Life Is Peachy is the second studio album by American nu metal band Korn. It was released on October 15, 1996, through both Immortal Records and Epic Records. After the release of Korn's 1994 self-titled debut album, the band reunited with Ross Robinson to produce and went back to Indigo Ranch Studios to record. Life Is Peachy features such themes as drugs, social encounters, sex, betrayal, and revenge. The album has fourteen tracks, excluding the hidden track after "Kill You". Martin Riedl photographed its cover art, and its title is credited to Korn's bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu. Life Is Peachy was Korn's first significant breakthrough, which came from constant touring after the debut album's release and building a fan base, thus fueling great expectations.

Critical reception for the album was mainly mixed, but its songwriting and sound quality were praised. Authors and music journalists deemed Life Is Peachy innovative, and some lauded Jonathan Davis for his vocal techniques and embodied singing. His vocal performance on "Good God" was viewed as encapsulating the album's essence, becoming one of the decisive elements in the development of what would later be called nu metal, which Korn pioneered. During its promotional period, newspapers and magazines defined it sonically as a metal album with hip-hop beats, presenting a unique sound.

Life Is Peachy debuted and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and peaked at number one in New Zealand. The album sold 106,000 copies in the US in its first week of release. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in January 1997 and platinum in December of that same year. Life Is Peachy was RIAA-certified double platinum in the US in November 1999. By 2009, the album had sold almost six million copies worldwide.

Korn released three singles from Life Is Peachy: "No Place to Hide", "A.D.I.D.A.S.", and "Good God". All three singles went on the UK Singles Chart. Shortly before the album's release, Korn launched the Life Is Peachy Tour in the US with Limp Bizkit as the opening act. After its release, the band toured in support of Metallica in the US. Korn then embarked on its headlining tour throughout the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia, with often sold-out shows. The band also took part in the 1997 Lollapalooza summer tour, where the Life Is Peachy Tour ended abruptly due to guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer being diagnosed with viral meningitis. Life Is Peachy earned Korn a 1997 Kerrang! Awards for Best Album. "No Place to Hide" received a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards.

Korn had played between 200 and 250 shows in the year following the release of their 1994 self-titled debut album. As a result, Korn topped the Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart in the week ending September 30, 1995. In early October 1995, it began moving up on the Billboard 200 chart and reached sales of 154,000 units. Both chart performances were uncommon successes at that time as Korn was one of the first new non-mainstream bands to enter the top half of the Billboard 200 over the prior two years. Korn was also the only debut album displaying such aggressiveness to have achieved this distinction on the Billboard 200 during that timeline.

Korn's debut album's weekly sales stood at 17,000 and 27,000 in the first half of January 1996, as the band's recognition increased. The album was certified gold by the RIAA for 500,000 copies sold on January 29, 1996. In February 1996, Korn and Deftones were the opening acts for Ozzy Osbourne's US arena tour.

After fourteen months of touring to promote the debut album, Korn took a month off and began writing material for the next studio effort, Life Is Peachy. At this point, Korn's members had difficulty projecting themselves into the future because they had spent their last few years under the influence of drugs and alcohol, being only sober when performing. As they had to begin writing new songs, the musicians were in "a serious state of disarray" but would not stop their partying habits. Meanwhile, "the buzz" on Korn "was huge".

Lead singer Jonathan Davis said regarding the writing of the second album, "Right after we got done touring with Ozzy Osbourne, Ross [Robinson] hooked up with us. We went into a rehearsal studio and started writing." Knowing that they had tight deadlines to meet, the pattern that followed would be "faster and thrashier". However, Davis had begun writing part of the song "Mr. Rogers" while on tour in the fall of 1995. Guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer described the writing process as, "We didn't write nothin' for two years then we had creativity build up, like blue balls of creativity."

