Korn: See You on the Other Side

Herald rating: ****

When guitarist Brian "Head" Welch left Korn last year because he found God, the band sat down for a yarn. They talked reinvention but they probably didn't discuss reinvigoration, since they wouldn't have thought they'd lost any oomph.

But they had, and the genre, let's call it rap-metal, that they pioneered, had turned to rubbish.

On this new album Korn get out of the swampy mire that bogged down their later albums and new tracks like first single Twisted Transistor and the neck-breaking assault of Souvenir are screamers rather than seethers.

Then there's 10 Or A 2-Way - a track with all the venom of Nine Inch Nails meets Killing Joke - which ends with disgustingly deep breathing and Davis playing a dirty bagpipe serenade.

Now that might sound a little dramatic and experimental for a band like Korn, but staunch rock remains their base. For Korn fans who lost faith, this is the album you've been waiting for since 1998's Follow the Leader. And for rap-metal fans, this is the re-awakening. Who would have thought Korn had it in them?

Label: Virgin