DATE: Monday, June 30, 1997                 TAG: 9706280069

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUE VanHECKE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

CREATIVE PROMOTION LIFTS BAND TO SUCCESS

HOW DOES A BAND with virtually no radio or video play rack up platinum album sales and a 1997 Grammy nomination?

``A lot of it is word-of-mouth. One kid buys an album and tells his friends,'' said Reggie ``Fieldy'' Arvizu, bassist for Korn, the seething Southern California alterna-metal rockers appearing on this year's Lollapalooza.

Touring, more than 400 gigs in the past two years, also figures into it, Arvizu said. ``But we're real word-on-the-street.''

Korn is also on the Internet. When a preview of ``Life Is Peachy,'' the group's ferocious follow-up to their platinum self-titled 1994 debut, was presented on the Web, the deluge of hits from fans worldwide crashed the Sony web site. The band touts itself as the first to perform live in cyberspace; its website receives almost 50,000 hits daily.

``I haven't really gotten that much into that,'' Arvizu confessed. ``I just got a computer a few days ago. Actually, it's for my girlfriend. We're going to get the Internet. I'd like to get more involved with it.''

The kernels of Korn's furiously cathartic and textured sound - bludgeoning guitars, hip-hopish rhythms and violently acid lyrics - can be traced in part to Davis' difficult childhood and perspective-altering onetime career as an autopsy assistant at a coroner's office.

``He was also in another band, and Head (Korn guitarist Brian Welch) and Munky (guitarist James Shaffer) saw him playing in some little club in Bakersfield,'' Arvizu said. ``We got ahold of him and asked him to join our band. We told him we were getting ready to get signed.''

That fib worked. Davis brought his grim view to the Korn field, the band did indeed get signed and the rest is history.

``Peachy'' is littered with Davis' howling rage, from the stream-of-consciousness profanity of ``K*(CT)&!'' to the nine-minute murder fantasy, ``Kill You,'' directed at his ex-stepmother. But there are a few light moments, such as the hilarious cover of War's ``Low Rider'' featuring Davis on bagpipes.

``I've heard people say that we're so dark and heavy,'' Arvizu said. ``I can understand that, but we don't really see it that way. It's heavy, but it's a really fat groove, too.''

So is Korn looking forward to spending the summer on Lollapalooza?

``I'm so burned out from touring that I'm looking forward to it because it's our last tour this year,'' Arvizu said. ``Then we're going into the studio to do a new record.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

DEAN KARR

Korn, the Southern California alterna-metal rockers nominated for a

Grammy this year, will appear at Lollapalooza '97.

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