Korn at Hellfest 2025

Korn doesn’t need an introduction. They are a pivotal and highly influential band that changed the trajectory of metal and inspired countless others with their eerie, uneasy, and chuggy sound. It’s hard to describe what each teenager felt hearing them for the first time; it’s not a universal experience. I vaguely remember my now-longest-standing friend, Dawid, mentioning their name. I got home, looked them up, and hit play on “Here to Stay.” I think that was the first time I ever pulled that sour face. Others could have cried, got angry or felt something for the first time. The reactions they evoke are countless.

I still can’t believe it was only this year they headlined the stages of Download and Hellfest, such a long-overdue moment! Most of us have seen Korn before, my bro probably a million times, since he’s the superfan. But does it ever get boring? NO. They could be playing outside my window once a week, and I’d be just as excited as the first time. Judging by the thousands of people gathered in front of Mainstage 1, especially those packed at the very front, I think many felt the same way.

Not many bands can fill a setlist with banger after banger after banger. A never-ending list of hits the fanbase still obsessively listens to since the 90s. I have to say, even though the crowd looked a bit worse for wear after a long day in the sun, they still found the energy to give Korn everything they had. Watching Fieldy work that bass on the big screen, accompanied by Hellfest’s insane fire display, perfectly synced with his slapping and popping, made for an unmatched atmosphere. Korn sounds cold and industrial, metallic and alien at times. That aesthetic hit especially hard during this set, a chilly frosted tips throwback to the early 2000s that helped to nurse day one sunburns.

For Korn, “Blind” started it all. It’s the song I sometimes put on to kick off the new year, perfectly aligning that iconic “Are you ready?!” with the midnight countdown (again under my bro’s influence). On the Hellfest stage, it sounded extra epic, but you can’t help but wonder how it would hit in a small, tightly packed venue like the ones they used to tear up in the ’90s. “Twist” was next, currently a main character in metal meme culture thanks to those funky beatbox sounds. We all desperately tried to replicate them in our teens (and, let’s be honest, we still do now, with zero shame). Their set was truly relentless, packed with hit after hit, filling the entire 1.5-hour headline slot. Each song carried its memories, locked in its sound. Hearing them now felt like stepping into a time machine, back to the days when your biggest worries were your school grades and dodging bullies.

Jonathan Davis was in fantastic vocal form, nailing the scatty beatboxing, growls, and screams that deliver those traumatic, yet strangely healing, lyrics that have helped entire generations feel seen.

One thing I’ve always loved about the alternative scene, especially from that era, is how it embraced quirks and promoted chaos over perfection. The ’90s and early 2000s are now idealised by younger fans who wish they’d been born a generation earlier. Korn was a pioneer not just musically, but also stylistically. And I say that while rocking Adidas head to toe — a look that in Western culture was practically synonymous with the band, while for us in the East, it also screamed straight-up gopnik. That makes Davis a gopnik — he’s one of us, the renegades.

Korn were being played on primetime TV during peak hours, catching in their net exactly those who needed them the most. That relevance hasn’t faded — and they keep proving it, time and time again, like they did on that Thursday evening at Hellfest. I hope we get to enjoy them for many, many more years, and that those just now discovering their sound had the opportunity to feel those fat bass rhythms pounding in their chest.