After four years of silence on the new music front, Korn have released ‘Reward the Scars’, a track tied directly to the upcoming Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred expansion.
There’s no rollout or drawn out teasing, just a sudden hit across socials that caught fans mid scroll and wide awake, just the kind of news you like to wake up to.
The band confirmed the track was inspired by the Diablo universe, and it shows, there’s a grim weight to it from the first few seconds, the intro rolls in with militant drums before the guitars kick the door in, thick, ugly, and unmistakably Korn (per Revolver).
Jonathan Davis sounds right at home amongst it, his voice slips between a low, uneasy murmur and something more desperate, threading through the track like a warning signal buried in static, when he hits the line, “Help me free the ones I saved / I can’t walk the path that’s laid,” it lands like a mission prompt dragged straight out of the game’s underworld.
A familiar sound with a sharper edge
‘Reward the Scars’ doesn’t try to reinvent Korn, instead, it leans into what they’ve always done best, that twitchy, off kilter groove paired with suffocating atmosphere, it feels closer to their darker catalogue than anything polished or radio-friendly.
That choice makes sense, Diablo isn’t exactly a bright, heroic playground, it’s rot, blood, and moral decay and Korn tap into that tone without forcing it.
What this means for new Korn music
The track marks their first release since 2022’s ‘Requiem’, and while a follow up record has been floating in development limbo for years, there’s still no firm word on when it’ll land.
What we do know is that Korn are about to hit the stage at Sick New World in Las Vegas this weekend, whether ‘Reward the Scars’ makes its live debut there is anyone’s guess, but it’d be a missed opportunity if it didn’t.
The Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred expansion drops April 28th across major platforms, dragging Korn’s latest into the game’s blood soaked orbit.
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