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Underground > Radio & Music >

Nu-Metal Autopsy

All Acting Regiment

21:19 / 08.01.05

So, there doesn't seem to be a right lot happening in terms of Nu-Metal any more(feel free to correct). But what the hell was it, anyway? What will people think of it in a few year's time? What do you think, Barbelith? Let's discuss.

Haus of Mystery

22:43 / 08.01.05

Are there not, thousands and thousands and thousands of identikit Nu-Metal bands still selling records by the skip-load? There certainly seem to be enough 'Nu-metal' kids walking the streets round my parts (oo-er!).

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

01:58 / 09.01.05

nah. those are screamo kids.

shoot on sight all the same.

Brigade du jour

15:29 / 09.01.05

You know what? I saw a kid outside my local Asda on Friday, he was wearing one of those hoodies like the nu-metal kids wear, except it had Iron Maiden on it! I was so happy I almost went up and congratulated him, but I would probably have been arrested or something.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

05:32 / 10.01.05

I'd have punched him.

In the FACE.

06:44 / 10.01.05

Back around '91 or so, when I first hear Ice T's "Body Count" album, I thought, this is the future. Take the pure skill of the heavy metal musicians* and add lyrics that are a little more grounded in the common experience**. Sure, it took about a decade to really hit, but here it comes and there it went.
I have to admit I liked some of it. I liked the increased influence on rhythm, specificaly breakbeat, the drummer and bassist were essentially freed from the confines of traditional blues-centricism and could experiment with elements of electronica, industrial and hip-hop. coupled with nice screechy/crunchy guitar... Mmmmm, sometimes it worked well. It did get co-opted rather quickly though. Shame about that. Maybe there will be a nice underground scene that will "keep it real," let it incubate...

*say what you want, they are technically proficient.

**I hate whiney 18-year-olds howling about how nobody understands them as much as the next crusty old geezer who doesn't remember what it's like to have your homones in a constant state of eruption, but I have always found it hard to empathize with a man who is singing about elves or ancient evil.

Haus of Mystery

11:03 / 10.01.05

Back around '91 or so, when I first hear Ice T's "Body Count" album, I thought, this is the future.

Heh.

12:37 / 10.01.05

Are there not, thousands and thousands and thousands of identikit Nu-Metal bands still selling records by the skip-load?

Well, I think that's kind of the point: there doesn't seem to be much new or vibrant going on in Nu-Metal, just tired rehashes trying to cash in before the trend loses all its market value.

Personally, I think that Nu-Metal (I hate the term, but whatever) - the early Nu-Metal - worked better conceptually or potentially than it did in actuality.

For one thing, bringing elements of hip-hop into heavy guitar-based music opened up some of the possibilities that Bring Tha Noise, etc., hinted at - and if BTN moved you like it did me, you know what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, the majority of Nu-Metal vocalists I've heard try their hand at it just... aren't MC's.

Also, I think that Korn (and Rage Against the Machine, but I've never identified them with Nu-Metal so much, I wonder why?) expanded the "acceptable" range of guitar technique in the mainstream in some interesting (when done well) directions. Flip side: their innovations, such as they were, have been cloned (often badly, and without a fresh injection of creativity) by the cookie-cutter bands that followed.

Some good ideas, mainly spotty execution.

~L

21:47 / 10.01.05

I hope you noticed, MacGyver, that I never indicated whether that future was for good or ill, just that I forsaw this development some time ago.

09:10 / 11.01.05

i think rage against the machine never sounded like they were holding two styles next to eaxh other, they actually fused them.
oh, and de la rocha can MC, which many others on the scene cannot.

does anyone remember the wu/limp collaboration?
it sounded like method man had stayed up late the night before writing his lyrics and yet they were stil about a million times more natural sounding and interesting than fred's, who i am sure spent weeks on his.
the collaboration with xzibit wwas similarly embarrassing for him.
isnt that the big problem with bands like the soggy biscuit?
their rap metal is a fusion that ignores the strengths of the two genres more often than it exploits them, unlike a good rap metal act like rage against the machine.

Jack The Bodiless

11:39 / 11.01.05

OK. Nu Metal is/was a European (mostly UK-based) media nickname for any metal act that seemed to have been influenced by or have benefited from the popularity of Korn and Limp Bizkit. This included chancers like Linkin Park, established acts like the Deftones, newer acts like Slipknot, etc etc. It wasn't just a rap-metal scene - punk acts like Amen and industrial rock n' roll acts like Rob Zombie were usually tarred with the same shitty brush by lazy media types who couldn't tell Faith No More from Faithless. Yeah, the rap-metal bandwagon jumpers have mostly jumped back off again (Papa Roach's second album is a lot more retrogressive metal than the first, for example), but the partial collapse of the media bubble has left us with rather a vibrant scene, in my opinion.

