Nu-Metal re-assesed?

i still think slipknot are impressive. i've watched latter-day live shows on youtube and i give them credit for their vision. they've been doing it for a long time now and they do genuinely drive their fans insane. i don't know if anyone would have thought that they could still be packing them in at this late date.

Who remembers this from 1995?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjb7UD7jPqM

I do, though at the time I didn't know it was Sugar Ray. horrible tune. lol that McG produced the video.

While we're on the topic of heavy music in Britain in the 1990s, can someone tell me what corner Skunk Anansie crawled out of? And how are they regarded there?

Digging into my memory banks here, I think Slipknot's Iowa and System Of A Down's Toxicity were released roughly around the same time. I recall Toxicity being VERY well-received (and deservedly so) and Iowa being quite coolly received. At this point, I remember System Of A Down suddenly becoming bigger than ever (on the back of Toxicity and 'Chop Suey!'), where Slipknot kinda faded into the background a bit. All those kids that were huge Slipknot fans around the time of the self-titled record just suddenly gave up on them. Also, by the time Slipknot put out Iowa, there were suddenly a huge proliferation of really shit smaller bands. I mean, music TV was just saturated with a lot of it. I'm thinking Papa Roach, and fucking Godhead doing 'Eleanor Rigby', Kittie and that really awful band Sugarcoma with the embarrassing 'What Goes Round'.

All throughout this time, Korn were keeping quiet working on Untouchables, and by the time Untouchables came out it seemed that nu-metal's popularity was just beginning to end. That's the strangest thing: Issues came out before the self-titled Slipknot record, but by the time the follow-up came out, the popularity seemed to be dying off.

Ah yeah, I almost forgot... Tool put out Lateralus, which was quite successful... and I think with Midian, Cradle Of Filth seemed to be the biggest that they'd ever been or would ever get.

I was the target audience for the stuff at the time and I despised most of it then and still despise most of it now.

Skunk Anansie got a lot of positive press from nme/melody maker as much as raw/kerrang but i'd imagine they're thought of as a joke now. People really loved Skin's vox tho. I saw them at t in the park 95 and she was the only good thing about them. I think a lot of indie people had hoped she would have made a "Ruby" type album (Lesley Rankine from Silverfish)

I always viewed Sevendust as the biggest waste, with a dude as talented as Lajon Witherspoon on vocals, backed by awkward background "shout" vocals, limp riffs, and barely there songs. although I did like their album Animosity as I felt like they actually bothered to write tunes on it. and of course "Black" is all time. never ever wrote a song as good as that one again.

Skunk Anansie toured the usa with Slipknot before the 1st Slipknot album came out. It was Skin who was the first i ever heard talking about them (friday rock show) could never have predicted how big they would become.

Oh, I'm familiar with the Ruby album. It was basically a straight rip of Hope Nicholls' Sugarsmack albums (her label people admitted as much).

Both Ruby and Skunk Anansie played the main stage of Phoenix Festival '96, iirc.

I liked the Ruby album (and Silverfish)

xpost:

as did Foo Fighters and Terrorvision, funnily enough.

Foo Fighters just kept getting bigger and bigger as they got shitter and shitter! Still love the 1st 2 but fuck the rest.

btw someone explain Nickelback not being a one-hit wonder?

I like about the same number of songs on each Foo Fighters album (usually between 2 and 4), so I've not noticed any considerable drop off.

Nickelback is shameful and unexplainable.

They think that Chad Kroeger looks like a cute cowardly lion? I dunno, man! It's a mystery I've always wanted to get to the bottom of.

Canada has more than a few decent artists, but the only ones they export in recent years are the worst ones: Nickelback, Avril Lavigne, um...Seth Rogen.

you know who was another curious and 'never really exploded' type band that still had a few singles on modern rock radio in the 90s was The Hunger.

nothing great, but considering the alternatives, listenable.

and then there's Rob Halford's Two....ehm...moving on.

I liked that "I Am a Pig" song.

was that his "industrial" album?
xp

dunno the hunger

i recall stuck mojo tho...

hey turrican remember Apes, Pigs and Spacemen? lolol

Stuck Mojo, ugh. I bought "Rising" not realizing that every song was some inane extreme-far right political masturbation fest. Had the message been lower in the mix and the music been more than just "ok, I coulda dealt with it.

