Why I Miss Nu Metal

[Crungy]

@works0fheart damn, I didn't know that about Dez. I remember seeing CC when they were touring their first album and it seemed good back then but maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention lol

Agreed on Dave Mustaine. The guy is talented but does not know when to shut his pie hole.

 

[works0fheart]

@works0fheart damn, I didn't know that about Dez. I remember seeing CC when they were touring their first album and it seemed good back then but maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention lol

Never seen him with Coal Chamber other than videos but I've seen him a lot with DevilDriver and even though I like their music he's unfortunately been the weak link for me.

 

[nightsprinter]

+1 - I have seen devildriver a couple times. Music sounded good but it seemed like he spent an extraordinary amount of time attempting to pump up the crowd into moshing harder and being a showman. Was fine but wasn't a highlight of the day. I like a handful or two of the tunes on their studio albums though.

 

[JSKrev]

Well, I mean "he loco."

 

[wankerness]

I saw Devil Driver live when they were inexplicably touring with peak Opeth in 2006. They were terrible, but to me it sounded just as bad as the album. I mean, it's not like he was singing anything technical on the albums. I mainly just remember his stage banter being awful to the point of hilarity. I looked up my concert review I posted on ultimatemetal at the time, but unfortunately I only wrote down Mikael's. The Devildriver guy I seem to remember saying just the dumbest, most pointless shit. Like:

"There's a big difference, you know, between sin, and a sacrifice. THIS SONG IS CALLED SIN AND SACRIFICE!!! YAHHH!!"

And then the lyrics (what I could understand) was just "LONG, LONG WAY! BETWEEN SIN, AND SACRIFICE!"

Soooo bad.

It was kind of funny how he looked like a little gnome in comparison to Dark Tranquillity (who played first) and Opeth (who played third).

Coal Chamber was always terrible. I listened to their first album a bit (LOCO is absolutely hilarious, BIG TRUCK is pretty funny, Sway is kind of a banger until you get to the verse). I listened to their second album quite a bit. The vocals are BAD on it. He mostly just kind of mumble sings when he's not yelling. I would be surprised if he couldn't pull that off live. Maybe not the Shock the Monkey cover, but Ozzy Osbourne did most of the melodic parts anyway.

Additionally, Chamber Music has to have some of the worst heavy distorted guitar tone of all time. It's just this awful styrofoam crap. The guitarist is bad, but plenty of nu metal bands had bad guitarists and good distorted tone.

EDIT: I just looked at track lists of DevilDriver's first two albums to see if my memory would be jogged (I legitimately haven't heard them since that concert on March 3 2006). I do remember two especially egregious ones: "I COULD CARE LESS" (god I hate when people say that instead of couldn't, it's like, you dipshits, that means you're saying that you care at least a bit!!) and "GRINFUCKED" (what does that even mean?!).

Of course the crowd was all like 12 year olds in thrice shirts and they either left after DD or were screaming "YAH!!! DEATH METAL!" every time there was a clean break in Opeth's set.

 

[gabito]

Nü metal (at least some of it) is cool, Rust in Peace is a masterpiece, Dave Mustaine is and has always been an asshole and an idiot, Fred Durst stopped being one a few years ago for the most part AFAIK, I like what the guitar players in Korn, Limp Bizkit and Deftones do, and I also like what the thrash guys do, I can live with and without solos in the music I listen to, Megadeth could've stopped releasing stuff in 1992 for all I care, Nü metal in... I don't know 1999? (not you Deftones, keep'em coming), I like Devildriver but I don't know if it's a nü metal band, Slipknot say they are and they play very well, and also baggy pants are more comfortable than tight jeans, but both look ridiculous on men now in their 50s / 60s anyways so whatever.

 

[gabito]

I remember my least favorite track on the first album was Umbabarauma, which was him just chanting stupid phrases about soccer forever. JOGA BOLA, JOGADOR! UMBABARAUMA, GOAL MAN!!!

That one is a cover, believe it or not (I learned that from the singer in my band maybe one year ago...).

