If you can find it, because after Korn released "Reward the Scars," their first song since the 2022 album Requiem, YouTube went a bit off with the tune, the nu metal band's latest bon mot is worthy of being heard. Not because it's overly good, but because it's Korn. That's where it gets complicated.
Jonathan Davis and his mates, you see, are iconic kings of their metal sub-genre, but they are also so derivative at times that telling the difference in their early music and Marilyn Manson cover bands is somewhat difficult. Let it be known that Davis appears to be a better human being than Manson, but the music is what we care about here currently.
The new song is part of the video game expansion kit for Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred. So, not an organic tune leading up to a Korn album, but rather, one that is used to draw interest to an outlying commodity. If that isn't the business of Korn in a nutshell, I am not sure what is.
Korn unleashes "Reward the Scars" for a video game, but is the song any good?
That doesn't mean the song inherently has no value. One must hear it before it can be judged. The official drop date is April 27, and anyone and everyone can judge for themselves then. The key is that longtime fans will be fine with it. Those who aren't might find the tune sounds like loads of other tracks of the same ilk.
The guitars are massive, the vocals somewhat buried but clear enough, and the bass is heavy and felt. It's, well...fine. But it isn't among the best works of Korn, nor anywhere close to songs of those greater metal gods like Metallica or Electric Wizard. If you are playing the video game and the song comes on, cool. If it suddenly plays on your radio, maybe turn it.
Heck, you might even turn the dial and find "Freak on a Leash," which is still nowhere near as good as Marilyn Manson's "1996," but at least both are better than "Reward the Scars." The latter is a decent hymn to the metal republic, but not one that will last long in your brain.
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