Still the Same Bob Seger? : Korn Feeds on Muffled Anger

Can a band as unrelentingly dark and dire as Korn enjoy an evening of triumph? Nah.

It was anger and revulsion as usual Thursday for the hammering, metal-tinged Orange County band, which was capping a year and a half of road work. The Hollywood Palladium was packed with fans who swarmed the floor like locusts in a cornfield and knew every shout-along refrain from the band’s half-million selling debut album, “Korn,” which slowly became a hit thanks to dogged touring since its 1994 release.

Not that it mattered to a crowd whose memory of the record could fill in any sonic gaps, but in concert Korn hammered its thumb more often than it hit the nail cleanly. Ironically, for a band whose primary stance is that of embattled, spat-upon underdogs snarlingly refusing to be muted or smothered, Korn managed to smother itself and blunt its own message with a cloudy, ill-balanced assault.

Rock anger is best registered with a sting that’s honed to a fine, hard point. Korn managed to muffle its focus, singer Jonathan Davis, under a carpet-bombed blanket bass and drums. A few fleeting passages, such as the quiet introduction to the KROQ hit “Blind,” showcased a cohesive unit playing distinct, complementary parts.

With work on a second album in progress, Korn has its work cut out to reach the level of Tool and Nine Inch Nails, two kindred bands that render the revulsion thing more adroitly.