Untouchables

On June 11, 2002, after a year and a half of hard work and a long creative process, Korn re-emerged into the media spotlight with their fifth album, Untouchables. It debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 with 434,000 in sales. Sales were disappointing in comparison to the first four albums, as Untouchables has only been certified Platinum once. The band has blame Internet piracy for the drop in sales, as an unmastered version of the album had leaked three months prior to its official release date.

The release of this album was preceded by a show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, a day prior to the album's release, broadcast digitally throughout U.S. movie theatres.Untouchables featured electronic beats, strings and various guitar effects the band had never used in an album before. The overall feel was drastically different from previous efforts, particularly tracks like "Alone I Break," "Hating," and "Hollow Life," which singer Jonathan Davis claims is one of his favorite Korn songs to this day.

The first two videos from Untouchables were directed by the Hughes Brothers (best known for their films, Menace II Society and From Hell). The first video, "Here to Stay," has the band playing inside a TV with a static background along with controversial news stories and world issues being presented. The song itself earned Korn a Grammy for Best Metal Performance,and would become their highest-peaking single on Billboard's Modern Rock chart. The second video, "Thoughtless", was a nod back to Davis' childhood as the character in the video (previously featured in the first Vanilla Coke commercial) is picked on and constantly beaten. The third video for Untouchables, "Alone I Break," was directed by Sean Dack, who won the honor of directing the video through an MTV contest.

Issues

The band's fourth album, Issues, produced by Brendan O'Brien, was released on November 16, 1999, featuring cover art designed by Alfredo Carlos, who won a contest held for the fans by MTV. Issues was released during a week of many highly-anticipated records. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with more than 573,000 copies sold keeping Dr. Dre's long-awaited album 2001 and Celine Dion's greatest hits album from hitting #1.

To celebrate the album's release, the band performed the record in its entirety in front of a live audience at New York's historic Apollo Theater and broadcast the concert simultaneously across many radio stations.This performance made Korn the first rock band, and only the second predominantly white musical group, to ever perform at The Apollo, after the legendary Buddy Holly in the late 1950s. This special event featured the NYPD marching drum and bagpipe band conducted by Richard Gibbs as well as a group of back-up singers to enhance the more melodic choruses Davis used on the album.

Earlier that year, Korn had appeared on an episode of South Park, titled Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery, in which the first single from Issues, "Falling Away from Me", was premiered. Korn released two more singles from Issues, "Make Me Bad" and "Somebody Someone", both of which fared well on Billboard. Videos were shot for all three singles, with long time friend Fred Durst directing "Falling Away from Me", and Martin Weisz directing a concept video for "Make Me Bad", as well as a performance video for "Somebody Someone", which featured the use of CGI effects. Every video was a staple on Total Request Live, two of which made it to retirement. Issues is considered by some critics to be less hip hop-influenced and closer to alternative metal than nu metal. It was certified 3x Platinum, following up the success of Follow the Leader.

Life Is Peachy

Korn teamed up with Robinson once again for their second album, Life Is Peachy, released on October 15, 1996. Musically, it was similar to the first album, but also showed more of a funk influence on tracks like "Porno Creep" and "Swallow". The album included two covers, War's "Low Rider", with Davis' bagpipes and Welch on vocals, and Ice Cube's "Wicked", with guest vocalist Chino Moreno of Deftones. To help promote their new album, Korn opened for Metallica, and utilized the Internet. Life Is Peachy sold more than 106,000 copies in its first week and reached #3 on the Billboard 200. The first single, "No Place to Hide", spawned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. "A.D.I.D.A.S." was the second single and only music video, which also did well. The band gained more popularity after co-headlining the Lollapalooza music festival in 1997 with Tool. However, Korn was forced to drop off the bill after Shaffer was diagnosed with viral meningitis. Also that year, Korn augmented their growing crossover appeal by collaborating with Los Angeles-based production and remix duo the Dust Brotherson the track "Kick the P.A.". This track appeared on the motion picture soundtrack of the film Spawn.

In late 1997, Korn formed their own record label, Elementree Records. The first signing was Videodrone, whose singer, Ty Elam, is credited for giving Jonathan Davis singing lessons.Orgy, however, released their debut album prior to Videodrone's, giving Elementree its first Platinum certification. Orgy's guitarist, Ryan Shuck, is known for playing alongside Davis and Elam in the band Sexart. Over the next few years, Korn signed other acts like rapper Marz and Deadsy.