That detuned riff from "Freak on a Leash" and the voice that goes from a whisper to a scream within a single song, you probably know it even if you've never deliberately listened to Korn. But before fame, that voice embalmed the dead. Jonathan Davis started working at the Bakersfield coroner's office at seventeen, helped with autopsies, and then studied mortuary science in San Francisco. He didn't make up the song "Dead Bodies Everywhere." In the apartment attached to the morgue where he worked, the remains apparently didn't fit in the autopsy room and ended up in the kitchen. Korn Prague now means a specific evening: Monday, November 16, 2026, at O2 Arena.

Newcomers will hear a band that rewrote the rules of heavy music at the end of the nineties, followed by a whole generation of imitators. Connoisseurs, meanwhile, will appreciate that Korn are arriving in Prague at an interesting moment: they have their first new single in four years behind them, a new album recorded that we barely know anything about yet, and a lineup that has definitively lost one of its founders.

Korn Prague 2026: date, venue, and what point the band is at

Korn play on Monday, November 16, 2026, at Prague's O2 Arena. They arrive in Prague between two chapters, with the new album finished but not yet released.

You'll find the date, venue, and ticket link on the Korn concert page at O2 Arena. Any changes to the program or times will also appear there. If you want to keep track of when the band plays here next, save the Korn profile.

Why is the timing interesting? This spring the band released the track "Reward the Scars," recorded for the video game Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred. According to NME, this is the first new material since the 2022 album Requiem. It was produced by Nick Raskulinecz, with whom Korn have worked since the 2016 album The Serenity of Suffering. Guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer then revealed that the band wrote forty songs for the new record. So the Prague audience will see Korn at a time when they have plenty of new music in the drawer alongside thirty years of hits.

Check the full evening program, including possible guests and door opening times, right before the concert on the event page and on the official O2 Arena website. For big arena shows, times are often only confirmed in the final days.

How a bunch of guys from Bakersfield kicked off nu metal

Korn formed in 1993 in Bakersfield, California, and within five years went from a club band to one of the best-selling rock names in America. Their sound, built on detuned seven-string guitars and hip-hop groove, laid the foundation for an entire genre.

The beginning is almost cinematic. Munky, bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and drummer David Silveria played in a band called L.A.P.D. When they saw Jonathan Davis singing with his group Sexart at a venue, they poached him. Davis was thus, paradoxically, the last one to join the original lineup. Second guitarist Brian "Head" Welch was also part of the crew, and in 1994 the eponymous debut came out.

Davis's move to the band comes with a story you couldn't write into a screenplay. While he was still working at a funeral home, a psychic who had no idea he made music told him he would become rich and famous as a rock singer. Shortly after, he started singing in Sexart, and the rest is history.

Audiences at the time didn't know this combination. Head and Munky played seven-string guitars, tuned lower than usual, and used effects to get sounds out of them that resembled samples and synthesizers more than classic metal. Fieldy slapped the bass hard, the rhythm leaned closer to hip hop than thrash, and Davis whispered, scatted, and screamed lyrics about bullying, abuse, and childhood trauma over it. The logo with the backwards R (KoЯn) soon appeared on T-shirts around the world.

An early story shows the kind of environment the band came from. At a concert in San Diego, someone in the crowd yelled at Davis to go back to Bakersfield. When the singer leaned in to hear him better, the guy swung at him. That incident gave birth to the song "Clown."

The turning point came in 1998 with the album Follow the Leader. The record debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and, according to Blabbermouth, has sold over 14 million copies worldwide. Guests on it included rapper Ice Cube, Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit, and comedian Cheech Marin. The following album, Issues, from 1999, also topped the Billboard chart.

The video for "Freak on a Leash" was directed by Todd McFarlane, creator of the comic Spawn, and most people remember it for the slow-motion bullet flying through a suburb. The video held the top spot on MTV's viewer-voted chart Total Request Live for so long that the channel eventually retired it from voting. It also earned the band a Grammy. By the way, Davis's father played keyboards with Frank Zappa and Buck Owens, so music wasn't taken as a whim in their household.

Jonathan Davis: the morgue, the bagpipes, and a stand by Giger

The Korn frontman is, along with Munky, one of only two members who have never left the band, and his personal story is tightly woven into its music. He turned dark experiences into a theme and a Scottish instrument into a signature.

Working at the coroner's office wasn't a romantic episode. In an interview for the San Francisco Examiner, Davis admitted he came away from it with post-traumatic stress disorder and had to go to therapy. In his view, child autopsies were something someone that young shouldn't have been exposed to. He also said, however, that if it weren't for the band, he would want to work as a coroner's investigator. He talked about this on the Sing for Science podcast with Mary Roach, author of the book Stiff, and didn't sugarcoat it at all. Besides "Dead Bodies Everywhere," this chapter also made its way into the song "Pretty."

At school he was bullied for wearing eyeliner and listening to new wave, and teachers sent him to the counselor because of his makeup. When Korn sing about pain, it's not a pose. It's precisely this openness, a grown man crying or screaming with rage on stage, that inspired a whole wave of bands after them.

Then there are the bagpipes. Davis is one of the few metal singers who regularly plays Scottish bagpipes at concerts. The most famous example is "Shoots and Ladders" from the debut, where he turns children's rhymes into something quite sinister. When the kilt and bagpipes appear on stage, the arena usually roars louder than for many a hit.

