Due to popular demand, good Nu Metal thread.

[Mooncat]

Only band I'd revisit with any regularity is Limp Bizkit. Fred Durst is marmite to a lot of people, but the musicians in that band were great. Particularly as a guitar player I enjoy Wes Borland's tapping rhythms on 3 Dollar Bills, and his use of delay to come up with riffs on Chocolate Starfish. Basically any riff he wrote aside from the ham-fisted drop-tuned heavy riffs was amazing. The heavier ones got the job done they were supposed to do.

Anything else I revisit maybe once about every 5 years in a cluster. I was 15/16 in 2000 so the exact right age at the exact commercial peak of the genre. So about twice a decade I'll settle down with a few drinks and stick on the likes of Height of Callousness, Infest, Slipknot s/t, Wisconsin Death Trip, Korn, S.C.I.E.N.C.E (prob more nu-metal adjacent), and Devil Without a Cause. Plus invariably find a playlist that captures all the other one-off hits like P.O.D, Crazy Town, Saliva, Mudvayne, Staind etc. Most of it kind of awful, but the nostalgia trip carries me through and it's usually a fun night.

What an era though. Frosted tip jocks being simultaneously violent and emo, whilst partying. Where on earth did that come from? The authenticity of grunge finally becoming pop commercialized and reaching the most shallow possible people? Whatever it was, it was violently American.

Jackass is also intrinsically linked to this era in my mind (I still love Jackass).

[Squigs]

Funny you say Jackass, cause to me wrestling in the late 90s into 2000/2001 where there was nu-metal featured on PPVs and a lot of the entrance music was very "nu" was a big intro to me. The Acolytes theme for anyone who remembers was a real sound I heard and my ears immediately pricked up. I need more of this stuff in my life.

I was 12 in 2000 and feel like a lot of nu-metal swirled about me at the time but in hindsight it was songs more than albums that I was into/listened to, bar Slipknot and Korn and a smattering of others. Kinda a whistle stop for a year or so until I got Reign in Blood and we were off to the races. Hearing stuff off Kerrang and downloading songs of Kazaa etc. but I owned relatively few actual albums.

Will always give both Korn and Slipknot a listen a few times a year, the Slipknot s/t was a revelation to me. Never heard drums or even guitar playing like it - the string bend breakdown in Eyeless absolutely floored me. A great record.

I think it's a nebulous sorta category though, there's very little glue that keeps a lot of those bands together in a lot of instances. Aesthetic and approach moreso than sounds defined a lot of that era, a bands like Mudvayne and even Papa Roach did everything in their power to remove themselves from that tag or style as soon as they got a chance. First Korn album I got was Follow the Leader and I was expecting absolutely chaos when I got home with it, but It's On couldn't be further from what I was anticipating. That's true of a lot of fad genres, grunge would be the same, and I guess I was coming in at a "maturing" stage for the genre.

[Squigs]

https://youtu.be/6F7PafNpzAo?si=SwNo0_9766ncYVMW

Hon the APA

[Mooncat]

Funny you say Jackass, cause to me wrestling in the late 90s into 2000/2001 where there was nu-metal featured on PPVs and a lot of the entrance music was very "nu" was a big intro to me. The Acolytes theme for anyone who remembers was a real sound I heard and my ears immediately pricked up. I need more of this stuff in my life.

Yeah for sure! The whole Attitude era coincided with nu-metal's popularity so it's all over it. Sure in the Undertaker's biker phase he initially came out to American Badass by Kid Rock. Then later on switched to Rollin' by Limp Bizkit. Seem to remember they even performed live a few times on the shows.

If you want a fun time capsule, go back and watch Freddy vs Jason and hear it's really out of place nu-metal soundtrack   

[Eoin McLove]

I loved S.C.I.E.N.C.E. and Enjoy Incubus back then but I revisited them around a decade ago and they were tough going. Amazing musicianship and singing in that band, and again they were lumped into that scene because of time and place, but their sound was more of a jazzy/funky interpretation of FNM. The wackiness is hard to take these days but yeah, they were a cut above in many respects.

The one after S.C.I.... was a turd. They streamlined their sound for radio and ditched a lot of the creativity that made them exciting in the first place.

[Pagan Saviour]

Similar thoughts on Incubus here. Enjoyed records up to morning view but went to see them in Dublin about 6 years ago and it was a god awful show, the band looked bored to tears, no energy whatsoever and the tamest dullest crowd I've ever seen at one of these things. Rock music for Ivy Leaguers.

[Pentagrimes]

Lost Prophets are arguably more extreme than anything in the black metal fanaticism thread.

