‘Untouchable’ Korn bring alt-metal anthems to Birmingham’s Utilita Arena

It’s more than a decade since their last proper jaunt across the UK – so there was a genuine excitement among the thousands of fans pouring into the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on Wednesday night.

(That excitement extended to this writer – who hadn’t seen the band play their own headline gig for more than a quarter of a century!)

It hasn’t been quite as long since the Bakersfield nu-metal titans last album, with their 14th LP Requiem released in 2022.

Korn arrived in town without a new album to promote – however, their sophomore album Life Is Peachy turned 30 this year.

The night wasn’t about celebrating the record in its entirety, but four tracks got an outing with ‘kilt-wearing and occasional bagpipe-playing’ frontman Jonathan Davis acknowledging the anniversary and the album’s significance early on.

Korn’s 18-song set was packed with hit after hit from across their career, pulling tracks from their iconic early albums with a smattering of songs from others.

Alt-metal, nu-metal – call it what you want. There’s been a massive resurgence in the popularity of the genre in recent years as new generations have discovered bands from the era’s late 90s origins.

It’s no hyperbole to stress quite how game changing Korn’s self-titled debut album was upon its release in the mid-1990s.

Following opening sets by LA hardcore EBM duo Youth Code and the UK’s own metalcore giants Architects, the silhouettes of Davis – flanked by guitarists Munky and Head – filled a giant curtain in front of the stage as the opening bars of set opener It’s On kicked in.

The packed-to-capacity Utilita Arena went wild as the curtain dropped to reveal Korn, the trio augmented by drummer Ray Luzier - perched high-up on a drum riser - along with bassist Roberto Diaz who spent most of the night loitering back in the shadows.

Four vertical pillars of LED lights anchored each corner of the stage while pulses of white and red flashed out at the crowd – largely leaving all five band members silhouetted.

As their opener gave way to the huge riff of Here To Stay from 2002’s Untouchables album, you could be forgiven for thinking Korn had opted to ‘keep it safe and simple’ with their stage design.

However, by the time Got The Life from 1998’s Follow The Leader arrived, the band were surrounded on all sides and from above by LED screens, projecting different imagery.

While there’s riffs - and lots of them, Korn have also always been about dark, twisted grooves – and all night Munky and Head thrashed away on either side of the stage, tearing out discordant riffs that one minute are seemingly battling against the other and the next, interwoven and complementing each other – all while Diaz’s bass rattled away in the mix.

In Davis, Korn have one of rock’s iconic frontmen.

Dressed all in black, the only flash of colour is his red-handheld microphone.

More than three decades on, he still sounds great, with his vocals shifting between delivering all-out screaming, whispered passages and huge melodies.

One of the first big singalongs of the night was A.D.I.D.A.S while Shoots and Ladders saw Davis don bagpipes for the first time.

For all their heaviness, there’s always been a melodic edge to Korn, with the likes of Make Be Bad and Falling Away From Me tapping into the band’s knack to write glorious pop-tinged melodies and choruses.

Whether they’re opening their set with it, or bringing it towards its conclusion, Blind remains an absolute powerhouse and genre defining song.

And, as you’d expect, the thousands inside scream its hook of “Are you ready” as the song exploded into life.

From there on in, it was just the somewhat fun silliness of Twisted Transistor and finale of Freak on a Leash – accompanied with blasts of tickertape – before the band brought their set to a close.

Not many bands change the face of heavy music. Not many bands sound as good as Korn do this far into their career.

The set was a safe one – a triumphant journey through their biggest hits with something for fans who’d been there since the 1990s or those who’d only recently picked up a record for the first time.

Korn remain untouchable. Let’s just hope they don’t leave it another decade before their next run of headline gigs.

Korn played:

It's On!

Here to Stay

Reward the Scars

Got the Life

Rotting in Vain

Twist

Chi

A.D.I.D.A.S.

Kill You

Am I Going Crazy

Shoots and Ladders

Coming Undone

Did My Time

Make Me Bad

Y'All Want a Single

Encore:

Dead

Falling Away From Me

Blind

Twisted Transistor

Freak on a Leash