 

[Crungy]

That one is a cover, believe it or not (I learned that from the singer in my band maybe one year ago...).

Oh shit I did not know that!

 

[Screamingdaisy]

This may have been posted already (I didn’t read through the whole thread, cuz I gotta get to sleep), but there’s a reason you feel that way. We all feel that the music from our teenage years is the “best” music. Every generation feels that way, and it’s due to our brain at that age. Check it, my brethren: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise/articles/zvfphbk

I had this moment a number of years back when Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were putting out new music again.

I remember sitting in my truck, looking over at my wife and saying, "Why can't new bands put out music that sounds this good anymore?". Total old man moment.

Nu-metal isn't my era, aside from maybe the first two Korn albums, which I unapologetically continue to like. I never developed the hatred of nu-metal that some people seemed to have, the genre had a lot of bangers and was great for partying to. I don't know if Mudvayne is nu-metal, but I've spent untold numbers of hours doing PT and lifting weights to their music.

 

[wankerness]

I had this moment a number of years back when Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were putting out new music again.

I remember sitting in my truck, looking over at my wife and saying, "Why can't new bands put out music that sounds this good anymore?". Total old man moment.

I dunno. I think it's not necessarily an old man moment like "I'm totally oblivious to new bands doing music like this!" and more like "if you like this sound, the only bands still putting out new material in this style with any sort of production value are the same ones that were doing it many years ago, cause younger bands are not interested in it, plus even if they were they'd get no major label backing cause rock is basically dead as a commercial enterprise except for old farts that still listen to the same bands they did 30+ years ago."

Those AIC albums were good. I prefer them both to the S/T. I miss Layne Staley but the songs are really solid, while every old AIC album has got some songs I downright dislike (besides Jar of Flies).

 

[Screamingdaisy]

I dunno. I think it's not necessarily an old man moment like "I'm totally oblivious to new bands doing music like this!" and more like "if you like this sound, the only bands still putting out new material in this style with any sort of production value are the same ones that were doing it many years ago, cause younger bands are not interested in it, plus even if they were they'd get no major label backing cause rock is basically dead as a commercial enterprise except for old farts that still listen to the same bands they did 30+ years ago."

Those AIC albums were good. I prefer them both to the S/T. I miss Layne Staley but the songs are really solid, while every old AIC album has got some songs I downright dislike (besides Jar of Flies).

I think you're right. At the time I was listening to the layering and harmonic complexity, but these are bands that can afford a certain level of production value and the experience to know what to ask for and expect.

Slash said in an interview years ago that with the Myles Kennedy stuff it was getting hard to find a producer who knew how to mic up a cab correctly. If Slash is having a hard time finding someone, chances are a bunch of rando new kids aren't going to fare any better.

 

[JSKrev]

Devil Driver did this shitty album of countrycore...

 

[works0fheart]

I like Machine Head a decent amount, but good lord their 90s run is so goofy lol

 

[JSKrev]

I remember when that Burning Red album came out. Flynnkin Park.

 

[DarkstarII]

I like Machine Head a decent amount, but good lord their 90s run is so goofy lol

That live clip of Dividian is awesome! I show it to my kids to r teach them about 90s excellent moshing and band performance!

 

[gabito]

Nü Machine Head is terrible LOL, they're much better when playing what they know than when chasing trends.

Same for Sepultura though I like Roots better than anything from Nü Machine Head, maybe because it sounds closer to Slipknot.

 

[gunch]

Slipknot st is fuckign immortal

 

[wankerness]

I actually liked The Burning Red. Iirc it only had two songs (Desire to Fire and From this Day) with that cringey rapping on it, and the rest was more normal by their standards. Well, besides the two ballads - there was a cover of Message in a Bottle and then the title track. I liked some of the other songs quite a bit, like Silver and Exhale the Vile. And I think if you took out the rap from "From This Day" that it's a pretty good song! The album as a whole just kinda ditched the technical guitar solos in favor of the more Korny "here are some dissonant high sustained notes that sound creepy" approach to "lead" guitar, which I was okay with.

