the nu-metal canon

I saw Coal Chamber headline Roseland in NYC in 1999. It was an all-Roadrunner bill with support from Machine Head, promoting The Burning Red, Slipknot, and Amen (a mercifully forgotten punk-metal band). Slipknot's set was basically the first six songs from their s/t album, plus maybe two other songs. It was completely amazing. Nobody else that night could compete. Machine Head were OK, Coal Chamber were boring, but Slipknot blew the walls down.

I will die on the "mini maggit is good" hill

follow the leader was a big disappointment for me at the time. i did the thing, which i ended up doing with lots of bands whose new music i didn't really like, of trying to convince myself that it was good, but i couldn't keep up the pretense for too long.

i considered putting both significant other and chocolate starfish on here but like... not gonna win any hearts with three full limp bizkit albums in the canon lol

maybe this is the thread where i advocate for this song being the best song ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntw1a9_5TwE

issues is prob my favorite korn album but feels like a really dark alt-metal album more than it does nu-metal, thus its absence. i should've included life is peachy tho

a rap battle between jonathan davis and fred durst that is mostly gay panic jokes.... not in my canon

it's cool that the sonics of this era are being repurposed lately but with none of this sort of shit happening, in kind of the same way nu-emo mostly jettisons the old subject matters

a good friend of mine whose taste i usually trust (tbh one of the few friends whose taste i trust but that's for another time) swears by the KoRn/Skrillex collab(s), which i could sorta see since Skrillex kinda rules

ah all of that is valid. yeah Follow the Leader is mostly bad but was huuge at the time and a pretty major mainstream success. but yeah can't imagine it aged well at all. last time I played it in full, I was likely 14

this might be cheating but the family values tour 98' comp might be worth considering. has a good mix of that time period.

oh yes!!! i owned that

it was the first time i ever heard incubus

i have completely excluded incubus from the canon for downright personal reasons

I never really thought of Incubus in the same vein as these other acts, they were more like Filter to me

as much as nu-metal can be pulled apart from funk metal... they were way more the latter in their early career imo, like they sound like really successful faith no more acolytes in a way none of these other bands did xp

Yea "New Skin" feels like an unreleased FNM tune, right down to the vocalist's intonation

the intro to Got The Life is fucking amazing, the scat breakdown still hurts. Remember thinking Mini Maggit was a lame sellout move at the time, and the band basically did admit it was just done to please radio/managers.

Amen didn't fall in with things sound wise. Incredible live band. Well, incredible as a band with someone called Casey Chaos could be. One of my most vivid memories was the Astoria NME show of Alfie / Starsailor / Amen / JJ72, with Casey cutting himself and bleeding on the crowd 30 minutes before "Why won't it snow?"

yeah I think Deftones, Incubus, System of a Down are a bit separate from nu metal in my mind but they got big at the same time and had lots of overlapping fans (including myself). This happened a lot for me when we did the emo/screamo poll too. im not sure if Unwound, late ATDI, Converge 100% fit but the timing of their success had them lumped in.

feels like if you were on the Family Values tour and had a guitar, then you fit. so Deftones fit.

yeah a lot of things "don't quite fit" but it's a somewhat loose genre definition imo. i mentioned far upthread, they're a weird one in the nu-metal canon and are a bit of a precursor of late 90s/early 2000s screamo, more post-hardcore than a lot of nu-metal, but they were playing with deftones, incubus (who i would definitely include, faith no more is an influence on a lot of nu-metal) and sepultura etc.

oh ill vote for them all if there is ever an official poll for this but even as a middle school kid whose whole musical world revolved around this genre, they seemed to be doing their own thing sonically from the rest (incubus, deftones etc.)

feels like if you were on the Family Values tour and had a guitar, then you fit. so Deftones fit.

― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Monday, February 22, 2021 12:59 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

rammstein are i think inarguably not nu metal

a good friend of mine whose taste i usually trust (tbh one of the few friends whose taste i trust but that's for another time) swears by the KoRn/Skrillex collab(s), which i could sorta see since Skrillex kinda rules

I worked for Korn's label when this came out, so discount my opinion if you want, but I was kinda into that record at the time. They did a good job of replicating it live, too.

