EDMONTON - Has "Children of the Korn" been used as a headline yet?

Too late. With almost 18 years under their black belts and singer Jonathan Davis pushing 40, this particular California nu-metal band is definitely Grown Men of the Korn, almost Middle Aged Men of the Korn. And there's another thing: "nu-metal" is now old, leaving open the question of what is the new nu? Very confusing.

It made perfect sense that Thursday night's big drunken metal blowout at the Shaw Conference Centre was a "no minors" event. Couldn't really have a proper drunken blow-out with a bunch of snot-nosed punks in the room now, could you? Besides, Korn is obviously no longer for kids. The band still dominates that mysterious nexus between heavy metal and punk rock. They still sound and look pretty mean. They still manage to inspire fan excitement that stops just short of an actual riot. But Korn has, um, matured. So have their fans.

Almost 4,500 people turned up for this nostalgic trip through the annals of nu-metal of old, these former children of the Korn, some gone to seed, most still proudly wearing their black T-shirts, the crowd seeing a typically large dude-to-chick ratio, though many of the said females really dressed to impress.

But some things never go out of style, and the music of Korn seems to be immune from maturity. It helps to pick a timeless topic. The theme of the evening was death, as it has been, more or less, for every Korn show we've ever seen. From a bone-loosening pulse of bass as the lights went down, the opening song was Dead Bodies Everywhere, basically an angry letter to dad, with no explanation of why there are dead bodies everywhere. No matter. The crowd sang the title of the song as if it were a victory chant. Later came a snippet of Queen's We Will Rock You. The audience knew that one, too.

Other material heard Thursday included Starting Over, with Davis lamenting loudly, "God is going to take me out." Coming Undone is one of many self-loathing tunes filled with suicide imagery. The fans loved this one. The familiar eerie tinkles of toy piano heralded Falling Away From Me, which also mentions suicide, and has a long bit about an unidentified antagonist "beating me, down, down, into the ground."

What's going on here? Korn is embracing death as a celebration of life. Perhaps it's even the other way around.

Before the Davis hauled out the bagpipes for a heavy metal Scottish rave-up that sounded like a bag of robot cats falling down the stairs, the band pulled out a new tune called Oildale from the forthcoming album, tentatively titled Korn III: Remember Who You Are. Couldn't make out much in the screaming din except for the chorus, "Why don't you just leave me alone!" Not much about death here, though. More new stuff would follow, much appreciated, and fans were clearly there to hear the Korn Klassics: Freak on a Leash, Here to Stay, Did My Time, name your favourite.

It may be inevitable that any rock band that sticks around long enough will turn into classic rock, but Korn sure is doing its best to go gently into that particular good night kicking and screaming.

Opening earlier, Five Finger Death Punch is one of these metal bands that's hard on the outside, soft on the inside. Yes, behind the facade of rebellious beards, tattoos and all that angry shouting is a heart of gold. Many of the band's songs likewise dwell on the death, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Between singer Ivan Moody's nagging of the crowd (to jump, to show devil horns, to form a circle pit, to stop acting like jerks), he showed solidarity with inspiring lines like "We have one thing in common, Edmonton -- we're all going to die."

He later invited fans to crowd surf to him so he could shake their hands, to the tune of a lovely song called Dying Breed. Don't try to read too much into it.

Earlier in the evening, the first act 2 Cents was notable for a hammy front man who also played the drums -- don't see that everyday in a metal milieu -- and for a catchy tune that goes like this: "If you came here to find love, you're out of luck, everyone here came to get something that rhymes with 'luck.'" Some fun. The rest of the set was noisy, pointless bluster. Blame it on a bad sound mix.