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Nu-metal that didn't suck?

EYEL1NER

EYEL1NER

Member
Spineshank had some good tracks. I remember the first time I heard "Detached" on a compilation (The Hard + The Heavy Vol 1) and was like "Whoa, who he hell are these guys?" Wish I had checked them out further at that time. Motograter was kind of cool but they never took off. I think "Sun Doesn't Rise" was a great song from Mushroomhead but I never explored their library further than that.

I got introduced to Nonpoint back in 2007 by a guy in Tech School who lived and breathed nu-metal. I bought their 2005 album To The Pain and thought it was pretty solid. The first three tracks are all winners ("Bullet with a Name," "There's Going to be a War," "The Wreckoning").

Ra was a band that I thought had potential when their first one From One dropped. I still remember my step-dad coming home from work late at night and downloading "Do You Call My Name" and being like "You've gotta hear this song they just played on 98.9 on my way home!" The song had an exotic sound that could have easily been Egyptian/middle eastern-y for all anyone knew and was very funky. "Rectifier," their second single, was also quite good and "Fallen Rock Zone" was one I liked.

The first Sevendust album was crazy. It kicked off with "Black," "Bitch," "Terminator," and "Too Close to Hate," which were all heavy af (I won't even add "for being nu-metal, anyway" as a qualifier to the end of that, because those four were heavy). My mom loved that album and it was in heavy rotation in our car for years. I might just got and listen to "Too Close to Hate" after wrapping up my post, been a while since I heard it.
 
M

Mass Effect

Member
Has anyone mentioned Deftones? They're obviously not nu-metal anymore, but their first two albums were most certainly nu-metal.

I'd also throw Incubus in as well.

VendettaRed07 said:
Loved Killswitch Engage back in the day
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KSE is not, nor has ever been, nu-metal.

King_Moc said:
If System of a Down count, then it's them. Literally just them.
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I'd argue their first two albums are close enough. And even if they're not (they are), 99% of people who listened to bands like Disturbed or Papa Roach or Slipknot also listened to SOAD.
 
C

CloudWolf

Member
System of a Down was okay, I guess. In general nu-metal is one of the worst genres of rock, maybe only beat by post-grunge. The amount of shitty bands that came from those genres is amazing.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
gfxtwin said:
Ok, a lot of the bands people ITT are mentioning right now kinda suck TBH lmao
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All*
;)
TheLastCandle said:
"Jumpdafuckup" is still the best description for nu-metal. Conjures images of jumpsuits, chain wallets, and dreadlocks.
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lol, indeed

TheGreatMightyPoo said:
Labels are pretty much pointless nonsense for eggheads to use to dismiss bands that aren't cool to like.
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Sure bud:
jmdajr said:
"Dude you need to listen to IMMORTAL, they are fucking awesome!"
"What do they sound like?"
"Don't worry about it! [I mean labels are pretty much pointless nonsense for eggheads anyway!] Trust me!"
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TheLastCandle said:
Yeah. The subgenres in Metal are absolutely vital. I'm not exactly going to recommend Morbid Angel to someone who is really into Twilight Force even though both are Metal.
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.
 
P

PudieRSC

Member
Given OP's original post, I don't think nu-metal is for him, honestly.

But a few of my favorite albums that fall somewhere in the mu metal conversation.

Deftones - Everything up to White Pony. White Pony being on of the best albums of that period.

KoRn - Everything to Issues, with Self Titled as their best.

Limp Bizkit - 3 Dolla Bill Yall. The rest is trash, and this hasn't aged that well, but it's a fun nostalgia trip.

Slipknot - Self Titled. Defining albums of my teenage years. Just so fucking good and angry.

Taproot - Gift. Lesser known, but amazing.

Soulfly - Primitive and Sepultura - Roots. Max Cavalera is a beast.

SoaD - Everything. All of it. They need to record a new album already.

Coal Chamber - Self Titled. Looking back, they're kinda terrible. But another fun nostalgia trip.

I'll never get the love for Disturbed though. I hate that bad irrationally.
 
M

Mathieran

Banned
System of a Down is probably the only Nu Metal band I can still listen to.

I could listen to Korn if someone would just edit out all the vocals and rewrite and resing them. I still really think the band was very talented in the day and created some awesome music.


Edit: Reading through this thread sure has dredged up a lot of memories. I was in high school through the biggest years of Nu metal and there were quite a few bands that I forgot existed.

