Despite being a fan of the band since I was in junior high, when I heard Korn would be releasing “Korn III: Remember Who You Are,” I was immediately nervous it would disappoint me.

An owner of the previous eight albums, I briefly contemplated sitting this one out. Korn’s last legitimately heavy album, “Take a Look in the Mirror,” was released in 2003, and the ensuing years have been interesting.

When guitarist Brian Welch left Korn to search for Jesus in 2005, the remaining four members recorded the experimental “See You On the Other Side,” which can generously be described as dubious. It was as if Korn were on a journey to rediscover their identity as a band, but instead wandered in circles through ambient synth noise.

By the time they hit the studio again, Korn had lost another band member, drummer David Silveria, to the musician’s black hole: an indefinite hiatus. The ensuing untitled album was dramatically better than its predecessor, but once again Korn mired themselves in atmospherics and failed to deliver the signature sound that earned them a fan base in the 1990s.

You can understand the apprehension with which I spent my money to purchase Korn’s ninth studio album. 

After wading through an intro track with some guy rambling about UFOs, I was rewarded for my faith. I had already watched the video for “Oildale (Leave Me Alone),” the album’s lead single, but hearing it through the crispness of my stereo gave it new life; my head was bobbing instantly. Korn had brought back everything I love about their music: the rattling slap bass, the tribal drumming, the dual-woven guitar rhythms and the aggressive vocal hooks.

Less than thirty seconds into the album’s third track, “Pop a Pill,” and I knew “Korn III” was the real deal. Vicious and jagged, the song is a pulsating synthesis of hip-hop and grinding electric agony. In addition to Korn’s career long influences — Wu Tang and Nine Inch Nails — this track is also highly evocative of Slipknot. The Slipknot influence permeates the entire album, and I’m quite glad it does.

For more than a handful of tour dates following the release of their untitled album, Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison manned the skins for Korn, doing an astonishing job of polishing the waste from that album.

Korn’s vocalist, Jon Davis, collaborated with Jim Root, guitarist of both Slipknot and Stone Sour, in 2008 to produce a brilliant remake of Lil Wayne’s club hit “Got Money.” Listening to “Korn III,” it is obvious where the band got their mojo recharged, but it is also gratifying given the fruitfulness of previous crossover projects.

Much as “Korn III” is a reinvigorated and glorious return to the path the band was on in 2003, one thing is still conspicuously absent: the second guitarist.

Korn have done very well for themselves by recruiting Ray Luzier to replace David Silvaria on drums, but they did not cut their teeth as a four man band, and it shows, if only a bit.

Although the guitar riffs are still constructed as two interlocking pieces, they are no longer the product of two interlocking minds. The absence of a replacement for Brian Welch is the one thing that precludes me from declaring “Korn III” to be on equal footing with the band’s early albums.

However, I will await the band’s next offering with an optimism I haven’t felt for them in the better part of a decade.