For nearly 30 years, nu metal band Korn have consistently churned out music for enthusiastic fans.

The group unveiled their 14th studio album, Requiem, this month after a cryptic campaign teasing the release. To promote the album, Korn will be at Memorial Coliseum on Monday, March 7, with special guests Chevelle and Code Orange.

“It is an album born of time and the ability to create without pressure,” according to a press release. “Energized by a new creative process, free of time constraints, the band was able to do things with Requiem that the past two decades haven’t always afforded them, such as taking additional time to experiment together or diligently recording to analog tape: Processes which unearthed newfound sonic dimension and texture in their music.”

When asked by Spotlight Report about whether the band intended for the nine-song album to tell an overarching story, guitarist Brian “Head” Welch said: “I was talking to somebody earlier about the songs and we wrote more than nine songs, we wrote 13 songs, and we just felt this batch fit together the most. Maybe subconsciously we felt it was like they told (a) story. I remember saying, ‘We don’t need more songs, these nine are the ones.’ ”

In his review for AllMusic.com, Neil Z. Yeung said, “Against the odds, Korn have done it again with Requiem, a quick and ferocious blast that finds the band still hungry and innovative nearly 30 years into the game.”

While bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu did play on Requiem, he is on hiatus from the band. Robert “Ra” Diaz of Suicidal Tendencies will be his replacment on the tour.

Visual Representation

The album’s first single, “Start the Healing,” debuted at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative chart and stayed there two weeks.

“Our idea for this video was to mutate that aspect of the DNA of Korn, of what makes them so inspiring, their mix of raw power and transportive aesthetics and human emotion,” music video director Tim Saccenti said in a statement.

“I wanted to take the viewer on an emotional journey as the song does, a visceral, cathartic death and rebirth that will hopefully help transport the listener through whatever their personal struggles are,” he said. “Collaborating with 3-D artist Anthony Ciannamea, we tapped into Korn’s mythology and explored their vast well of light and darkness to create a surreal, liminal-pace body-horror nightmare.”

Finding Their Sound

Head told Spotlight Report about where he thinks the iconic Korn sound originated.

“I just know that at the beginning of Korn, we were fans of music; we just loved, and still love, listening to other bands,” he said. “We love bands like Pantera, Sepultura, Machine Head, (Nine Inch Nails), Rage Against the Machine, and I can go on and on. Fieldy was a huge fan of Flea of the (Red Hot) Chili Peppers and Faith No More, you know they have different styles playing in those bands, so we kind of took them all in, all those influences.

“Alice in Chains was also a big influence, so there were different types of music,” he said. “The Red Hot Chili Peppers have nothing really in common (with heavier bands), but just having that kind of funk input in the background, with the darkness of Alice in Chains and the grit heaviness of Pantera, was right. We wanted all of it, not some bits, we wanted all of that into our music.

“That’s why we included them, we were like, ‘Why can’t we include all of it? What’s stopping us from taking all those different styles?’ ”