Davis's voice remains unique in nu metal. It moves from a whisper through melodic singing to a shriek, and adds rhythmic scatting to that, wordless guttural babbling made famous by the song "Twist." Worth mentioning too is his biomechanical microphone stand, designed by Swiss artist H. R. Giger, creator of the Alien's design. Anyone who's seen it once can spot Davis from across O2 Arena even without the giant screens.

The 2026 lineup and a new album on the horizon

Today's Korn consists of Davis, guitarists Munky and Head, and drummer Ray Luzier, with Roberto "Ra" Díaz playing bass alongside them. The new record will be the first without original bassist Fieldy.

The lineup has gone through several upheavals over three decades. Head left in the mid-2000s and returned years later. Ray Luzier replaced David Silveria on drums in 2007 and has been the band's rock on stage and in the studio ever since.

The biggest change in recent years is Fieldy's departure. In 2021 he announced a break, saying he was dealing with personal problems and a return to "bad habits." His bass parts still appeared on the album Requiem, but he never returned to the band. This year, on the Shady Characters podcast, he explained that covid was what decided it: he didn't want to get vaccinated, so he refused to go on tour. Today he calls himself a "retiree" from Korn, but says there's no bad blood. In his place plays former Suicidal Tendencies bassist Ra Díaz, who went from temporary fill-in to a permanent part of the lineup.

The fact that the new record is recorded was accidentally revealed by Luzier's drum tech, Mark Bennett. In a video for the YouTube channel Drumeo, he held a copper Pearl snare drum and noted that the band had just finished recording the new album with it. The manufacturer no longer makes it, but luckily Korn have five of them. The band hasn't announced a title or release date yet, so the Prague concert will likely be more of a showcase of proven material, possibly with a taste of something like "Reward the Scars."

What to expect at O2 Arena: setlist and practical tips

At concerts, Korn rely on a career-spanning set with an emphasis on classics from the nineties. It's worth arriving on time and buying tickets only through verified channels.

Setlists from recent years follow a readable rhythm. The band likes to open with "Blind," whose opening "Are you ready?" is one of the most iconic openers in metal. Then usually come tracks like "Twist," "Here to Stay," "Got the Life," or "Clown," with bagpipes in the middle during "Shoots and Ladders," and from newer material maybe "Coming Undone" or "Twisted Transistor." Korn usually save "Falling Away From Me" and "Freak on a Leash" for the end. However, the selection and order change from night to night, so take this list as a guide, not a promise.

Anyone who knows Korn mainly from the radio will get the hits. Anyone who's been listening since the debut will hear songs thirty years old, which sound completely different in an arena with thousands of people than through headphones. Whether anything from the new album will be played hasn't been confirmed by anyone yet.

A few practical tips:

  • Come with time to spare. Big arena concerts usually have an opening act and lines at the entrance. Check the opening and start times on the concert page and on the arena's website.
  • It's a Monday. A concert on a workday means planning your trip home in advance, especially if you're coming from another city. Information about entry and transport is published by O2 Arena on its website.
  • Buy only officially. Be careful with secondhand tickets on social media, fake tickets regularly appear for big concerts. You'll find the sales link on the event page.
  • Standing or seated? Anyone who wants to experience Korn to the fullest heads to the pit, where things get pretty crowded during "Blind" and "Here to Stay." Anyone who wants to see the whole stage and Giger's stand should go for seating.

Watch out for mix-ups: Jiří Korn plays at the Congress Centre

If you typed Korn Prague into a search engine and meant the singer Jiří Korn, he's also performing in Prague this fall. Just in a completely different genre and a month earlier.

Jiří Korn will sing at the Prague Congress Centre on two dates: Friday, October 16, 2026, with the show Jiří Korn - KORNCEPT, and Saturday, October 17, 2026, at the Jiří Korn concert. The California metal band and the Czech showman really only share a surname, so double-check the date and venue when buying tickets. Korn with the bagpipes heads to O2 Arena on November 16, while Jiří Korn plays the Congress Centre in October.

In summary: for the Korn Prague evening, you now know when and where the band plays, what stage of their career they're at, what usually makes up the setlist, and what to watch out for when buying tickets. Follow current information on the official O2 Arena website, with official sellers, and on our event page. Anyone looking for other evenings will find them in the concert overview and in the event calendar, where you can filter by date and city.

Frequently asked questions about the Korn Prague concert

When and where is the Korn Prague concert?

Korn play on Monday, November 16, 2026, at O2 Arena in Prague. You'll find the ticket link and any changes on the event page.

Where to buy tickets and how to avoid getting scammed?

The safest way is to go through the link on the event page or the official O2 Arena website. It's best to avoid tickets offered by unknown people on social media, as fakes regularly show up for big concerts.

Will Korn play new songs?

No one knows yet. The band released the single "Reward the Scars" this year, and the new album is apparently recorded, but neither the title nor the release date has been announced. Expect mainly hits from across their career.

Does Jonathan Davis really play the bagpipes?

Yes, and it's not a one-off gimmick. Bagpipes are part of the song "Shoots and Ladders" from the debut album, and they appear regularly at concerts, often as one of the strongest moments of the evening.

How does a Korn concert differ from a Jiří Korn concert?

In every way except the name. The American metal band Korn plays on November 16, 2026, at O2 Arena, while Jiří Korn performs on October 16 and 17, 2026, at the Prague Congress Centre with a completely different, pop repertoire.

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