# Korn
**Korn** (stylized KoЯn) is an American nu metal band formed in 1993 in [Bakersfield, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/bakersfield-california), whose downtuned seven-string guitars, groove-heavy rhythm section, and raw confessional lyrics made it the band most often credited with establishing the nu metal genre. The original lineup consisted of vocalist [Jonathan Davis](https://www.edgepedia.org/jonathan-davis), guitarists James "Munky" Shaffer and Brian "Head" Welch, bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and drummer [David Silveria](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-silveria); Ray Luzier has played drums since 2007.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/korn-mn0000112789/biography) • [2](https://www.classicrockhistory.com/complete-list-of-korn-band-members/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1993, Bakersfield, California, by three members of L.A.P.D. plus vocalist Jonathan Davis of the local band Sexart[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/korn-mn0000112789/biography) |
| Debut | *Korn* (1994), recorded at Indigo Ranch Studios for $14,000, released on Epic's Immortal imprint[3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact) |
| Commercial peak | *Follow the Leader* (1998) debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold 3.4 million copies per SoundScan[4](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2002/BB-2002-05-04.pdf) |
| Awards | Two Grammy Awards from eight nominations: Best Short Form Music Video for "Freak on a Leash" (2000) and Best Metal Performance for "Here to Stay" (2003)[3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact) |
| Signature sound | Seven-string guitars tuned to A D G C F A D, putting the open low string at 55 Hz[5](https://tunelit.com/bands/korn/) |
| Current lineup | Founding members Shaffer, Welch, and Davis, plus drummer Ray Luzier (joined 2007)[2](https://www.classicrockhistory.com/complete-list-of-korn-band-members/) |
## Origins
The band grew out of L.A.P.D., a funk-metal group formed in Bakersfield in the late 1980s by Shaffer, Arvizu, and Silveria, influenced by [Faith No More](https://www.edgepedia.org/faith-no-more) and the [Red Hot Chili Peppers](https://www.edgepedia.org/red-hot-chili-peppers). After a series of lineup changes the band briefly renamed itself Creep and added guitarist Brian "Head" Welch. The members then saw Jonathan Davis, then a 22-year-old frontman of the local band Sexart, performing live, and asked him to join; upon his arrival the quintet renamed itself Korn.[6](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/korn-interview-jonathan-davis-frontman-numetal-24-year-career-appraisal-a7765136.html) • [1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/korn-mn0000112789/biography) Davis was working as a mortuary science student at the time.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/korn-mn0000112789/biography)
The band first showcased its approach on the 1993 demo *Neidermayer's Mind* before signing to Epic's Immortal imprint.[3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact)
## The debut and the birth of nu metal
**Korn (1994).** Recorded at Indigo Ranch Studios in California for $14,000 and produced by Ross Robinson, the self-titled debut initially drew a mixed critical response but has since come to be regarded as a foundational metal record. Its twelve tracks combined downtuned seven-string guitars, hip-hop-influenced rhythms, and Davis's lyrics about childhood trauma, bullying, and abuse, including the closing song "Daddy," which deals with abuse Davis suffered as a child.[3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact) The album was a slow-burning seller: it took nearly 18 months to reach its peak of No. 72 on the Billboard 200, but eventually sold 10 million copies worldwide.[3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact)
The record is widely seen as reifying the nu metal movement and establishing the genre's tropes, which bands such as [Limp Bizkit](https://www.edgepedia.org/limp-bizkit), Slipknot, and [Linkin Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/linkin-park) developed further.[7](https://sites.usnh.edu/commentary/wp-content/uploads/sites/137/2023/07/final_manuscript_2022_latest.pdf) Robinson went on to produce many of the scene's pivotal records, including Slipknot's and Limp Bizkit's debuts, and [Sepultura](https://www.edgepedia.org/sepultura) hired him to replicate the sound on their 1996 album *Roots*.[3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact)
## Rise to commercial peak
The follow-up, *Life Is Peachy* (1996), reached number three on the charts and offered more mature song structures, with rock-radio staples such as "Twist" and "Good God."[8](https://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/korn.html) • [4](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2002/BB-2002-05-04.pdf) In 1998 the band released *Follow the Leader*, its biggest release to date, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the hit singles "Got the Life" and "Freak on a Leash."[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/korn-mn0000112789/biography) The same year Korn launched its own rock festival, the Family Values Tour.[4](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2002/BB-2002-05-04.pdf)