I still have it somewhere, buried at the bottom of a box.

far right???

wow, speaking of Halford, Fight's "WAr of Words" is only 3.99 new on Amazon. THREAD DELIVERS.

"Crooked Figurehead" is an Anti-Clinton song, "Throw the Switch" is a pro-death penalty song....and those are just the two I remember. supposedly they used to lead "Fuck Bill Clinton" chants at concerts too.

and their liner notes on Rising had pro-gun propaganda warning citizens to arm themselves as criminals will fear citizens with guns.

I was the target audience for the stuff at the time and I despised most of it then and still despise most of it now loved it. I think very little of it still holds up (it spoke very directly to 16yo angst, not so much to 29yo angst), but I'll still occasionally listen to a linkin park track, disturbed, even staind, drowning pool, incubus, korn etc

btw guys why did you send us Fun Loving Criminals? They went down well with the britpop & nu-metal crowd WHY????????????????

I heard "In The End" the other day and it sounded way more terrible than I remembered.

I like earlier funky FNM homage Incubus, not as much the "Pardon Me" era.

Fun Loving Criminals aka "Scooby Snacks"? ugh.

the late 90s was utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly awful

The early 90s in comparison looks like the greatest period in modern music

One song I did like at the time was "Mope" by the Bloodhound Gang, but I'm not quite sure if that really falls under the category of Nu-Metal.

heh funny thing about Linkin Park is that I outright HATED them in college, and even though I still don't like them, some of their tunes have grown on me. i.e., "Breaking the Habit" is insanely catchy.

TBH, I think it was Mike Shinoda I hated more than anything. Could they have found a blander MC to rap on their tracks?

remember Econoline Crush?

Im sorry but I have to admit, I was 16/17 at the time, already past the Sonic Youth/Pixies/indie rock thing, and it was so easy to sneer at this stuff, but on the other hand they made it incredibly easy to do so, so fuck em

hey turrican remember Apes, Pigs and Spacemen? lolol

― Algerian Goalkeeper, Saturday, June 29, 2013 2:20 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, I'd forgotten about them until YOU MENTIONED THEM! Jesus fuckin' christ.

hahahahahaha

our local music scene has never really had any big names, but when nu-metal took off, those bands sprouted up all over town and I went to a show one night where three of these bands were playing. One was ...I forget, the other Grumpy (who looked like Slayer, but played music like Papa Roach), and the last was this complete RATM ape-job who were sponsored by Puma called "Deroot".

About 2 minutes into Grumpy's set, it was plain obvious that they were lip-synching, as the vocalist wasn't mouthing in time, and often wasn't even in front of the microphone (he was too focused on the riffs he was playing...if he was really playing them).

Then Deroot gets up and starts playing their lame shit, and by the last song, the guitarist was fed up with his guitar, and flung it across the stage. Problem was, the guitar riff was still audible over the loudspeaker, and nobody else had a guitar on stage. so apparently they were playing over pre-recorded tracks.

felt like nu-metal inspired so many lazy bands that just figured anybody could do it, so much so that these hard working 'local acts' couldn't even be arsed to actually play their damn music!

remember Clawfinger? they actually pre-dated nu metal by a few years

Always on euro MTV (the days before MTV UK)

TBH, I think it was Mike Shinoda I hated more than anything. Could they have found a blander MC to rap on their tracks?

― Neanderthal, Saturday, June 29, 2013 2:28 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't find this half as offensive as much as other aspects of the band. I remember reading the sleevenotes to Hybrid Theory at a friends house and thinking "for fucks sake, these feel more like a fucking corporation than a band". I just found them incredibly insincere. Packaged angst product. Y'know... "PARENTS! I FUCKING HATE YOU! But here's your name in the thank you part of the liner notes alongside our sponsors".

Well yeah, that's what I hated about most all nu-metal, though; the faux anger, and the lazy means of expressing it. Maybe I just give them somewhat of a pass as I feel like a lot of 90s post-thrash was guilty of the same thing.

