For a brief moment in the late 90s and early 2000s,
Nu Metal ruled the airwaves.
With releases such as Korn's Follow The Leader, Limp Bizkit's Significant Other
and Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory the genre had commercial clout
but critically fared less well.
Nowadays the genre is seen as a cultural low point in rock music,
a phase there had to go through but still an embarrassing one
but to his credit the genre fused together many different musical elements
that had previously seemed incompatible
and moved us closer to the modern musical landscape where genre really isn't a thing anymore.
But how did we get here? What steps were vital along the way?
And were we ever fully ready for Korn?
The moment that rock music first interacted with rap in a meaningful way was because of Run DMC.
They had mixed session rock guitar with their flows as early as 1984's "Rock Box":
But the moment where this cultural collision hit the mainstream was on "Walk This Way"
their 1986 collaboration with Aerosmith.
Producer Rick Rubin had gotten the idea from finding Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic LP
in Run DMC's record crate.
Darryl "DMC" McDaniels recalls:
Aerosmith had originally written "Walk This Way" in 1975.
The structure was more funk imbued than the rest of their work
with guitarist Joe Perry inspired by The Meters' song "Sissy Strut."
Singer Steven Tyler being a drummer first, vocalist second used his lyrics in the percussive fashion
half singing at speed with an emphasis on syllables rather than melody:
The song was perfect for a crossover.
The drums and guitar worked as a break beat in a similar way
to how most hip-hop artists were using samples
and the quick-fire lyrics could be easily rapped
Rubin managed to get Tyler and Perry to come into the studio to record on the collaboration
in spite of some initial hesitance on the part of Run DMC.
At the time rap music was rarely played on radio or MTV due to racial bias.
"Walk This Way" changed this.
With white rock musicians on the track it was able to become a massive crossover event.
The music video shows the previous divide,
Run DMC in a tiny recording setup, Aerosmith next door in a massive club
before the wall between them gets broken down.
Not only did it revitalize Aerosmith's flagging career but gave visibility to a burgeoning genre of music.
Other rap artists at a time used rock music to further their style
LL Cool J's "Rock the Bells" used staccato guitar stabs
in a similar way to Jay Z's "99 Problems" two decades later:
Plus there were the Beastie Boys, whose License to Ill album
uses samples of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and AC/DC,
as well as getting Slayer's Kerry King to solo on "No Sleep till Brooklyn."
All these tracks as well as Slayer's Reign In Blood were produced by Rubin
making him arguably the Godfather of rap rock.
80's Metal shaped what Nu Metal would become.
While the mainstream MTV metal of Poison or Motley Crue was actively raged against
the more underground thrash metal bands like Metallica, Slayer and Sepultura
gave Nu Metal bands a sound to aim for, even if they didn't care for the precision soloing,
being more enamored by the gut-punch heaviness and aggression.
The thrash metal band that had the greatest impact on Nu Metal was Anthrax.
While "Walk This Way" was rap rock, Anthrax added something purely metallic to the mix
on their "I'm the Man" EP:
The guys from Anthrax weren't rappers. Their attempts are amateurish at best.
But the track showed an interest and respect for the medium.
So much so that hip-hop firebrands Public Enemy collaborated with the band in 1991
both with a re-recording of "I'm The Man" featuring Chuck D and Flava Flav
and more significantly a cover of Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise":
The two groups collaboration was coincided with an American European tour through 91-92
With Anthrax's encore consisting of Public Enemy coming on stage to perform
"I'm the Man" and "Bring the Noise."
Kerrang! editor Paul Rees said in 2017:
These kind of collaborations would continue throughout Nu Metal's reign
with Linkin Park and Jay Z's Collision Course, The Xecutions "It's Goin' Down"
which features members of Linkin Park and Static X
as well as Xzibit, Method Man, Redman and DMX appearing on
Limp Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
Some musicians felt that alternative rock, bands like the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr, were too lightweight
but that Metallica and Slayer were too heavy
Enter alternative metal, that most amorphous of genres.
This included bands like
who were only connected by being heavy in a way that no other band was being heavy.
While a lot of those bands would influence Nu Metal in their own way
the alternative metal band that defined the down tune crushing riffs
that Nu Metal would adopt was Helmet.
Just listen to Page Hamilton pile-driving guitar on tracks like "In The Meantime"
and hear where Korn's "Clown",
or Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff"
got their ideas from.
The band would further the Nu Metal comparison with their partnership with House of Pain
on the 1994 Judgment Night soundtrack, a compilation stuffed with rock rap of crossovers.
