Due to popular demand, good Nu Metal thread.

[astfgyl]

Right so I make no secret of liking a bit of the old Nu (see what I did there!!) but I realise it's a dirty phrase in general and more often than not it's well earned.

Saying that though, I think there's some actually good stuff in there even including some of the also-rans who might have done better were it not for the label.

I think also that the whole thing is basically pop music with a different aesthetic but still..

Songs or albums from the era and don't be afraid of it ruining your cred either because you're all pretty much Dungeons and Dragons in terms of cool as it is, ie not cool. 

Anyway, I listened to the first Korn album today and then the Chat Pile one and I'm about halfway through One Minute Silence - Buy Now Saved Later and I'm willing to stand by those three as decent albums. Had Slipknot - Iowa on the other day as well and liked it

What have ye got lads? It's OK, nobody is going to judge you... ah no they will  and harshly too!!

[Trev]

Always thought nu metal was a bit like grunge in terms of bands being lumped together even though they didn't have a similar sound. Korn, Slipknot, SOAD, Limp Bizkit are all completely different but still under the nu metal umbrella

Anyway, those first two Slipknot were deadly, and pretty much what got me into looking for heavier stuff, Jordison was a fucking beast of a drummer

Always loved the first couple of Static X albums too, Spineshank's Height of Callousness used to get a fair amount of spins although it's probably been 20 years since the last one. Might dig it out again over the weekend

[Eoin McLove]

I liked the first 3 Korn albums as a young lad. In 94 or 95 I spent a summer in a small village in the south west of France and, barring one woman who worked in the local tabac and who was French but spoke with the strongest Manchester accent- she sounded like she had walked off the set of Coronation Street, nobody spoke English. The kids around the place had a few words from school and I had a few words of French from school. The point being that it was a long couple of months and I found it grim and isolating in many ways. As an aside, I had a nice little Spanish guitar on hand and the house we lived in was this medieval building directly across from the church (the bells would ring every 15 minutes) and the acoustics on the stairwell up to my room were epic. I kick myself now for not having had the clout to try to record the dark, moody riffs I was coming up with at the time. Could have had a nice doomy/black metally acoustic demo put together if I had focused myself better. The new thing I have coming out in a few weeks actually calls back to that period in some ways so I'm making up for it.... anyway, that's all just setting the scene a bit.

Because I was a bit isolated and depressed about being far from home and wanting to be with the lads writing songs (would have been total Machine Head worship at that stage so no great loss in retrospect) I would buy French metal mags, and rather than spend that time learning French so I could understand the articles, I spent the time cutting up pictures and hanging them on the wall while listening to the handful of tapes I had with me.

There was a feature on some new mysterious band called Korn in one of the mags. All I had to go on was the strange name and one really cool, dark band photo. I've never seen that photo of them again so I'm wondering was it even from a demo or something because their debut hadn't come out yet. I got home later that summer and never heard about them again. It must have been a year later (it might have been less considering the time perception of a 12 /13 years old) before the album came out and they changed the face of 90s metal completely.

I liked some of the songs on the debut and in retrospect, without having the ability to articulate what I felt back then, I think some of it was aiming for novelty and overdoing it a bit. But there was a darkness and newness to what they were doing at the time which was exciting.

Similar kind of buzz with Deftones actually. One of my mates had the video for 7 Words (?) recorded off Headbangers Ball and it totally blew our socks off. But being the mid 90s and all of us being clueless we never heard another peep about them for what feels like a year until Adrenaline eventually showed up in local shops. I loved that album back then. Didn't really like the more streamlined sound on Around the Fur and lost interest.

The first SOAD was unreal as CD is still a superb album. I think it has more in common with Faith No More than Korn but it was lumped in to nu metal because of when it came out. I didn't like Toxicity and then moved into the underground and left all of that modern style stuff behind.

But it was definitely a fun and exciting movement for a couple of years as a kid obsessed with new heavy music.

[Giggles]

Some friends of mine were into Korn when I was a teenager but I never bothered with them, didn't like yer man's accent/vocal delivery.
Saw them at Hellfest out of curiosity in '22 and I enjoyed them a lot more than I thought I would.

