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Korn once wrote a song called "Ya'll Want a Single" that taunted the caricature of the greedy record executives who demand "marketable" one-offs from their dogged workhorses. The message was playfully sneering, but there was almost a subtle irony to hearing it from Korn — a band who've reliably knocked out banging singles for their entire career without having to sacrifice their singular artistic flair.
Although metal is typically a genre that's best digested in album form, and Korn sequences their records in a way that rewards deep listening, they're also a group who can just as easily to be enjoyed in individual song form. From the material on their 1994 debut and their chart-topping run in the late Nineties, up to the cathartic 2021 single "Start the Healing," Korn know how to give the audience what they want to hear.
We asked our readers to distill the band's gigantic discography down to one, flawless, definitive song, and tallying up the votes wasn't easy due to the sheer range of answers. Nevertheless, the top five vote-getters are ranked accordingly below.
5. "Falling Away From Me"
There's a reason why "Falling Away From Me" is one of Korn's most beloved songs. The breakout single from their 1999 album, Issues, tips back and forth between the light, reverby guitar lead and a knockout chorus in which Jonathan Davis sings, "Beating me down ... into the ground," with even more desperate conviction each time it comes back around. From the emotionality of the lyrics to the thrashing breakdown, it's got everything a Korn song needs.
4. "Got the Life"
As Korn went into the recording of 1998's Follow the Leader as bona fide superstars, they suddenly had the confidence (and the budget) to make music that refined the edges of their sound without impeding on their quirky, experimental tendencies. "Got the Life" is a brisk banger with an almost drum-and-bass-like rhythm, hip-hop ad-libs and doe-eyed "ah-ah" harmonies that make it a fun and fresh antidote to the mostly nightmarish, mucky vibe of their previous records. Crucially, it still whips.
3. "Freak on a Leash"
Even if you don't know Korn, you probably know "Freak on a Leash" — but that certainly doesn't mean that it's just an entry-level, for-the-masses outlier. On the contrary, this Follow the Leader standout features one of Davis' iconic scat freakouts, a warbly vocal inflection during the verses and one of the band's most pummeling breakdowns, making it one of the weirdest and heaviest metal songs of its radio-ruling caliber.
2. "Here to Stay"
"Here to Stay" is the opening song on one of the most expensive albums ever recorded, the band's 2002 album Untouchables, and it still sounds gritty as fuck. With monstrously chunky riffage, devastating drumming and one of Davis' most impressive vocal performances, Korn were still operating at full-force on this heater — reinforcing its affirmative title that they weren't going fucking anywhere.
1. "Blind"
"Are you ready?" It's one of metal's most quintessential lyrics at this point, and it arrives within the first minute of the opening song on Korn's debut album. The band have written dozens of incredible riffs and savory grooves since 1994, but "Blind" really perfected their signature sound from the jump — pun intended, because this signature anthem was made to soundtrack people bouncing in the mosh pit.