Korn entered pre-production and wrote the first songs of the album, "No Place to Hide" and "A.D.I.D.A.S.", at their rehearsal space, Underground Chicken Sound in Huntington Beach. Drummer David Silveria said, "somebody will start playing something and the rest of us will work around it and see where it goes", mentioning the songs "Twist" and "Good God" whose beats came first. In this location, they developed an approach to songwriting whereby they would elaborate on the elements that had previously established them, such as Davis when he was "freaking out"; thus, the song "Twist" emerged. This contrasted with the production process of Korn, as some songs and guitar riffs had been prepared years before they actually began. Furthermore, the steady touring and the crowd's responses generated the band's punk rock "feel and attitude", resulting in dissonant guitar playing on Life Is Peachy; "We wanted to create a really angry album", said Shaffer. Davis then added his vocals to the jams. While working on the album, they consumed "mass quantities" of alcoholic beverages and were often so "high" that most nights, one of the band members passed out and therefore could not play his instrument, especially guitarist Brian "Head" Welch. Korn's productive sessions were often interrupted due to their debaucherous lifestyle, and Robinson struggled to get them to stop drinking to focus instead on songwriting and rehearsing. The band members mixed alcohol and drugs and also fought frequently. Davis recalled engaging in aggressive behaviors toward his bandmates, often biting them, due to alcohol abuse.

After playing at a few gigs with Deftones in California, Korn returned to the studio to start tracking Life Is Peachy in April 1996. Korn and Robinson reunited to produce and begin recording at Indigo Ranch Studios in Malibu, California. It was mainly because their first album had been recorded there and was a success. Bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu said, "We wanted that same energy and inspiration we found up in the Malibu Hills." Davis said working with Robinson was essential as he was connected to the band since his involvement on the first album; he also knew how to capture their live energy and motivate them to focus in the recording studio. "Fortunately, he's here to kick our asses. Otherwise, we wouldn't be very... motivated!", said Davis. After engineering Korn's debut album, Richard Kaplan, co-founder and owner of Indigo Ranch Studios, returned to work on Life Is Peachy. Initially, Kaplan's assistant, Chuck Johnson, was hired by Robinson to be his "house engineer". The album was primarily written in the studio as the band was less inspired on the road, although work had begun when returning to rehearsals. Back at Indigo Ranch Studios, Korn used methamphetamine as they did when recording their 1994 debut album. The band launched their first-ever internet webcast, called Korn Mangling the Web, through a partnership with QuickTime, allowing viewers to watch Life Is Peachy's development at Indigo Ranch Studios.

In an early 1997 interview for Bass Player, Arvizu shed light on the components that contributed to his approach to the instrument: "I try to cross hip-hop's beats and bass lines with sickness." Welch and Shaffer wanted diversity, desiring to become more melodic and approaching their guitars "more like a keyboard" by removing the attack to bring a more atmospheric sound while keeping their heavy trademark sound. Both moved in a more experimental direction with volume swells and different effects pedals. Although the two guitarists bought US$2,000 worth of pedals for the album, Arvizu, on the other hand, had not used any bass effects. The whole band contributed to the songwriting process, but Arvizu had a distinct influence on musical decisions. Arvizu came up with his parts, then Shaffer and Welch adapted their work so as not to "run all over" the bass, or otherwise, the guitar parts were done first, and he conceived his bass lines to go over them. The two guitarists appreciated this method because, according to Arvizu, "it doesn't make our sound so typically metal". Arvizu felt he was not gaining the upper hand over his fellow musicians as the guitar work was still audible in the sounds, but explained that it "adds a different dimension for the bass". Adopting a different approach to the debut album, Silveria explained that for Life Is Peachy, "we went in really fresh, and we wanted to get it done quickly to capture that energy". Sixty percent of what he would play was planned, and forty percent was more a matter of creative spontaneity. Silveria felt that he would not have conveyed the same "energy" if the entirety of his drum parts had been written beforehand. The music was created first, and then each piece was identified by untypical titles, such as "Dick Nose", after which Davis began to write the lyrics. Apart from the cover versions of "Lowrider" and "Wicked", the album's lyrics were entirely written by Davis, who found inspiration in a place called Magic Room in Los Angeles. Davis often felt drained and exhausted from his writing sessions. "Ass Itch" was the last song Davis wrote, and finally, the songs were renamed after he had finished his work. Author Doug Small wrote that "the band's songwriting method—a sort of collective building process wherein four instrumentalists, with the input of Jonathan, develop each other's ideas until they've created a monster—is truly a group effort."

