With a 5pm start on a weekday, it was obvious that the expected audience for nu-metal champions Korn supported by Biohazard, Chimaira, Throwdown and Bloodsimple, was one that didn’t have to get home from work before heading out to the gig – and perhaps also a crowd that would be in trouble if they weren’t home before 11pm.

To a small early crowd, groove metallers Bloodsimple played a short set of material from last year’s Red Harvest and 2005’s A Cruel World and finished their very tight set with Straight Hate. In a time where every relatively new band seems to be playing some kind of genre-crossing music, it was refreshing to see these guys sticking to straight-down-the-line metal.

Los Angeles quartet Throwdown were up next. Their musical style, and wardrobe, are heavily influenced by hardcore – plain t-shirts and shorts – no pretensions here. With six albums under their belts, but time for only a handful of songs, the band must have had a hard time choosing tracks. They settled on a fun cover of Sepultura’s Roots as well as Give My Life, Weight of the World, and the sing-along, Forever.

Vocalist Dave Peters was keen to get down to floor level with the crowd, which he did at the start and end of the set. Before launching into I, Suicide, he instructed the front rows to turn around and flip off at the back of the crowd, before having them form a wide circle pit around one of the building’s support columns.

Given that most of the crowd that would later emerge for Korn’s set was elsewhere, the attempt to create mayhem was perhaps a bit ambitious.

Ohio metallers Chimaira took the stage next, managing to lure a few more of the punters lurking at the bar to the front area. Like Throwdown, Chimaira have a ten-year history and extensive back catalogue, with plenty of material choice. Opening with Pure Hatred they filled out their slightly longer set with songs mostly from 2003’s The Impossibility of Reason and latest release, Resurrection which was also their closing song.

The crowd began to come alive during Chimaira’s set, and the band responded accordingly, delivering a relentless aural attack enhanced by their signature stark white lighting. Nothing Remains, and Severed were two further highlights of the night.

Given the legendary status of hardcore veterans Biohazard and that this year is their 20th anniversary, the crowd’s disinterest was disappointing. But given that the average Korn fan hadn’t hit primary school when Biohazard’s best work was produced, not surprising.

Frontman Evan Seinfeld, his bald and tattooed head covered with his trademark blue bandanna, began the set with Shades of Grey and Chamber Spins Three, from 1992’s classic album Urban Discipline. Guitarist Billy Graziadei ran around the stage like a man half his age, backed up by Bobby Hambel with drummer Danny Schuler completing the original Biohazard line-up.

Seinfeld chatted with the crowd about the band’s previous trip to Perth in support of metal legends Pantera before dedicating the third song of the set, Black and White and Red All Over, to slain Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott. Then it was onto crowd-mover Down For Life, followed by Wrong Side of the Tracks from Biohazard’s self-titled debut of 1990 and Love Denied. A Dolph Lungdren sample from the original Punisher movie signaled the start of Punishment, then Hold My Own, the sixth track from Urban Discipline, ended the set.

A long gap allowed the Korn fans to come out from wherever they had been hiding. The emergence of a roadie with Jonathon Davis’ H.R. Giger-designed microphone stand elicited more cheers from the crowd than some of the opening acts.

Finally a camouflage-kilted Davis appeared, along with original members James “Munky” Shaffer on guitars and Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu on bass, with session drummer Ray Luzier, and they launched into Right Now from 2003’s Take a Look in the Mirror.

An extensive tour through the highlights of Korn’s eight-album discography followed. A.D.I.D.A.S. from Life Is Peachy was an audience favourite, as was Falling Away From Me from 1990’s Issues. Following Faget, from 1994’s self-titled effort, Davis treated the fans to some bagpipe playing, before more new material, then big single Freak On a Leash. The First part of the set ended with Evolution from current release Untitled, and Ass Itch from Life Is Peachy.

The band re-appeared for an ‘enkorn’ composed of Blind, the “song that started it all for Korn”, then Somebody Someone -possibly the closest Korn comes to a love song. Finally, they played Got The Life, Korn’s biggest single, and then fans could breathe out, and it was all over.