Korn

Korn have intellectualised their splenic new-metal as they’ve declined commercially. But their ninth disc jettisons layered samples and pointy-headed craft for a live-band blitz, mutating the bleakest aspects of rap, rock, funk and industrial into a molten attack. “I’m such a stupid fuck/Listening to my head and not my gut,” Jonathan Davis chides on ”˜Let the Guilt Go,’ typifying the album’s aggro-Zen attitude. New drummer Ray Luzier contributes some disco swing. But the draw is Davis, who spits scarred-teen scat like a guy whose parents just signed him up for military school. Not easy when you’re pushing 40.

Key Tracks: “Let the Guilt Go,” “Fear Is a Place to Live”