My musical tastes sure have changed over the years. Other than older metal I don't even really listen to the genre. Coheed and Cambria is about as close to metal as I get these days.

But I'm gonna go back and listen to some of this and see how it holds up.

Does anyone remember Kittie?
 
Fall Into The GAF

Fall Into The GAF

Member
PassiveObserver said:
The end all and be all of the genre, as far as I'm concerned.

81wlmFpgxGL._SY355_.jpg
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A lot of people don't give this album enough credit (even nu-metal aficionados) even though it was pretty experimental. Post-LD50 Mudvayne albums just waned off of that and turned into...cock rock.

Like a lot of people here, i have been diving down a nu-metal nostalgia trip as of late and it's really apparent what kind of nu-metal is decent/good and what isn't. That said, I still fucking loathe Trapt - Headstrong even after these years.
 
T

Triteon

Member
TheRedSnifit said:
Fear Factory is industrial metal.



To be fair, nu metal bands ripped off a lot of industrial metal bands (especially Godflesh). I can kind of see how one could get them mixed up.
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I consider stuff like Birmingham 6 and Electric hellfire club to be more industrial metal, but that might be because I kind of got into goth industrial in my mid teens and didn't really follow metal all that closely for a decade.
 
S

soxinthebox

Member
Fall Into The GAF said:
A lot of people don't give this album enough credit (even nu-metal aficionados) even though it was pretty experimental. Post-LD50 Mudvayne albums just waned off of that and turned into...cock rock.

Like a lot of people here, i have been diving down a nu-metal nostalgia trip as of late and it's really apparent what kind of nu-metal is decent/good and what isn't. That said, I still fucking loathe Trapt - Headstrong even after these years.
Click to expand...
I absolutely loved that Mudvayne album when it was new but it wasn't grabbing me yesterday when I gave it a spin. Might have to try again since there must be something there.
Hell I remember dressing up as that red face spiky hair dude for a dress up party - looked out of place but I thought I was killing it.
 
V

Velikost

Member
Pleymo is pretty cool, they're a French nu-metal band. I first heard this song in Rock Band DLC, though the version in there is a little different. Sorry to hear you grew out of some cool tunes OP.

Mathieran said:
Does anyone remember Kittie?
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Brackish is a killer tune

Morrigan Stark said:
Sure bud
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I mean, outside of the pointless part, that poster isn't wrong. Labeling bands and determining sub-genres is interesting and does serve a purpose, but I too see them used mostly to discredit others, shit on artists and remain close-minded about other music. It's a bummer
 
I

IC5

Member
Untouchables is the peak of Korn's evolution. Anything good since then, is essentially a callback to this album.

Chevelle's third album "This Type of Thinking" is prime workout fuel and goes down easy from start to finish. I'm not saying is the pinnacle of musicianship. But relax your pretension for a minute. They are a band I kinda almost liked for awhile (highschool age) and then finally that album got me to bite. Just that one, though.

Incubus has much too wide a range to be considered nu-metal. But they were solidly in the funk/rap rock spike of the mid/late nineties. Which sorta pre-emps half of nu-metal.

Tool's occasional classification as nu-metal by confused mainstream journalists, is probably due to the single "Stinkfist" and said writers inability to process what was happening with that band.
 
P

PHOENIXZERO

Member
I still like Orgy's first two albums. *shrug*

DJChuy said:
I had no idea Breaking Benjamin was considered nu-metal.

Looking at the nu-metal playlist from Spotify, I never considered most of those artists or songs they have in there as nu-metal: Creed, Flyleaf, Three Days Grace, Hoobastank, etc.

Even that Butterfly song is in the playlist hahaha. "Come come my lady, you're my butterfly sugar baby." You learn something new everyday.
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Well, there is a lot of crossover between nu metal and douche rock like Crazytown.

Mathieran said:
System of a Down is probably the only Nu Metal band I can still listen to.

I could listen to Korn if someone would just edit out all the vocals and rewrite and resing them. I still really think the band was very talented in the day and created some awesome music.


Edit: Reading through this thread sure has dredged up a lot of memories. I was in high school through the biggest years of Nu metal and there were quite a few bands that I forgot existed.

My musical tastes sure have changed over the years. Other than older metal I don't even really listen to the genre. Coheed and Cambria is about as close to metal as I get these days.

But I'm gonna go back and listen to some of this and see how it holds up.