[Eoin McLove]

You trot some version of that out at every opportunity. It's your version of male lesbians cancelling gigs. Suffering Jaysus.

[ochoill]

Yeah I hate most of it in retrospect but growing up when I did I gave some sick amount of it a go.  But I started off all sideways into music anyway and had plenty of shit to dig into thanks to the collections the two brothers had lying about.  Anyway.

Deftones are lethal, a real favourite band of mine, and I don't care what arguments lads put in - they are nu metal, completely and totally.

Will Haven - also class and I love their newer albums too but Carpe Diem is just the fuckin business.  More post-hardcore I suppose but they had the gluey riffs and old Deftones style bouncy bits in there so they get hit with the nu metal stick too.  Even if Muerte is Sludge/Hardcore.

Limp Bizkit - Significant Other is lethal but the rest of it is muck.

Korn - the first album is great.  Everything up to and including Untouchables has good songs on it but are rattled with filler.  Anything after that can be safely ignored forever.

Filter - I listen to Title of Record a fair bit.  It's straightforward rock songs that get out in with the nu-metal again but the tag fits.  Great album if you skip Take My Picture every time.  Terrible song.

American Head Charge - I had the first album for a while and loved it but on a revisit a few years ago it held up very badly.

Mudvayne - same.  LD50 was completely lethal when I was in my teens but doesn't do much for me now.  Never got into their other albums.  Some good songs.

Incubus - S.C.I.E.N.C.E. is lethal but again anything else is very terrible.  Actually no it's not even bad just harmless and forgettable.  Even worse I suppose.  But S.C.I.E.N.C.E. is rattled with great tunes and great ideas, sounds busting.

System of a Down - I like both the first album and Toxicity but Toxicity is just played to death.  The albums after have a good song here and there but overall are bad.

Special Mention to Methods of Mayhem - easily the absolute dregs of music and the worst album I have ever ever heard but I recommend all of ye to listen to it at least once to see how bad things could be.  Horror music.

I could keep going.  Some of the other shit that has been trotted out above (Sevendust, Spineshank) is terrible and I will never revisit it by choice.

I saw a Nu-Metal tribute in Dolan's lately and they were the worst band I have ever seen live.  Genuinely shocking.  Out of tune, out of time, horrendous choice of songs, I don't even know where to begin.  Everyone wanted to enjoy it so much but there was no saving it.  Car crash level shit too, I stayed for the whole gig but nearly had to hide behind the sound desk from the mortification.

[Pentagrimes]

You trot some version of that out at every opportunity. It's your version of male lesbians cancelling gigs. Suffering Jaysus.

Sorry,repeated viewings of the Black Death Cult video with the slide Trombone momentarily broke my brain and erased my memory in the process

Are we officially calling Chat Pile Nu Metal now?I still hear a lot more noise rock/Godflesh in there

[Anvil]

Lost Prophets are arguably more extreme than anything in the black metal fanaticism thread.

Definitely more extreme than Inquisition.   

Only "nu-metal" band I have any interest in is SOAD.   Think their first two albums are great.   

[Eoin McLove]

  name and shame! That actually sounds like an even more fun night ou than a decent tribute would be.

We were discussing Clawfinger and Stuck Mojo in recent times. Both utterly awful but there's at least a little nostalgia attached to Clawfinger for me, because I got great gas out of laughing at their lyrics. Are either of those bands nu metal? I suppose you could say Stuck Mojo are, but Clawfinger pre-date the movement being more of a poor man's Rage Against the Machine. First wave nu metal? 

You're the real nagger!

[Trev]

Went back and listened to some Mudvayne this morning. LD50 and End of All Things are pretty close to prog in a lot of parts. Ryan Martinie's bass playing is just unbelievable and really elevates them above the others. I remember spending hours trying to figure out some of it as a young lad, never got close!

Lost and Found seemed to go a bit more alt rock  and toned down a lot of their weirder stuff, it's grand enough but doubt I'll listen to it again

I see they're back touring again, I'd be interested to hear what they come up with if they were to make a new album

[Eoin McLove]

I never would have thought to lump Filter in with nu metal. Kind of industrial alt metal/ rock light? They were catchy enough and I had fun seeing them open for Smashing Pumpkins  but never would have been arsed buying the album.

As for stuff like early Pitch Shifter and Godflesh, I know they are considered respectable but there is no denying the influence they had on that scene. Again, first wave nu metal?

And where does that leave the likes of Ministry and NIN? Big influences came from those bands I think. Or am I over reaching?

[Eoin McLove]

Listening to Chat Pile for the first time. Really good but it sounds more like noise rock to my ignorant ear. A bit of Harvey Milk in the mix maybe.