**Untouchables (2002).** The band's fifth album became known for its production as much as its music: each member rented an individual mansion in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Canada at $10,000 apiece, Davis worked in isolation, and producer Michael Beinhorn's exacting process stretched the record over two years at a cost of over $3 million, making it one of the most expensive albums ever made. The single "Here to Stay" won the band its second Grammy, for Best Metal Performance, at the 45th [Grammy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/grammy-awards) in 2003.[9](https://www.loudersound.com/music/korn-here-to-stay-story)
## Sound and the seven-string guitar
Korn did not invent the seven-string guitar, but the band made it a staple of heavy music. Munky, a [Steve Vai](https://www.edgepedia.org/steve-vai) fan, picked up a seven-string because of Vai's Ibanez Universe and invited Head to jam on one; both guitarists have played Ibanez seven-strings since, from the early Universe models to later signature instruments.[5](https://tunelit.com/bands/korn/) The band's signature tuning is A D G C F A D, a whole step below standard seven-string tuning, which puts the open low A at 55 Hz, deep in bass territory. Most Korn riffs live on the bottom two or three strings, using the open low A, the D above it, dissonant intervals, and muted percussive picking, with the high strings reserved for clean lines, harmonics, and effects.[5](https://tunelit.com/bands/korn/) Fieldy matched the guitars with a five-string bass so he could tune to the same low register.[10](https://www.boss.info/us/community/boss_users_group/818/)
The low tunings created practical problems. Munky has described frequent intonation issues in the studio, where doubled takes put string pitch under a microscope, and the band later adopted EverTune bridges for tuning stability.[11](https://guitar.com/features/interviews/munky-korn-the-nothing/) • [12](https://www.guitarworld.com/news/korn-evertune-bridges) In a 2016 interview about *[The Serenity of Suffering](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-serenity-of-suffering)*, Head said the band first wrote on [eight-string guitars](https://www.edgepedia.org/eight-string-guitar), then moved the songs they kept back to seven-strings because Davis felt the eight-string ideas did not sound like Korn.[5](https://tunelit.com/bands/korn/)
## Later career and lineup changes
[Ray Luzier](https://www.edgepedia.org/ray-luzier) began working with Korn in 2007 and became a permanent member in 2009, replacing original drummer David Silveria.[2](https://www.classicrockhistory.com/complete-list-of-korn-band-members/) Bassist Fieldy, a member for nearly 30 years, stopped touring with the band, citing the COVID-19 pandemic in explaining his departure.[13](https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/bassists/why-fieldy-left-korn) The band's studio albums through 2022 include *The Path of Totality* (2011), produced with dubstep artist Skrillex, *The Serenity of Suffering* (2016), *The Nothing* (2019), and *Requiem* (2022).[14](https://www.allmusic.com/album/issues-mw0000252370) • [3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact)
## Reception and influence
Critical reception of the band has shifted over time. The Los Angeles Times initially summarized the debut's bleak themes as "a failure, or at least a crippling narrowness, of vision," while later assessments have placed the album alongside [Black Sabbath](https://www.edgepedia.org/black-sabbath)'s debut and Metallica's *Master of Puppets* as a genre-defining record.[3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact) Scholarly work on nu metal has examined how cultural gatekeepers received the genre as inadequately masculine for metal even as it out-performed more canonically accepted subgenres commercially, with Korn as a central case study.[15](https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/10162/) Davis himself has embraced the band's role: "The last big movement was us. Other bands helped along the way, but we spearheaded that whole thing," he told *Kerrang!* in 2019.[3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact)
The band's awards record reflects its crossover reach: two Grammy Awards from eight nominations, including Best Short Form Music Video for "Freak on a Leash" in 2000, and two [MTV Video Music Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/mtv-video-music-awards) from nine nominations.[3](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact)
## References
1. [Korn — Biography, Discography, Albums & Expert Reviews, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/korn-mn0000112789/biography)
2. [Complete List Of Korn Band Members, ClassicRockHistory.com](https://www.classicrockhistory.com/complete-list-of-korn-band-members/)
3. [Anything But Predictable: How 'Korn' Pioneered Nu-Metal, GRAMMY.com](https://iq.grammy.com/news/korn-debut-album-anniversary-nu-metal-impact)
4. [Billboard, 4 May 2002 issue, World Radio History archive](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2002/BB-2002-05-04.pdf)
5. [Korn Tunings — every album and song, measured, TuneLit](https://tunelit.com/bands/korn/)
6. [Korn interview with Jonathan Davis, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/korn-interview-jonathan-davis-frontman-numetal-24-year-career-appraisal-a7765136.html)
7. [Nu-Metal: How a Music Genre Defined a Generation of American Culture](https://sites.usnh.edu/commentary/wp-content/uploads/sites/137/2023/07/final_manuscript_2022_latest.pdf)
8. [The History of Rock Music: Korn, Piero Scaruffi](https://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/korn.html)
9. [How a grudge and an obscenely expensive bill pushed Korn to write one of their biggest anthems, Louder](https://www.loudersound.com/music/korn-here-to-stay-story)
10. [BOSS Users Group: Korn](https://www.boss.info/us/community/boss_users_group/818/)
11. [Recording The Nothing was not an easy process, says Munky, Guitar.com](https://guitar.com/features/interviews/munky-korn-the-nothing/)
12. [Korn's Brian 'Head' Welch and James 'Munky' Shaffer on EverTune bridges, Guitar World](https://www.guitarworld.com/news/korn-evertune-bridges)
13. [Former Korn bassist Fieldy opens up on why he left the band, Guitar World](https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/bassists/why-fieldy-left-korn)
14. [Korn: Issues Tracks & Reviews, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/issues-mw0000252370)
15. [Follow the Leader: Genre Formation and Gendered Reception of Nu Metal Music, Clare L. King, Western University](https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/10162/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Music scenes › Transnational genre scenes › Heavy metal scenes › Artists, groups, and people: Heavy metal scenes › Modern Metal & -core*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license