Does anyone remember Kittie?
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm acquainted with a few past and "current" members. Their last album came out in 2011 and largely been on hiatus the last few years.
 
A

AlexBasch

Member
Never understood that numetal thing.

I recall Incubus's Wish You Were Here was considered a numetal song.

Then there was Korn and every DJ in those bands. Man those times were weird.
 
P

PHOENIXZERO

Member
AlexBasch said:
Never understood that numetal thing.

I recall Incubus's Wish You Were Here was considered a numetal song.

Then there was Korn and every DJ in those bands. Man those times were weird.
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It's something that's basically been used as a blanket (marketing) term for alternative metal or crossover/fusion bands in the late 90s/early 00s the same way grunge ended up being for alternative rock.
 
P

pablito

Member
AlexBasch said:
Never understood that numetal thing.

I recall Incubus's Wish You Were Here was considered a numetal song.

Then there was Korn and every DJ in those bands. Man those times were weird.
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I wonder if there's rapping in Fungus Amongus. Never really got into that album. But songs like Pardon Me have rapping in them, so maybe that's why some called them Nu Metal?
 
A

AlexBasch

Member
Alter_Fridge said:
Incubus being considered metal WAT
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I swear to God I did read that kind of stuff from magazines back in the day.

I liked them with SoaD and most of the bands mentioned here, but never thought they belonged to the same genre.
PHOENIXZERO said:
It's something that's basically been used as a blanket term for in the late 90s/early 00s the same way Grunge was.
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I suppose. I'm not challenging the names or the origins of the genre, but as a casual music listener from another country, I can't place Nirvana and Pearl Jam as similar bands based on the "grunge" term, but I understand why people do, like Soundgarden and other bands.

This is a free card to pile up on my lack of musical knowledge, it's just that the "numetal" word was always confusing to me.
 
R

Reckless Abandon

Member
LincolnSixEcho said:
Static-X's first album is a masterpiece.
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Heh, I prefer their self-proclaimed classification as "evil disco". It always surprised me they got the nu metal tag. Their first two albums especially were very clearly industrial metal, to me they don't sound anything like the other nu metal of the day.

Shadow Zone and Start A War definitely had that nu metal vibe, but WDT and Machine are pretty much textbook definitions of industrial metal. They got back to that later in their discography with Cannibal.

Not hatin', just wanted to throw my $0.02 in there because Static-X is one of my very favorite bands, and I was devastated at the loss of Wayne a few years back. Still haven't listened to his solo joint Pighammer because I don't know if I'm ready to hear the last new thing I ever will from him.
 
Fall Into The GAF

Fall Into The GAF

Member
soxinthebox said:
I absolutely loved that Mudvayne album when it was new but it wasn't grabbing me yesterday when I gave it a spin. Might have to try again since there must be something there.
Hell I remember dressing up as that red face spiky hair dude for a dress up party - looked out of place but I thought I was killing it.
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I think it hinges on the bassist Ryan Martinie's play and how "loose" it was. I am not a musician so I cannot explain it better but also the weird ambient segue way tracks. Slipknot's self titled is a lot like that where it's just a hodgepodge of different experimental sounds. That's probably why i got into them in the first place.

Also, can we discuss how hilariously uniform nu metal music videos were? Harsh saturation, rapid cut editing, decrepit set pieces and a fuckload of shaky cam.
 
PaulBizkit

PaulBizkit

Member
Fall Into The GAF said:
Also, can we discuss how hilariously uniform nu metal music videos were? Harsh saturation, rapid cut editing, decrepit set pieces and a fuckload of shaky cam.
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And the heavy stepping, don't forget the heavy stepping!!

Mainstream hip hop videos are all the same as well... Have you ever watched Japanese Visual Kei (gothic rock) bands' videos? Those are all made with a checklist too... You always have the run down church/building, the snow, a window shattering, some princess crying and distortion up the ass.

The only band's videos without any of the gimmicks you mentioned is Limp Bizkit.
 
N

NotLiquid

Member
PHOENIXZERO said:
I still like Orgy's first two albums. *shrug*
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Orgy's third album is the only one where Jay Gordon wears his nu-metal influence on his sleeve. Candyass and Vapor Transmission were a part of the industrial metal wave of the 90s alongside bands like NIN and Static-X, perhaps veering more towards electronic rock/electropunk with the latter.

