The band produced one of their best albums in a time of turbulent transition
Korn’s 2005 album See You on the Other Side marked one of the most pivotal reinventions of their career, arriving after the band completed its deal with Sony and signed an unconventional new partnership with EMI/Virgin. Under that deal, Virgin reportedly paid Korn $25 million upfront in exchange for a share of profits from this album and the next, including touring and merchandising, plus a 30% stake in other revenue streams like licensing and ticket sales. The record was the band’s first as a four-piece after the departure of founding guitarist Brian “Head” Welch, and the last studio album to feature original drummer David Silveria, putting it right at the heart of a major lineup and business transition. Recording took place from June to November 2005 at Jonathan Davis’ home studio in Los Angeles, the same space used for Take a Look in the Mirror and Davis’ Queen of the Damned work, with Davis, Atticus Ross and pop-production team The Matrix sharing production duties. Davis later described the sessions as a response to the “drama” of Head leaving and the band getting off their old label, while James “Munky” Shaffer recalled a moment where they could have ended Korn entirely but instead chose to “reinvent what we do” rather than coast on a greatest-hits legacy.
Musically, See You on the Other Side pushed Korn further into experimentation than any of their earlier records, layering their nu-metal foundation with industrial textures, gothic rock atmospherics, new-wave synths, electronica and even funk undercurrents. The Matrix—best known for pop work with Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears and Shakira—handled a large chunk of the production and co-writing, while Atticus Ross contributed dense programming and sound design on several tracks. Davis summed up the direction by saying the album was “funky, heavy, dark, and sometimes industrial-tinged,” calling it Korn’s “most experimental album to date” and noting that even the band were surprised by how different they sounded. Songs like “Twisted Transistor,” “Love Song,” “10 or a 2-Way,” “Throw Me Away” and “Open Up” leaned into synthetic beats, layered vocal effects and programming while still riding Fieldy’s rubbery bass, Munky’s down-tuned riffs and Silveria’s tight, mechanical drum feel. The visual and conceptual world of the album was tied together by dark surrealist artwork from painter David Stoupakis, whose eerie, storybook-goth imagery extended across the deluxe edition’s multiple paintings and reinforced the record’s off-kilter, otherworldly tone.
From a commercial standpoint, See You on the Other Side was a strong success that proved Korn could survive major changes and still operate as a mainstream force. Released on December 6, 2005, it sold over 220,000 copies in its first week in the United States and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, remaining in the top half of the chart for 34 consecutive weeks. By mid-2007 it had accumulated around 1.2 million U.S. sales according to Nielsen SoundScan and was certified platinum by the RIAA, with additional gold or equivalent certifications in markets like Australia, Brazil, Canada and Germany, platinum status in New Zealand, and a silver certification in the UK. Chart-wise, the album reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and performed solidly across Europe, peaking at No. 7 in Austria, No. 5 in Greece, No. 8 in New Zealand, No. 11 in Switzerland and No. 19 in Australia, underscoring Korn’s still-global draw in the mid-2000s. Critical response was mixed-to-positive—outlets like Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times praised the sonics and range, while some metal publications criticized the glossy production and processed sound—but the album still landed on lists like Ultimate Guitar’s Top 10 Albums of 2005 and has since been ranked mid-pack but important within Korn’s catalog by retrospectives from Revolver and others.
The album cycle was driven by three key singles that kept Korn in heavy rotation on rock radio. Lead single “Twisted Transistor,” released in September 2005, introduced the new sound with industrial-metal stomp and a hooky chorus, and became one of the band’s biggest hits: it peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, broke into the Alternative Airplay top 10, and reached No. 64 on the Hot 100, while also charting internationally at No. 27 in the UK, No. 24 in Australia and No. 6 in Finland. Its video, directed by Dave Meyers, winked at music-industry clichés by casting rappers Lil Jon, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and David Banner as the members of Korn, with the real band appearing as jaded label executives. The second single, “Coming Undone,” released in February 2006, continued the radio momentum, climbing to No. 4 on Mainstream Rock, No. 14 on Alternative Songs and No. 79 on the Hot 100, making it one of Korn’s most successful crossover tracks. A mash-up remix with Dem Franchize Boyz, “Coming Undone wit It,” later appeared on the 2006 fan-pack Chopped, Screwed, Live and Unglued, which also offered chopped-and-screwed remixes, live cuts, acoustic takes of “Twisted Transistor” and “Coming Undone,” and the album’s music videos, underlining how aggressively Virgin worked the project across formats. Third single “Politics,” released in August 2006, documented Jonathan Davis’ near-death health scare and his increasingly direct lyrics about faith and world affairs, and while it didn’t match the first two singles, it still reached No. 18 on Mainstream Rock and served as the final Korn single with David Silveria behind the kit.
Touring around See You on the Other Side was extensive and carefully coordinated to keep the band visible through 2005–2007. Even before the album’s release, Korn used an intimate Hammerstein Ballroom show in New York on November 29, 2005 as both a showcase for the new lineup and material and as the basis for the live DVD Live on the Other Side, released in June 2006. That DVD not only captured songs like “Liar,” “Coming Undone” and “Twisted Transistor” live for the first time, it also came packaged with a voucher that could be redeemed for two tickets to the 2006 revival of the Family Values Tour, effectively tying the home-video release into the touring machine. In early 2006, Korn launched the See You on the Other Side world tour, including North American arena legs where they were joined by Mudvayne and 10 Years, hitting venues such as El Paso County Coliseum, Denver’s Magness Arena and other large halls under the “See You on the Other Side: North America” banner. The summer of 2006 then saw Korn headline the resurrected Family Values Tour across 30 dates, with Deftones, Stone Sour, Flyleaf, Dir En Grey and others in support; the trek drew more than 400,000 fans and prominently featured See You on the Other Side songs like “Love Song,” “Throw Me Away,” “Coming Undone,” “Politics” and “Twisted Transistor” in the nightly set list. This era bled into subsequent releases tied to the album’s momentum, including the Chopped, Screwed, Live and Unglued fan-pack in late 2006 and the semi-acoustic MTV Unplugged: Korn in early 2007, recorded shortly after Silveria’s departure. Taken together, the album and its touring cycle showed Korn surviving a potentially career-ending crossroads, embracing new production ideas and business models, and still delivering the kind of heavy, groove-centric songs that could dominate active-rock radio and fill arenas in the mid-2000s.