For the recording, Arvizu had set up one of his Mesa/Boogie "heads" (separate bass amplifiers) along with a single 4x10" bass speaker cabinet with the "horn miked". The bass sound heard on Life Is Peachy was "my miked amp", said Arvizu, adding that the "direct signal was all the way off". Arvizu used an Ibanez SR1305 Soundgear 5-string bass to record the entire album, as on 1994's Korn. An experienced slap bass player, he used tones and mastered various techniques, such as pulling up on four strings, unlike most bassists, to make his bass stand out. Arvizu invariably preferred to play his bass while looking through the isolation booth's glass facing his fellow musicians. Silveria achieved the high-pitched sound by using a 20" kick drum and a 3 1/2" piccolo snare. He finished tracking drums in five days. Davis' vocals were recorded in a slightly different configuration than on the debut album; thus, he was never alone, or the other band members were facing him. To achieve an unequivocal result when recording vocals in the isolation booth, Robinson urged Davis to put himself back in the context that inspired his lyrics or used physical force. Sixty to seventy percent of Davis' vocals on the album were captured on the first take. Welch recalled the spontaneity of Davis: "Once [Jonathan] did 'Twist,' it was, like, 'What in the hell was that?' ... And we were like, 'Let's open the record with that. And people will be like, 'What? What is this?' No one ever has done that.' ... We looked at [Jonathan after he had recorded his vocals]. We were like, 'Who are you?'" Welch got to sing on "Lowrider" as a birthday present.

Kaplan said he mixed the album himself as Johnson never showed up but would eventually reappear at the end of the sessions. Robinson mixed the song "K@#Ø%!". Life Is Peachy was mixed at Indigo Ranch Studios and mastered by Eddy Schreyer at Oasis Mastering in Studio City. In the end, a fifteenth song, "Proud", would not appear on the final tracklist that would make up the album. It was completed in July 1996. The album cost $150,000 to make. Small insisted Life Is Peachy was rushed when it was put together but praised its "unique" sound.

Excerpts from the album's recording sessions at Indigo Ranch Studios appeared in Korn's 1997 biographical video Who Then Now?, which was entirely filmed by the band's crew member and archivist Danny "Ham Cam" Hamilton. In 2002, Arvizu said he enjoyed the album much more than in the past. "A good pissed-off record", he said. Welch would later say that he did not really like the direction the band was taking artistically, but not on Life Is Peachy. In 2015, Davis said even though Life Is Peachy was a "killer" record, it was not among his favorite Korn albums due to its rushed production, mentioning that the only reason was the pressure of constant touring. He added: "But yeah, very rushed, very raw, it's still a cool-ass record."

Life Is Peachy opens with the approximately one-minute prelude "Twist", which is made up of improvised guttural scat singing and contains the word "twist" as the sole lyric, performed by Davis. Small described the vocal style as "spitting out the twisted rantings of a madman" and said that it was fit for the album's introduction. Revolver wrote that the album opens with a "surreal vocal freakout", while Kerrang! felt it features "nonsensical vocal noises". Kerrang! wrote that "Twist" conveys the underlying message that the opener of the "much-anticipated" second album won't be a single but rather a "great big 'Fuck you'". An a cappella version of "Twist" is included as a hidden track after "Kill You". "Chi" is named after former Deftones bassist Chi Cheng. It was named after Cheng because he liked reggae music and thought "Chi" was actually a reggae song. Davis said "Chi" is "about a lot of alcohol and drug abuse". He stated that his vocal style on "Twist" and "Chi" and the latter's lyrics remain "a mystery" to him. The meaning of "Lost" is the loss of his best friend when the latter settled down with his girlfriend. "Swallow" is about drug-induced paranoia. The instrumental "Porno Creep" was noted for its jazz-funk style, with Silveria's "deft, jazzy touches behind the drums kit" described by Kerrang! as "setting the band apart from any other group on the metal scene". Davis explained the background behind "Good God":

It's about a guy I knew in school who I thought was my friend, but who fucked me. He came into my life with nothing, hung out at my house, lived off me, and made me do shit I didn't really wanna do. I was into new romantic music and he was a mod, and he'd tell me if I didn't dress like a mod he wouldn't be my friend anymore. Whenever I had plans to go on a date with a chick he'd sabotage it, because he didn't have a date or nothing. He was a gutless fucking nothing. I haven't talked to him for years.

