It is laborious to think about that a couple of many years in the past years in the past, Fred Durst was a pop star. Nü-metal’s brief time within the public eye left lots of bands both over-hyped or under-appreciated. It is comprehensible why the previous guard was so offended by sure points of the ragtag motion, but it surely’s confirmed to have way more legit endurance than folks understand. Particularly now that it is again.
Whereas fads like glam steel by no means had a resurgence past tongue-in-cheek parodies, nü-metal has really resurfaced through trendy metalcore. The steel neighborhood’s elevated acceptance of Korn, Slipknot and even Limp Bizkit has coincided with a nü-wave that includes Code Orange, Vein.fm, and Tallah. The underdogs of yesteryear have develop into legends, however like every style, there’s extra to nü-metal than its flagship bands.
Additionally like every style, discovering buried gems means navigating a landslide of copycat rubbish. Fortunately, we have taken care of the heavy lifting. We have centered on six underrated (or over-hated) acts whose noise bought misplaced within the shuffle.
A few of these bands have caught to their weapons, whereas others broke up or ultimately moved away from nü-metal. Both method, these teams show nü–steel’s variety and vitality, even when most individuals sneered at it nonstop. They span from nü–steel’s incubation, its coming of age, and its mid-life disaster. Positive, it requires overcoming some dated aesthetic and sonic selections—however hey, ’90s nostalgia is the long run. What higher time to comb by the last decade’s most polarizing export?
Nothingface
Nothingface‘s first three albums deserved the “Korn-clone” tag, however 2000’s Violence began to include extra parts of metalcore. It is clear within the riffs alone, as they’d get any fan of ’90s metallic hardcore swinging within the pit. If it wasn’t for Matt Holt‘s penchant for melodic vocals, Nothingface might need advanced into a troublesome man hardcore band. Nonetheless, his singing does that alt-rock vibe justice, identical to his growls seize primal rage. There’s additionally some underrated technically to understand within the riffs, although definitely throughout the nü-metal groove-oriented wheelhouse.
Contemplating bands like Demon Hunter, who adopted the same method, it is value noting that Nothingface did it years earlier. 2003’s Skeleton displayed much more potential for creative transcendence, however the band broke up a 12 months later. Apart from a return from 2005 to 2009, Nothingface how forward of the curve they have been. Nü-metalcore has gained way more traction over the previous decade, however Nothingface realized the crossover earlier than both style gained credibility.
Unwell Niño
Soulfly stays the go-to nü-metal/world music maestros, however New Jersey’s Ill Niño deserves extra “Latin steel” clout. The band’s 2001 debut Revolution Revolución has among the slickest manufacturing and melodies from nü–steel’s industrial peak. This does result in extra predictable music constructions, however the band provided a formidable dynamic vary. This was principally because of the acoustic guitars and auxiliary percussion, which discovered a surprisingly tasteful pocket throughout the heaviness. Arguably, this additional instrumentation had a extra very important position in Ill Niño‘s sound than that of Slipknot or Mushroomhead. Like a extra radio-friendly tackle Sepultura‘s Roots, a bolstered rhythm part helps the music’s ethnic slant.
Like others on this checklist, Ill Niño’s latent metalcore affect helped the band keep relevancy throughout the 2000s, and will have finished the identical throughout the 2010s if it weren’t for some authorized troubles. What surfaced in January 2019 as a dispute over the rights to the band name revealed itself as a lawsuit levied at drummer Dave Chavarri by ex-members Cristian Machado, Ahrue Luster, Diego Verduzco, and Oscar Santiago. The courtroom case, detailed by Metalsucks here, really resolved itself in March 2020… simply in time for COVID-19. With a brand new lineup intact and a brand new report known as IllMortals seemingly by no means popping out, the story of Ill Niño could but proceed! Within the meantime, the band’s previous work is value diving into for followers of ethnically-tinged groove steel.
Caught Mojo
The unusual relationship between nü-metal {and professional} wrestling is not any secret (the doorway music, anybody?), however this Georgia band actually wrote a love letter to sports activities leisure with 1998’s Rising. The rise of Caught Mojo resulted in a short partnership with the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling. Rising grew to become a latent payoff for the band after a few years of bridging the hole between nü-metal and one in all its stylistic accendants: funk steel. The truth is, Caught Mojo‘s did not drop their debut LP till six years after they shaped. The band’s vibe is method much less darkish than nü-metal stereotypes, embodying the likes of Infectious Grooves by pairing southern boogie and thrashy motifs with streetwise beats.
