Live & Rare

Korn have always prided themselves on their ability to conjure a complex array of sounds in the studio, but the essence of the band can only be found in the concert experience, which contains the quintet’s unrelenting assault in its purest form. The core of *Live & Rare* is its first seven tracks, taken from a 2003 show at CBGB’s, New York’s legendarily dingy dive bar. The band is in top form, running through a selection of its hits with the bare-knuckled brutality and athletic precision of a MMA fighter. Leading the charge is Fieldy, whose trademark bass playing comes off as a cross between a ruptured live wire and a slave driver’s whip. The remaining tracks consist of a pair of covers and a pair of festival-defining performances from Woodstock ’99. Rounding out the collection are “Earache My Eye” and “Proud,” two exemplary B-sides. However, nothing on the collection — and little else in Korn’s formidable catalog — can match the naked intensity of the CBGB’s recordings.