"Mr. Rogers" is about Fred Rogers. Davis said: "As a kid, he told me to be polite, and all it did was get me picked on. I fucking hate that man. Thanks for making me polite and trusting everyone, and easy to take advantage of." "K@#Ø%!" is about women who have hurt Davis. The song is noted for its heavy use of vulgarisms throughout all the lyrics; because of this, Shaffer said that the band had intended to jokingly submit it to rock radio stations because they "knew they wouldn't play it, then follow up about a week later with the real thing". The grawlix "K@#Ø%!" stands for "Kunts!". The lyrical theme of "No Place to Hide" is the impossibility of escaping from oneself, facing the same problems and obsessions in everyday life and beyond, year after year. "A.D.I.D.A.S." is an acronym for "All Day I Dream About Sex". "A.D.I.D.A.S." is also about sexual frustration and refers to the parties where a boy chases a girl but returns home alone; Davis added, " ... and you lie in bed and all you have to do is jerk off". The cover song "Lowrider" is characterized by Davis playing his bagpipes and the band's style of humor. "Ass Itch" is about Davis' difficulty with songwriting. "Kill You" is about Davis' ex-stepmother. It narrates a complicated relationship Davis had with her, who did not fully accept her stepson and his resentment of this inextricable deadlock. Davis explained:

It's about a relative I first met when I was 12. I fucking hate that bitch. She's the most evil, fucked up person I've met in my whole life. She hated my guts. She did everything she could to make my life hell. Like, when I was sick she'd feed me tea with tabasco, which is really hot pepper oil. She'd make me drink it and say, 'You have to burn that cold out, boy'. Fucked up shit like that. So every night when I'd go to sleep, I'd dream of killing that bitch. In some sick way I had a sexual fantasy about her, and I don't know what that stems from or why, but I always dreamt about fucking her and killing her.

According to Davis, while the debut album centered on his childhood themes, Life Is Peachy reflected more on his past eighteen months within the band, except for a few songs. In 1996, Kerrang! summarized Life Is Peachy's themes: "Hate, pain, hate, sex, hate." They later stated that Korn channeled an "atmosphere of pure dementia" into the record, which showcased "more tales of child abuse, insecurity, betrayal of trust and general hatred for the world". The album's overall tone has been described by terms such as "big ball of anger", "contained rage", and "frustration". It instills a feeling of belligerence.

Life Is Peachy features a more prominent hip-hop influence than the band's self-titled debut, with Shaffer recalling, "We were listening to a lot of hip hop! I was probably listening to a lot of Mr. Bungle, hip hop like early Outkast and the Pharcyde, Sepultura records, and Rage Against the Machine, just to name a few." Characteristics that define the album's sound include the elements that appeared on the debut album, such as Arvizu's "clanking bass sound" and Welch and Shaffer's dissonant 7-string guitars, which are more disharmonic and noisy than previously, such as the loops on "Swallow", contrasting with Davis who had added more vocal melodies as exemplified on "No Place to Hide". The "clicky" and percussive bass sound can often be mistaken for the kick drum, for example, on "Ass Itch". Arvizu proudly described Life Is Peachy as having a rhythmically aggressive style, while MTV's Kyle Anderson expressed a converging opinion, saying the album "really belongs" to the bassist. The rhythms and "howling" vocals have been compared to those of the black metal subgenre. On the album, Davis' vocal style varies from whispering to clean singing, harsh vocals, and guttural scatting. His voice shifts going from one extreme to the other have been described as the "products of a beautiful voice". Screamings and sounds comparable to "borborygms" and onomatopoeias spontaneously punctuate his vocal parts. The vocal style on "Twist" was also described as a "cacophony of borborygms" or "borborygms delivered in a scat-like manner". Author and music journalist Jean-Charles Desgroux wrote that Davis displayed all his "organic versatility" on Life Is Peachy and achieved "heights of rage that are difficult to bear".

