The Serenity of Suffering

The Serenity of Suffering is the twelfth studio album by Korn, released in October 2016 on Roadrunner Records and produced by Nick Raskulinecz, a heavier, more guitar-forward album than its predecessor, with Corey Taylor of Slipknot appearing on the track 'A Different World' in one of the more commercially significant genre collaborations of the year. Davis wrote all lyrics; the album's 12 tracks include 'Rotting in Vain,' 'Take Me,' and 'The Hating' among the principal tracks, with the production reflecting the full-band energy and guitar prominence that the core Korn audience had identified as the band's essential sonic identity. The album debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 and has been certified gold; 'Rotting in Vain' reached number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The Serenity of Suffering is regarded as the most consistently heavy and guitar-focused album of the band's second decade and the clearest return to first-principles nu-metal without the nostalgia framing of Korn III. The album's commercial and critical performance, gold certification, Mainstream Rock number one, confirmed that the full-lineup reunification and the return to guitar-forward heavy rock represented the most commercially stable version of the Korn formula available in the mid-2010s market, and its success validated the decision to step back from the electronic experimentation that had characterized the previous three albums.