KORN Is 'Passionately And Intensely Working On New Music': 'It's The Heaviest Stuff' We've Done 'In Years'

In a new interview with the WSOU 89.5 FM radio station, KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to the band's 2022 album "Requiem". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I'll just say, yes, we are passionately and intensely working on new music. We're a little bit behind. We've been really digging deep into sounds and tones and miking techniques and just really focusing on every aspect of just the miking and the sonic levels of everything because… I love the last few records we've done in the last 10 years, but I think — I just have something in me that thinks we could beat the tones. I love the songs that we've done, but tone-wise I feel like we can beat it. So we're spending a lot more time on this new music, we're spending a lot more money [chuckles], and we don't have any record label involved, so it's all coming from us. And we really want to dissect our sound and remember where we came from and how we did it back then. And having a vintage KORN feel with a modern twist — sonically, I'm talking about. So it's very intense. The songs are amazing. I'm very proud of it. I feel like we are closer than we've ever been in the studio. And Jonathan [Davis, KORN singer] has been there every day."

According to Welch, he and his KORN bandmates are working on new music "off and on. We'll work for — I don't know — a couple of weeks. Then I won't see [Jonathan] for a month or two," he explained. "But it's starting to pick up now because we wanna put new music out. We're a little bit behind, but we're very proud of what we're doing. And we can't wait for people to hear it."

Regarding the musical direction of the new KORN material, Brian said: "I think it's the best and heaviest KORN stuff in years. And I think it's gonna be raw and just kind of more basic, as far as sound and recording and everything. I don't wanna give it all away, but we're just very, very pleased with where we're at right now."

Welch — who rejoined KORN more than a decade ago, eight years after leaving the band and at the same time announcing that he kicked his addictions to drugs and alcohol by becoming a born-again Christian — also clarified that he and the rest of KORN "haven't started recording" the band's next album "yet, but we're very passionately heading toward that direction. And we can't wait for everybody to hear it."

KORN recently revealed the details of a 25-city North American fall tour featuring support from GOJIRA and SPIRITBOX. The announcement came shortly after the band's 30th-anniversary show at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on October 5 sold out.

The Live Nation-promoted tour will kick off on September 12 in Tampa at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre, followed by shows in Charlotte, Newark, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, Denver, Kansas City, Houston, Tulsa and Omaha before wrapping up on October 27 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Welch officially returned to KORN in 2013, one year after joining the band onstage at the Carolina Rebellion festival in Rockingham, North Carolina to perform "Blind".

Since his conversion to Christ 19 years ago, Welch has been very open about how God changed his lifestyle and restored his relationship with his daughter.

In recent years, Brian has been preaching that people don't have to wait until they die to see if having an encounter with the presence of God is real.

Both Welch and KORN bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu have had highly public, though separate, conversion experiences, ones that have been greeted with a certain amount of skepticism.

Fieldy announced in June 2021 that he would sit out KORN's tour in order to "heal" after "falling back" on some of his "bad habits." He has since been replaced on the road by SUICIDAL TENDENCIES bassist Roberto "Ra" Díaz.

Released in February 2022, "Requiem", which was produced by Chris Collier and KORN, entered Billboard's Hard Rock Albums chart at No. 1. The band sold 23,000 equivalent album units in the February 4-10, 2022 tracking week, according to Billboard. Of that sum, 20,000 units were from album sales. "Requiem" also landed at No. 2 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums charts. On the all-format Billboard 200, it arrived at No. 14.

Despite the fact that he hasn't performed with his KORN bandmates for three years, Fieldy did play on "Requiem".