There was a couple of UK nu-metal bands but I've completely forgotten their names. Pretty sure one was welsh

I was genuinely surprised how good of a vocalist Chester Bennington was, though. He guested on a Young Buck track of all places ("Slow Ya Roll") and he actually had a pretty amazing voice on the track as he didn't sing in his normal Linkin Park snarl.

some metalheads stanned for Mudvayne. I liked one song, I think, but never was really into them.

ugh

the world really needed a slipknot clone NOT

weren't really nu-metal per se but I'd stan for Stabbing Westward's Whither Blister Burn and Peel, as unoriginal as it was.

Well yeah, that's what I hated about most all nu-metal, though; the faux anger, and the lazy means of expressing it. Maybe I just give them somewhat of a pass as I feel like a lot of 90s post-thrash was guilty of the same thing.

― Neanderthal, Saturday, June 29, 2013 2:39 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, but Linkin Park were more see-through in that regard than most, I think!

Digging into my memory banks here, I think Slipknot's Iowa and System Of A Down's Toxicity were released roughly around the same time. I recall Toxicity being VERY well-received (and deservedly so) and Iowa being quite coolly received. At this point, I remember System Of A Down suddenly becoming bigger than ever (on the back of Toxicity and 'Chop Suey!'), where Slipknot kinda faded into the background a bit. All those kids that were huge Slipknot fans around the time of the self-titled record just suddenly gave up on them.

Um...Iowa was a #1 album in the UK, #3 in the US. It went platinum ~6 weeks after release (street date 8/28, platinum certification 10/10). Toxicity was released one week later, also hit #1 in the US but only hit #13 in the UK. The album that was #1 in the UK the week Toxicity was released? Jamiroquai's A Funk Odyssey. Yay, England.

Helmet, of course, but the connection to Branca is purely coincidental.

but i guess there's that picture on the internet of Fred Durst wearing a Sonic Youth shirt so what the fuck do i know.

first show i ever went to was korn supported by limp bizkit and helmet lol

fred durst has professed his love for joy division, the smiths, sonic youth etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHXdw8WJFJM

my mate kev was at that gig. He came away a helmet fan and went off limp bizkit and borrowed all my helmet cds just before the gig.
xp

I think I saved him

someone sang "Break Stuff" at karaoke last night.

there are pieces of him floating in the Atlantic ocean now

break stuff and nookie are great karaoke songs

"Korn was keeping alive the flame of no wave."
That claim is a steaming platter of freshly squeezed crap.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, December 19, 2002 5:05 PM (12 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So did we reasses nu-metal? AFAIK its status is still "really shitty."

and it always will be

I dunno, those first two System Of A Down albums seem to have held up quite well.

yeah I still like spinning those. most of their catalog really tho later stuff was closer to legit metal

I dunno, SOAD to me had a distasteful "Think we're nu-metal? Wait until you hear THIS" element to them which I found repugnant.

I mean, ffs, they're called 'System Of A Down' for christ's sake. Down they go with the rest of them.

lol they were a great band sorry

http://www.nme.com/blogs/festivals-blog/limp-bizkit-in-2015-could-be-tragic-instead-its-a-whole-lot-of-fun

it is happening.

I actually watched this live set on catch up, and it was scary as to how young the crowd were, and how much they knew the songs !

I thought the crowd would be a bunch of grey hairs reliving their nu-metal glory days, but no, the band have clearly connected with a new audience.

oh, and fred was genuinely funny, self deprecating and kind of cool, while the band sounded fucking brilliant.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/09/20-years-nu-metal-rap-rock-korn-kerrang

I quickly flipped through Sylvia Massy's book about a year ago and have been meaning to give it more thorough read. There's a part where she describes the proper way to mic a singer who's hanging upside down, referring to something she did with Serj from System Of A Down. There's also this "How To Shoot A Piano" diagram that refers to a gunshot noise used as percussion in Tool's "Disgustipated."

http://i.imgur.com/KKJEXCM.jpg

Never heard of that book before but it sounds fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izePLzAbc40

extremely about this

i could probably go for this if it didnt have the screaming