Crucially, unlike the equally gormless and lazy grunge hype the media threw at us twelve years or so ago (which they tried to market as a new Spirit of '76 type of deal), the older bands and the newer bands moved alongside one another, playing on the same bills etc, and Nu Metal actually saw things like Maiden's renaissance and Rob Halford getting back with Priest. So overall, it's difficult reasonably argue that it wasn't healthy, even if the marketing was mostly moronic and ignorant.

Haus of Mystery

11:40 / 11.01.05

Fair do's lekvar. Didn't mean to snark.

17:30 / 11.01.05

Jack, "Nu-Metal" gets thrown around the US a lot, too. I don't know if the term gets looser usage in the UK, but at least around here I think it describes a pretty specific and recognizeable sound (which may or may not include rap-style vocals). Then again, I may just not be paying enough attention.

I do agree that the scene is getting more interesting now that the media seems to have backed off a little - I'm more and more frequently impressed by some of the newer stuff coming out of the radio at me, and a lot of it could be (lazily) described as "Nu-metal that has stopped caring about trying to sound like Nu-metal." Bands that previously may have tried (or been pressured by their labels) to fit the mold are relaxing and doing what they're good at, so the bands are sounding a little more individual.

Of course, a lot of what gets played is still crap, but the ratio's shifting.

~L

17:34 / 11.01.05

Oh, and toksik - hell yeah, Zach can MC! I'm having a real hard time accepting Audioslave...

IIRC, Zach made Chuck D's list of "10 MC's that make me say Damn!" in his book Fight the Power.

~L

Regrettable Juvenilia

17:47 / 11.01.05

Chuck D also made a list of reasons why Tupac was still alive and had faked his own death.

I'm just saying.

18:28 / 11.01.05

Some of Chuck D's ideas are somewhat wacky but you have to respect the man musically.
I have to say that Toksik is right: Nu-metal too often took what was bad about the two genres and combined them. So you ended up with ridiculous macho posturing with little intelligence behind them. That's why I feel RATM were a stand-out band in nu-metal as they often managed to combine what's great about the two genres.

All Acting Regiment

20:06 / 11.01.05

Definitely agree with the "macho posturing" point, as well as the "bad qualities of rap combined with bad qualities of metal".

Have we all kinda noticed that the "metal" crew have been trying to look a bit more "street" cause of this? I did.

And further the RATM being a whole different kettle of fish: they evolved before, and outside the whole Nu metal thing.

I doubt that the stereotypical Nu-metal kid has Gang Of Four or Bad Brains, or Public Enemy for that matter, in their cool black CD rack. They do however have a lovely sticker of marilyn manson.

03:22 / 12.01.05

'19 Reasons why 2Pac is alive'? Isn't that a Jason Donovan song?

Nu-metal, reaching back a bit further, is very much Faith No More's fault. No FNM, no nu-metal.

Haus of Mystery

14:59 / 12.01.05

Tupac is alive, as is Biggie. They live on a remote island in the Arctic circle plotting their Messianic return, wherein all wars will either stop, or start at the same time.

16:29 / 12.01.05

Didn't Korn just release an album? Just when I start to think maybe they're not so awful, they do some dumb shit like cover Pink Floydd. Listen, retards, no one covers Pink Floyd, no one covers the Pixies, no one covers Led Zeppelin. It's just not right.

I've been listening to KROQ at work, man, and like a quarter of the songs are cheesy covers. There are two Manson covers of 80s dance hits in heavy rotation RIGHT NOW.

Kids today, sheesh.

16:44 / 12.01.05

Manson's next hits:

Time After Time
I've Been Around the World
The Sign
Don't Stand So (Close To Me)

17:17 / 12.01.05

<threadrot>
Is it just me or did punk's use of the ironic cover turn into something grotesque over the past couple years? I swear that there are bands out there that make top 40 just by being "clever" enough to cover some 70s or 80s one hit wonder.
</threadrot>

21:29 / 12.01.05

My issue is pretty much with the bands that could be categorised as rap metal, which seem to me to be the product of a marketing meeting not unlike that which created Poochy the Dog on the Simpsons. But then I get that way about any approach to experimentation or finding a sound which just involves mixing two or more genres. It almost invariably feels forced, inorganic and lacking imagination.

01:07 / 13.01.05

Are you suggesting ratm were the product of a marketing meeting?!

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

02:10 / 13.01.05

RATM are shit. Why not just have a sixth former rant on about politics in one ear and have some cunt guitarsurbate* in your other?

*COPYRIGHT ME 2005

10:33 / 13.01.05

Now I totally want to hear Marilyn Manson sing "I've Been Around the World". Eminem could do a rap spot--the other Eminem!