I was never a huge fan of their first album, though, which seemed to be the fan favorite at the time. I thought the first three tracks on their second album were the high point of them as far as I was concerned (Ten Ton Hammer, Take My Scars, and Struck a Nerve). Burning Red was the only album I could actually listen to all the way through. I never listened to Supercharger and didn't hear them again till the album where they started trying to sound like melodic death metal or something, which also wasn't half bad (Through the Ashes of Empires) - Imperium in particular was pretty cool. Haven't listened to them since I don't think.

 

[nightflameauto]

I saw Devil Driver live when they were inexplicably touring with peak Opeth in 2006. They were terrible, but to me it sounded just as bad as the album. I mean, it's not like he was singing anything technical on the albums. I mainly just remember his stage banter being awful to the point of hilarity. I looked up my concert review I posted on ultimatemetal at the time, but unfortunately I only wrote down Mikael's. The Devildriver guy I seem to remember saying just the dumbest, most pointless shit. Like:

"There's a big difference, you know, between sin, and a sacrifice. THIS SONG IS CALLED SIN AND SACRIFICE!!! YAHHH!!"

And then the lyrics (what I could understand) was just "LONG, LONG WAY! BETWEEN SIN, AND SACRIFICE!"

Soooo bad.

It was kind of funny how he looked like a little gnome in comparison to Dark Tranquillity (who played first) and Opeth (who played third).

Coal Chamber was always terrible. I listened to their first album a bit (LOCO is absolutely hilarious, BIG TRUCK is pretty funny, Sway is kind of a banger until you get to the verse). I listened to their second album quite a bit. The vocals are BAD on it. He mostly just kind of mumble sings when he's not yelling. I would be surprised if he couldn't pull that off live. Maybe not the Shock the Monkey cover, but Ozzy Osbourne did most of the melodic parts anyway.

Additionally, Chamber Music has to have some of the worst heavy distorted guitar tone of all time. It's just this awful styrofoam crap. The guitarist is bad, but plenty of nu metal bands had bad guitarists and good distorted tone.

EDIT: I just looked at track lists of DevilDriver's first two albums to see if my memory would be jogged (I legitimately haven't heard them since that concert on March 3 2006). I do remember two especially egregious ones: "I COULD CARE LESS" (god I hate when people say that instead of couldn't, it's like, you dipshits, that means you're saying that you care at least a bit!!) and "GRINFUCKED" (what does that even mean?!).

Of course the crowd was all like 12 year olds in thrice shirts and they either left after DD or were screaming "YAH!!! DEATH METAL!" every time there was a clean break in Opeth's set.

GRINFUCKED: Seems like a twelve year old's attempt at spicing up mouth fucked, not realizing that some things are exactly as spicy as they need to be in the original form.

Machine Head just makes me sad we didn't get more original lineup VIO-LENCE. Not that I don't like some Machine Head stuff, it's just not quite the same magical combination of brutality and . . . uh, how do you write a super nasal sounding 'EEEEEEEEH' sound?

 

[Drew]

Keep in mind that I don’t really listen to this music anymore (well, aside from deftones and Snot lol), but i haven’t listened to the majority of this stuff in years. So then why is it that i could so easily remember all this shit that I thought I had mentally buried all those years ago?

I think the answer is melody and simplicity.

Nu Metal bands had some of the catchiest riffs and melodies. They were simplistic, yet simultaneously fun as hell to listen to and play. They stuck with you, and apparently never leave.

There's an element of nostalgia here and that these riffs were really important to you at a really formative time...

...but I think the bigger thing here is that the music you're comparing it to came at a time when precision and technical competence was really what was driving that particular scene, and that that was what was different here. Music with a strong sense of groove and catchy riffs was nothing new when nu-metal came out, it's just that that's where your exposure really came from. For me, that could just as easily been Nirvana and my dad's Stones and Hendrix albums.

That's not an indictment against the bands you're comparing them to, either - music evolves and different things will be important at different times.