Caught Mojo got here a bit too early for the nü-metal growth, so the band spent its childhood as one of many motion’s many scapegoats. Past the closed-minded response from style purists, authentic vocalist Bonz endured racist abuse as an African American frontman. It’s a disgrace, as albums like Pigwalk (1996) have loads to supply followers groove steel acts like Pantera or Madball-style NYHC. Much more neglected is Bonz’s regular, mid-tempo rap circulate. Zack De La Rocha could be the true keeper of deadly rap circulate in a steel context, however Bonz additionally had simple crossover attraction. Nü-metal vocalists hardly ever attraction to real hip-hop heads, however Bonz simply might. Why? Authenticity. These guys caught it out within the rap-rock Wild West earlier than the getting was good, making them admirable, downplayed trailblazers.
Venture 86
The flip of the millennia opened the floodgates of “Christian options” to all manor of music with mainstream credibility. Even so, Orange County’s Venture 86 offered much more than a faith-based cash-grab. Truly, they’ve actively fought in opposition to the “Christian Rock” stereotype since dropping their self-titled debut in 1998 on Tooth & Nail Information. This launch, adopted by Drawing Black Traces in 2000, discovered Venture 86 taking part in straight-up rapcore, nü-metal’s underground counterpart. The truth is, the band proved too radical for the Christian business with their 2002 album Truthless Heroes. Apparently, lyrics questioning the need of battle throughout the Bush administration rustled some jimmies. This explains why Venture 86 independently launched 2003’s appropriately-titled Songs to Burn Your Bridges By. That uncompromising perspective carried over from the band’s nü-ish roots, giving their model of rock a way more harmful edge.
The band’s riffage and vocal cadence sidestepped the standard meat-headed bounce riffs for a extra visceral method. Why else would 2012’s Wait For the Siren characteristic Bruce Fitzhugh—frontman of the legendary thrash/groove retailers Dwelling Sacrifice? As an alternative of dangerous rapping or melodramatic scream/crying, Andrew Schwab brings convincing rigidity and emotion to his vocals. He hits as laborious because the riffs, which don’t have any enterprise being that moshy. It is easy to match Venture 86 to a catchier model of bands like Biohazard or Downset simply when it comes to sheer unbridled menace. The band’s gnarled depth profoundly distinguishes subsequent singles like 2003’s “Spy Hunter” and 2007’s “Evil (A Refrain of Resistance)” from the glut of secure, uninspired mid-2000s Christian hard-rock—to not point out their newest LP Sheep Amongst Wolves, which dropped in 2017.
Motograter
In any other case often called “The band Ivan Moody was in earlier than Five Finger Death Punch,” Santa Barbara’s Motograter solutions a standard query for nü-metal bands: “what is the level of a bass after you tune the guitars to drop ‘z?'” Founding member (now ex-member) Robert Butler introduced an answer along with his do-it-yourself instrument—which he additionally named the band after. The Motograter is mainly a tabletop guitar with two industrial cables for strings, performed by hammering the cables with one hand and fretting with the opposite. The instrument epitomized nü–steel’s “clickety-clack” bass method and proved its musical potential early on as the principle instrument on Motograter‘s first two EPs—Hugh Chardon (1998) and Indy (2000).
As soon as Moody changed Zak Ward as lead vocalist, Motograter transitioned from industrial experimentation to a extra streamlined cross between Slipknot and Disturbed. Sound dated? Honest, however the band’s 2003 self-titled debut options cornels of inventiveness to counterbalance chest-beating angst made for dangerous slasher films. Sadly, Motograter‘s come-up occurred when nü-metal’s visible extremities had reached their twilight of mainstream recognition. So for all their tribal paint, additional percussionists and invented instrument, the band got here and went comparatively unnoticed. Motograter has returned thrice since their authentic breakup, the most recent being in 2023.
Crimson
Though they began after the mainstream decline of nü-metal, Crimson proves the true potential of Christian nü-metal! Nü-metal’s crossover with post-grunge is mostly greatest to disregard, however Red transcended the likes of Trapt and Skillet with a convincing sense of symphonic, cinematic scope. Their 2006 debut Finish of Silence was, rightly, in comparison with Linkin Park with string orchestras as an alternative of hip-hop, however Crimson’s subsequent albums blurred the strains between rock and darker, heavier music. For each anthemic refrain comes an odd time signature, an orchestral interlude or a ballistic breakdown, all tied collectively right into a lush, haunting, immediately recognizable soundscape.
Songs like “Feed The Machine”, “Shadow and Soul” and “The Night Hate” highlight this band’s weightier, extra complicated method to the nü/orchestral template. If Evanescence popularized it, then Red perfected it. The strings and choirs add bombast and ambiance to the punishing passages and deepen the ambiance of extra balladic choices. Anthony and Randy Armstrong have written among the greatest riffs of their scene, whereas Michael Barnes has developed one of the vital spectacular vocal ranges in trendy heavy rock. Red‘s newest album Declaration, launched in April 2020, comes as a stable reminder of the band’s endurance in a style rife with mediocrity. Abysmal search engine optics however, these guys stay a beacon of sunshine throughout the post-nü-metal fallout.