I never really thought of Incubus in the same vein as these other acts, they were more like Filter to me

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Monday, February 22, 2021 2:39 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

s.c.i.e.n.c.e has a scratching dj and a lot of attempts at funk iirc. later on they became much more of a mainstream alt rock band.

imo the SOAD self titled record is more "nu" than Toxicity

(the latter is better, though, one of the leanest, meanest major label rock records I've heard)

you are correct but toxicity is so perfect while remaining in the aesthetic realm that... i have a hard time picking the s/t over it

you would think i'd have this dilemma over around the fur and white pony but i don't

the korn dubstep album rules

you know what simon, you're right about the soad s/t. "sugar" is kind of a major text of nu-metal for me

Ha, Take A Look in the Mirror was the last Korn album I heard. Checked out one song of that dubstep one and, no, definitely not for me. I thought The Nothing was pretty good though, though obvious far outside the window for this thread.

the serenity of suffering and the nothing are both excellent comeback records

i looked at the soad s/t's tracklisting and thought "i don't remember most of these songs" but they're just often obtusely titled, i know this record like the back of my hand lol

"sugar" is kind of a major text of nu-metal for me

lol yeah this song is so sick (when you're 14 in 2000)

"spiders" should have been a big crossover soundtrack hit or something

I think "p.l.u.c.k." is my fave despite the absurd acronym, that chorus is so groovy

the serenity of suffering and the nothing are both excellent comeback records

Huh, guess I need to check out Serenity then.

"suggestions" is like the best song ever made

re: soad, not the excellent korn comeback album serenity of suffering (very much in the vein of the nothing so you'll prob like it jvc)

the first half of the soad s/t has gotta be among the most unbelievably awesome experiences of music ever lol

shake your spear at shakespeare!

don't you! realize! that evil! lives in the motherfucking skin!!!!

is I Against I nu metal?

feels like if you were on the Family Values tour and had a guitar, then you fit.

^ this is the real motherfuckin deal y'all

for my money, the woodstock 99 extended ver of “bawitdaba” is the most nu metal thing imaginable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMKfIXdxh-U

also when limp bizkit blew up the boat at spring break

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpyBybsNX64

RIP, Lynn Strait of Snot was on it at the time

snot should be included -- great album

what about Faith No More?

they maybe feel to nu metal as Led Zeppelin is to heavy metal, foundational to its creation but not a part of it

Interesting that you posted that Kid Rock video as I've always thought of Kid Rock as being adjacent to Nu Metal, but never really fully part of it. Certainly Rap Rock/Metal, but he was always too steeped in Southern Rock and Classic Rock influences to really feel like Nu Metal to me.

yeah agree, he was more authentically hip hop too, his early stuff

this is reminding me that the only Kid Rock music I own is an appearance on an Insane Clown Posse song

"bawitdaba" is a nu-metal song. maybe "i am the bulldog" too but it's not coming to mind readily. everything else i've heard from kid rock is not nu-metal. also, frankly, he sucks too much to be here

limp blowing the boat up is classic tho

i finally checked out snot... get some feels a little too funk metal, maybe? but strait up is kind of a scene classic, surprisingly really awesome throughout

i also finished this mix of nu-metal remixes over the weekend and i'm sooo happy with it

https://www.mixcloud.com/brad-nelson4/double-exposures-vol-82-everything-that-i-am-rearranging/

1. kittie: safe (kmfdm inc. remix)
2. mudvayne: dig (future evolution remix)
3. static-x: love dump (mephisto odyssey's voodoo mix)
4. godflesh: crush my soul (ultramixedit)
5. korn: here to stay (bt's managed anger mix)
6. orgy: stitches (green velvet mix)
7. limp bizkit: nookie (androids vs. las putas remix)
8. nine inch nails: the hand that feeds (photek straight mix)

this is awesome so far i am very excited for the BT korn remix!

this kittie/KMFDM remix gives me serious buffy vibes