metal, which involved equal parts hip-hop and punk. Records such as Korn's eponymous debut and its Life Is Peachy follow-up are nu-metal primers, and they proved the band's fierce mission of keeping things fresh.
But then came a strange period for the band. It was active -- making records and touring -- but simultaneously inactive in its pushing of the envelope and proverbial buttons. The band was stuck in a rut, and when it released its greatest hits in 2004 (the first nu-metal band to reach such a milestone), it was almost a gravedigger's morose but still celebratory lullaby.
Last year's See You on the Other Side showed that the band wasn't about to call it quits. Korn has sold more than 1.5 million copies of Other Side worldwide already, which is a far cry from its numbers a decade ago, but no one is complaining -- the show is sold out!