Korn released The Serenity of Suffering on October 21, 2016, through Roadrunner Records. Their 12th studio album followed a substantial rethink of the material they had started writing, with producer Nick Raskulinecz encouraging the musicians to work together differently. “Rotting in Vain” was the first single released from those sessions.
The early writing had taken the guitarists somewhere Jonathan Davis struggled to follow. Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer told Premier Guitar that they began developing ideas with drummer Ray Luzier in Hollywood in June 2015, experimenting with eight-string guitars. Davis felt the material had moved outside Korn’s identity and his vocal range. The guitarists tried adapting it to their usual seven-string setup, keeping the ideas that survived the change and abandoning others.
Raskulinecz then challenged a familiar working habit. Speaking with iHeartRadio, the band recalled his insistence that they step away from computer-based writing and develop the music by playing together. The approach demanded more work, but they heard a difference in the finished recordings: “It sounds like a band.”
That emphasis carried into the guitar sessions. Welch and Shaffer recorded facing each other, performing their parts together for the first time. Mistakes meant another take, sometimes of an entire song, rather than a computer correction. They also cut unnecessary guitar layers so the arrangements would translate more directly to the stage. The recording process made the interaction between the two players part of the performance they were trying to capture.
Luzier found himself reconsidering habits he had carried for years. In an interview with Rhythm, published by MusicRadar, he described Raskulinecz asking him to leave out familiar gestures, including an upbeat hi-hat pattern. Hearing the playback convinced him that the simpler approach improved the groove. The producer also tuned the drums himself and kept the sessions relaxed enough that an unsuccessful take did not have to become a crisis. Luzier remembered a musician who was actively involved in the room, sometimes playing air guitar with a broom while the drummer recorded.
For Welch, the stage had already exposed what he wanted to change. In a 2016 Metal Hammer interview, he explained that he liked the songs on The Paradigm Shift but had not felt the intensity he wanted when performing them. He and Shaffer approached the follow-up with that experience in mind. Raskulinecz’s priorities matched a concern the guitarists had reached themselves.
Davis revisited part of his own vocabulary at the producer’s urging, returning to the heavy vocal scat associated with “Twist.” He told Metal Hammer that he had deliberately used that approach selectively rather than repeating it on every record. The album’s title reflected a more persistent part of his writing: the familiarity of suffering, even alongside a family and career he valued. Describing why he continued writing about difficult experiences, he said, “this is my therapy.”
“Rotting in Vain” gave that idea a specific situation. In comments accompanying its release, Davis described remaining in a damaging relationship or circumstance, recognizing the pain but struggling for years to leave. Elsewhere, “A Different World” paired his voice with Corey Taylor’s, adding the Slipknot singer to the album’s renewed emphasis on vocal intensity.
“Rotting in Vain” subsequently received a Best Metal Performance nomination at the 2017 Grammy Awards.
