Korn

By the late-’90s, the seminal nu-metal group Korn was so popular that their video for “Got the Life” became the first video ever to be retired by MTV’s “Total Request Live.” Korn has struggled to recapture those commercial and critical heights after the turn of the century, however, confounding fans with unsure albums like 2007’s Untitled, which downplayed the band’s usually funky assault in favor of Beatlesque melodies and moody keyboards in the spirit of The Cure. This year, Korn is returning to the studio with their original producer, Ross Robinson, in hopes of recreating the energy that made them so popular a decade ago. That could prove to be a daunting task, though, given the departure of lead guitarist Brian “Head” Welch and drummer David Silveria.