I'm hopefully going to be the first to write this zinger about Korn this summer, but I won't be the last: Come July 13, ambient metal maestros Korn release their new album, Korn III - Remember Who You Are. A more appropos title, however, would be Remember Who We Are.

See ... too easy a jab.

I feel terrible, but this was bound to happen when these once-mighty conjurers of grinding steel and nylon stews disappear for the better part of the last five years and then return with a softball new album title like this.

Oh sure, they put out a couple albums in in 2007, but their last studio set, Untitled, sold about a million copies less than their second-worst selling album ever and has yet to deliver a single that measures up to past genre busters like "Here to Stay" or "Freak On A Leash."

(Sidenote - The Second Rule of Album Titling: Don't name your most overlooked and artistically erratic album Untitled. That's another open invitation for d-bag journalists to write about how it was also Unlistenable and Unmentionable.)

The other 2007 album MTV Unplugged: Korn, was an idea about as savvy as Pat Boone making a metal record in the 90s.

Back then Korn was still reeling from parting ways with founding guitarist Brian "Head" Welch and founding drummer David Silveria and clearly at an artistic crossroads..

With any luck Korn will prove those of us poking fun at the Korn III - Remember Who You Are moniker wrong and hit the stage burning red hot again with new songs and a re-established stable lineup. Joining lead singer and occasional bagpipe player Jonathon Davis, guitarist Munky and bassist Fieldy as a permanent member of Korn is new drummer Ray Luzier.

If sneak peek listens to the beautifully sinister first single, "Oildale (Leave Me Alone)" are a barometer, it's possible Korn could be out of the intimate theaters and back planning a new arena-worthy Family Values Tour very soon.

Korn, 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Verizon Wireless Theater

Tickets: $35