Nu metal legends Korn are back. After more than three years of studio silence, the Bakersfield five-piece have returned with a brand new single — Reward The Scars — released on 23 April 2026 across all major streaming platforms.
The track arrives as an official collaboration with Diablo IV and its upcoming expansion pack, Lord Of Hatred, which launches on major consoles and Windows on 28 April 2026. It's a pairing that makes a certain kind of dark, visceral sense — Korn's abrasive, groove-heavy sound has always felt like it belongs in the underworld.
The First New Korn Music Since Requiem
Reward The Scars marks Korn's first studio recording since February 2022, when they released their 14th studio album Requiem. That's over three years between releases — an unusually long gap for a band that, since guitarist Brian Head Welch's return, had been putting out records every two to three years.
Speaking to Loudwire earlier this year, Head addressed the extended break:
I really love the fact that it's taking a long time. I always told management that I wish that we would wait a little bit between albums. We're just so addicted to the studio that we get in there and we're putting albums out every two or three years, ever since I rejoined. And so I love that there's been delays.
No new album has been announced, but Reward The Scars suggests the creative engine is very much still running.
A New Chapter Without Fieldy
The single is also notable for being Korn's first studio recording without founding bassist Reginald Fieldy Arvizu, who parted ways with the band following the recording of Requiem. Roberto Ra Diaz, who has been filling in live since late 2021, continues in that role.
Fieldy recently broke his silence on the split in an appearance on the Shady Characters podcast, revealing that his decision not to get vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic — and the resulting inability to tour internationally — was the root cause of the separation.
Korn: A Legacy That Refuses to Fade
Formed in Bakersfield, California in 1993, Korn released their self-titled debut in 1994 via Immortal/Epic Records. Drawing on funk, rap, and metal, it's widely recognised as one of the founding documents of nu metal as a genre. Their third album, 1998's Follow The Leader, broke them into the mainstream, and alongside contemporaries like Deftones and Limp Bizkit, they made nu metal one of the biggest heavy music movements of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Commercial momentum slowed in the mid-2000s, but the nu metal revival of the early 2020s — driven in large part by TikTok and a new generation of heavy music fans — brought Korn back into the cultural conversation in a major way. In 2024, they headlined Gunnersbury Park in London to a reported 40,000 fans, supported by Loathe, Wargasm, and Spiritbox — their largest-ever UK headline show.
Shop Korn Merch at Wonderhaul
Whether you've been a fan since Life Is Peachy or you're just discovering them through Reward The Scars, we've got you covered. Browse our full range of officially licensed Korn merchandise — from classic logo tees to limited-edition prints — and wear your devotion properly.