In the context of Life Is Peachy's promotional period, magazines and newspapers had vaguely defined the album's genre, although all had converged on the description of a metal sound. In early October 1996, announcing its imminent release, Kerrang! deemed "Good God" as "brutal" and wrote that they "sound like nothing that's gone before". On October 25, 1996, Entertainment Weekly's David Grad described the album's sound as a "fusion of heavy riffs and tight hip-hop beats". In October 1996, writer Manuel Rabasse commented that with Life Is Peachy, Korn "continues to depave the marked pathways of current metal". On November 5, 1996, The New York Times critic Jon Pareles wrote that throughout Life Is Peachy, "the band applies hip-hop's noise esthetics to a hard-rock lineup". In January 1997, Rock Sound's Katia Kulawick called Korn the "metal's mutants". In an interview during the Life Is Peachy Tour in March 1997, France's heavy metal magazine Hard Force described Korn as the "most revered new generation's metal band of this time". In May 1997, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune called Korn a "testosterone-juiced metal act". Life Is Peachy was a "moment" that represented the apogee of a new musical style (later branded "nu metal") which "sounded fresh and interesting and vital". Life Is Peachy was subsequently labeled nu metal.

Arvizu came up with the title Life Is Peachy. The name came from Arvizu's Pee Chee folder. He often wrote the words "Life Is" in front of the brand name, which he found amusing. Arvizu said, "I used to doodle all over it [the file folder]. I drew long hair on the character and put guitars in their hands. I used to sketch stuff all the time. I eventually knew my scribbles might someday pay off. I thought that visual would make a really cool album cover." Korn contacted the Pee Chee file folder company and asked for permission to use the file folder's image for an album cover, offering twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), resulting in the company turning the offer down. The name Life Is Peachy was agreed by band members to be a "great" name for the album, and kept the name but didn't add Fieldy's file folder cover. Due to the album's dark lyrical content, its title would be interpreted as ironic.

The booklet, much like the booklets to all Korn albums, does not disclose any of the songs' lyrics. Korn members have explained that the reason behind omitting the lyrics is due to the belief that including printed lyrics limits the listener's musical experience. Davis told MTV's Serena Altschul, "I think music is something that every individual has their own meaning to the song. They can come up with whatever the hell I'm saying and that's the beauty of it and that's what I wanna keep there."

Life Is Peachy's black and white front cover depicts a little boy with neatly combed blond hair straightening his tie in a gilt mirror while a taller, shadowy presence looms behind him. The photo was taken by Martin Riedl. The design and concept were by Scott Leberecht. Small said that it "continued the threatened child theme as depicted on Korn's artwork." Other photos in the booklet were taken by Stephen Stickler. Life Is Peachy is, to date, the only album by Korn to feature their name spelled in a different font. Two quotations are printed on the inside face of the card under the CD tray. The first is taken from Homer Joy's "Streets of Bakersfield" (1973) and reads as follows: "You don't know me but you don't like me, You say you care less how I feel. How many of you that sit and judge me. Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?" The second quotation reads: "'Who Then now, Bitches?'—Korn", which would later be the title of their biographical video.

Korn resumed intensive touring immediately after recording sessions for Life Is Peachy ended, performing notably at the UK Monsters of Rock festival in Donington on August 17, 1996, where they headlined the second stage and played songs from the upcoming album. At the festival, the band was interviewed by MTV's Vanessa Warwick for Headbangers Ball. Korn performed at several European festivals as a pre-Life Is Peachy Tour. The band had only cost the Swiss Rock Oz'Arènes festival $3,000 to get them to perform in mid-1996. In September 1996, Korn was selling 6,000 copies per week; "It was a completely grass-roots campaign", said Epic Records' Al Masocco. However, Davis stressed his desire for Korn to stay underground. Korn was selling well due to word of mouth and extended touring, earning them a "loyal" fanbase.

Just days before the release of Life Is Peachy, NME wrote that the "rise of Korn over the past two years has been nothing short of meteoric". A preview of the album was presented on Sony's website to fans worldwide, which became overloaded with traffic and crashed.

Life Is Peachy was released worldwide on October 15, 1996. It was released by Immortal Records, a label distributed by Sony's Epic. The CD album version includes a bonus multimedia section that features live video footage of "Good God" recorded at London Astoria in the summer of 1996.

The band toured throughout the US from October 1996 onward, with Limp Bizkit as the opening act. Korn supported Metallica on their US tour, which began in mid-December 1996.