After a pair of albums for Virgin, Korn have announced that their forthcoming album, Korn III – Remember Who You Are, will be released on Roadrunner.  Guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer announced in an online chat that Roadrunner would be the band’s next label. The album was recorded with producer Ross Robinson, who produced their first two albums and essentially is the godfather of nu-metal. From all the advance word, the new album is stripped down and back to the feel of the first few Korn albums.

A few thoughts:

1) Did Munky name the band? It’s pretty obvious from his chat postingabove that he’s not about to come in first place in a spelling bee.

2) Korn III? Are they naming the album after the number of labels they’ve been on?

3) There’s no release date as of yet, but with the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival coming up in July, it’ll probably be out by then.

4) From a business side of things, it will be interesting to see what kind of deal they’ve signed with Roadrunner. When they signed with Virgin, they were one of the first bands to sign a 360 deal (meaning the label and band split profits on everything from merch to touring, not just album sales). Now that it’s become more commonplace, it’ll be interesting to see if Roadrunner did the same, and if the band was happy with the deal they made with Virgin, or was a reason for them leaving.

All that aside, this is a solid pickup for Roadrunner. Even their albums that no one really cares about (I’m looking at you, Take a Look In the Mirror) have gone at least gold. As silly as Korn come off to metal purists, they were probably the first band that turned a lot of kids onto metal in the first place. They’ve definitely been a guilty pleasure to a few people I know. And while they’re a cornerstone of one of the most unfortunate genres of heavy music ever, against all odds they’ve outlasted the trend and maintained relevance.