When Jonathan Davis asks "Don't you hate me?," it's because the feeling is mutual. On "Life Is Peachy" (Epic), Korn's second album, he hurls imprecations at betrayals real and imagined, culminating in a violent fantasy called "Kill You" about his stepmother.

He yells, growls, sneers, whines and sobs through clenched teeth; meanwhile, the band applies hip-hop's noise aesthetics to a hard-rock lineup. Guitars are tuned downward until harmony registers as noise; feedback arrives as an interruption and turns into the beat; riffs thrash, then stop dead as the bottom drops out.

Korn has learned more than a few tricks from Nine Inch Nails, and it's not above using invective for simple shock value. But the chip on its shoulder sounds genuine.