Korn

Korn enlist some big names for album No. 8, but that doesn't stop them from creating freaky tunes of Stephen King-like proportions. As producers Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder of NIN fame spatter Korn's dark palette with industrial flair, drummer duty is split between singer Jonathan Davis, Missing Persons' Terry Bozzio and Bad Religion's Brooks Wackerman. The result is a coalescence of explosive, metallic percussion that prevails alongside proggy, celestial guitars and Davis' gravel-chewing bawls. Listen to "Intro," "Kiss" and "Do What They Say" and you may start sleeping with the lights on.

Strength is not always in numbers, but Korn - down to three members after losing guitarist
Brian "Head" Welch (to religion) and drummer David Silveria (officially on "hiatus") - sound
wounded and diminished now. The vengeful heft of 1998's Follow the Leader, Korn's best
album, is here only in fits and spurts: the industrial-grind guitar and cymbal splash of
"Innocent Bystander," the disfiguring fuzz on Jonathan Davis' singing in "Do What... More >