The Feeding by American Head Charge is an album I frequently. It was released in 2005, so quite late to the nu metal scene. Some might say it's more industrial than nu metal. Very much an aggressive drug fueled album, the singer made no secret of his heroin habit! I recall somebody on MI talking about working in a venue that they played here, and one of the lads in the band was smoking crack through an apple 


Disturbed: yay or nay? Thumbs up from me anyway 

[Sworntothecans]

Nothing wrong with a bit of nu metal, especially when you grew up when the early stuff was coming out.

Korn's debut is still on regular rotation here (That Music On Vinyl repress is excellent), and I'd go as far as Untouchables with them as solid albums.

There's definitely a lot of "why in the name of fuck did I buy that" when you revisit a lot of their contemporaries.

And Deftones still sound more like Bad Brains than the majority of hardcore bands to this day!

[Pagan Saviour]

On the whole, it truly was a repulsive movement. I guess when it exploded I was old enough to know better. Never had time for cack like Coal Chamber or American Head Charge etc

However the first Korn album really did freshen things up. I think some of their early stuff still holds up, I prefer life is Peachy these days when I'm in the mood, a much darker record.

Deftones probably my favourite from that era though it was always really unfair to label them Nu-Metal

Will Haven right behind Deftones for me, such a savage act and they've been so consistent.


A band I detested initially have also become a favourite- Mudvayne. Really they shot themselves in the foot with the ridiculous image and choice of Dig as their first single - sounded like Slipknot wannabes but LD.50 is a serious album. Fantastic musicians and they really spread their wings on End of All Things to Come.

[astfgyl]

I still like LD50 but I never really got going with them after that.

The grunge comparison is fair as there are a lot of bands with very different sounds who were probably told by the labels to get the baggy jeans out or fuck off but who would have been fine otherwise.

Anyway this thread isn't to say how shit and contrived it all was, it's to recommend any nu metal albums that one still considers to be actually decent.

Going to throw on The Feeding in a few and see what I think because I remember despising it at the time after The War of Art.

Keep em coming lads

[Pagan Saviour]

Try The End Of All Things to Come if you've only tried LD.50

[Paul keohane]

I was probably just that bit to old to get grabbed in by the nu metal (thankfully).By the time i was 17/18 i had years of Death/Thrash,Black metal under my belt so i wasn't for turning.When NU metal took off i absolutely hated it. I do like System of a down,I actually listened to Slipknot Iowa on Spotify the other day,tbf its a heavy easy listen.

Around 97/98 I was nearly done with metal because of the amount of scutter coming out!,I thought the scene was fucked!

[Naraka]

The only band from that era that I've gone back and listened to in the past ten years was Sevendust.

[astfgyl]

Would you believe I only had the first 2 Sevendust albums on in the car lately. I used to think the first album was where it was at, but Home is much better after the years. Actually now I think Home is great but I wouldn't mind if I never heard the debut again.

Don't know anything after the first 2 at all, is any of that any cop?

[astfgyl]

I was probably just that bit to old to get grabbed in by the nu metal (thankfully).By the time i was 17/18 i had years of Death/Thrash,Black metal under my belt so i wasn't for turning.When NU metal took off i absolutely hated it. I do like System of a down,I actually listened to Slipknot Iowa on Spotify the other day,tbf its a heavy easy listen.

Around 97/98 I was nearly done with metal because of the amount of scutter coming out!,I thought the scene was fucked!

I'm old enough that I should know better as well to be fair about it

[astfgyl]

So I listened to The Feeding and I liked it even though I think I'd be grand if I never heard it again.

Now I've The Height Callousness on here and I'm liking it but I'd be grand if I never heard it again.

What I'll do is that I'll burn the two of em on to a CD for the car and make sure that way.

Now something I hadn't spotted before was that the Spineshank album is the strongest possible rip-off of Prong - Rude Awakening, right down to directly stealing riffs but I do love that Prong album so yeah go on

[astfgyl]

Needed italics and got sizzled

[astfgyl]

And at the back of it all, it all feels very product. I enjoy the old song craft and all but at the same time 2 lads making a fuck of it in a shed probably means more to me