Punk Statik Paranoia going full nu-metal was practically the main reason why Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh left the band to found Julien-K.
 
S

shiftplusone

Member
Fall Into The GAF said:
A lot of people don't give this album enough credit (even nu-metal aficionados) even though it was pretty experimental. Post-LD50 Mudvayne albums just waned off of that and turned into...cock rock.

Like a lot of people here, i have been diving down a nu-metal nostalgia trip as of late and it's really apparent what kind of nu-metal is decent/good and what isn't. That said, I still fucking loathe Trapt - Headstrong even after these years.
Click to expand...

As a non professional musician I always thought Mudvayne's bassist was one of the best in the genre.

just a lot of good work from him across those albums even if everything else turned bad
 
R

rashbeep

Banned
Fall Into The GAF said:
A lot of people don't give this album enough credit (even nu-metal aficionados) even though it was pretty experimental. Post-LD50 Mudvayne albums just waned off of that and turned into...cock rock.

Like a lot of people here, i have been diving down a nu-metal nostalgia trip as of late and it's really apparent what kind of nu-metal is decent/good and what isn't. That said, I still fucking loathe Trapt - Headstrong even after these years.
Click to expand...

the rhythm section (especially martinie) made that album interesting. without them you have hellyeah which is trash imo
 
S

Starfish Hero

Member
Nu-metal is more of a cultural thing than a sound. All of the big nu-metal bands sound pretty distinct from one another, which is partly why nu-metal discussion is dominated with "[insert band] isn't nu-metal".
The other reason is that people are ashamed to admit they like a nu-metal band.

Like, pick any two of Limp Bizkit, Korn, Deftones, Slipknot, System of a Down, Linkin Park, even throw Incubus in there. Most pairs I wouldn't say "yea those bands are the same genre" but grouped together the similarities start to stand out.

Lower tier nu-metal all pretty much sound like one of those bands though
 
P

PHOENIXZERO

Member
NotLiquid said:
Orgy's third album is the only one where Jay Gordon wears his nu-metal influence on his sleeve. Candyass and Vapor Transmission were a part of the industrial metal wave of the 90s alongside bands like NIN and Static-X, perhaps veering more towards electronic rock/electropunk with the latter.

Punk Statik Paranoia going full nu-metal was practically the main reason why Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh left the band to found Julien-K.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's why I never really considered them nu metal, I was going to say that I did lose interest after Punk Statik Paranoia but the band has pretty much been dead or at best the Jay Gordon project of nothing since.
 
M

Mathieran

Banned
PHOENIXZERO said:
I still like Orgy's first two albums. *shrug*



Well, there is a lot of crossover between nu metal and douche rock like Crazytown.



Yes, I'm acquainted with a few past and "current" members. Their last album came out in 2011 and largely been on hiatus the last few years.
Click to expand...

I forgot about Orgy being part of the nu metal wave . Vapor Transmission is a really good album I still listen to to this day.
 
T

TheOfficeMut

Unconfirmed Member
You don't enjoy any of Linkin Park's material? I mean, their albums change so much that I think it says something negative about your preference if that's the case.
 
F

Fallout-NL

Member
Dinokill said:
I love Nu-metal. Back in the mid 90s to early 2000s was the last time metal/hard rock was mainstream and maybe that is why the genre is so hated.

I will give a list of albums you should listen if you want to get into that era.



Then you have really good albums like

KoRn - Life is Peachy, Follow The Leader
Limp Bizkit - Significant Other
Deftones - Around The Fur, Adrenaline, White Pony
Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory, Meteora
Papa Roach - Infest
Coal Chamber - Self titled
Kid Rock - Cowboy
Click to expand...


White Pony needs to be in the masterpiece section.
 
Kaji AF16

Kaji AF16

Member
Deftones, Slipknot and System of a Down were born in that trend but IMHO trascended it.

Also, Korn had a high quality sound. Not liking nu-metal at all (I already was an old-school thrasher by the late nineties), I almost spontaneously bought their 2004 "Greatest Hits, Vol. 1" because I felt they defined the previous era and were to be considered a milestone of a rock subgenre. I eventually had the opportunity to see them live, touring with Ozzy, and I was pleasantly surprised.

That said, I remember feeling that nu-metal was going to have problems when its core demographics got slightly older: even the best bands born from it were very juvenile. I stopped a very close friend of mine from getting a Slipknot tattoo on his leg and 18 years later he still thanks me for that.
 
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