Arguably the band from the 80s alt metal scene that had the greatest influence on Nu Metal
was San Francisco's Faith No More.
Fronted by the charismatic Mike Patton with his MTV pinup good looks and six octave vocal range
the band would make rap metal a legitimate thing with their 1990 top 10 hit, "Epic"
Reportedly about Patton's disinterest in sexual intercourse,
the track's video made them MTV famous.
With its rap verses and soaring chorus it would no doubt inspire
Linkin Park on tracks like "In The End" and "Numb."
Faith No More's focus wasn't on flamboyant solos but on lurching drum and bass grooves
that ka-chunk that flavored their best songs:
As Faith No More's bassist Billy Gould said in 2006:
This alternative metal status would be a rallying cry
for those that hated the flash and lack of substance of most MTV metal.
Korn's Jonathan Davis said:
The band would follow up The Real Thing with Angel Dust.
As Entertainment Weekly called it:
A mixture of metal riffage,
obscure samples
and on the closer, a cover of John Barry's theme to Midnight Cowboy
Initially seen as a commercial failure the album has since become highly regarded.
In 2003 Kerrang! rated is the most influential album of all time.
Angel Dust's anything-go approach would inspire the more creative of the Nu Metal bands,
System Of a Down, Slipknot, Deftones and even math-metallers Dillinger Escape Plan.
Plus their left-field cover choices
would be taken to similar extremes by pretty much every Nu Metal band:
As well as being alt metal Faith No More also led the charge
of a loosely assembled collection of funk rock acts
that were gaining Bands To Watch status in 1989 to 1990
The movement was signified by a focus on groove and influence from 70s funk acts
like Parliament-Funkadelic which required virtuoso bass playing
danceable beats and a rhythmic vocal style.
Chili Peppers Anthony Kiedis told Penthouse in 2004:
By the 90s listening to hip-hop had spread to the suburbs
and anything that shocked the mainstream attracted teenage listeners
and inspired the first waves of Nu Metal and their imitation rapping,
NWA's Straight Out Compton, Cypress Hill's Black Sunday and Dr Dre's The Chronic
being specific calling points.
Also deserving a mention for its combined controversy and metallic backing
is Ice-T's Body Count and their banned single "Cop Killer",
written as reaction to the police beatings of Rodney King
Politically minded in a way that few Nu Metal bands would be,
Rage Against The Machine's self-titled album is packed with left minded sloganeering,
combating police brutality, government oppression and capitalism.
The band's signature song "Killing in the Name" combined the punk-rock anger of the Sex Pistols
and Public Enemy with militant funk metal cribbed and refined from Faith No More
A searing attack on the LAPD in the aftermath of the 1992 LA riots
the track encapsulates their message down to five lines repeated as mantra
until its final cathartic eruption:
Years later, Rage bassist Tim Commerford said:
Then Korn came along and Nu Metal existed.
Their debut in 94 kickstarted with "Blind" and it's shit-starting opening call:
But was anyone truly ready?
It was argued that Coal Chamber were the first band that could be correctly assigned the term,
being that Korn's Jonathan Davis never rapped
but their metallic hip-hop sound was still a template for every band yet to come:
Deftones debut came out in 95 before Limp Bizkit, Snot and a million other
mildly disenfranchised scenesters jumped onto the bandwagon.
There were high points: Deftones entire catalogue,
Hybrid Theory is high-caliber pop metal nearly two decades on
and System Of A Down's schizoid "Chop Suey" is perhaps the genre's sole perfect moment
But the low points were numerous and inescapable.
Too much of the genre was defined by its key listeners,
who merely needed a soundtrack to piss off their parents
so the music rarely exceeded that specification.
By 2003 most of the first wave of bands had either become self parody,
or turned their back on the genre altogether.
Nu Metal as dismissed as it was was the next step in rock music
a continuation of grunge which forced its self-hatred outwards onto anyone and anything
that it would make sense for your average suburban kid to despise.
It was the anger of punk and hip-hop but unfocused and spewed everywhere,
mixed with the unrefined heaviness of metal.
While the music itself had limited weight its popularity tells us something about the music listeners of the era:
bored by the glossy manufactured pop that was being peddled on TRL,
this uncompromisingly ugly music was a genuine alternative to the Hansons, Spears's
and N*Sync's of the American mainstream.
Nu Metal's influence is still felt today in acts like Bring Me The Horizon, Lil Peep and Lil Uzi Vert
who were all raised on the genre.
Similarly new music by bands like:
have been compared favorably to nu-metal, perhaps signaling a renaissance.
Even 25 years since its inception people might hate it, it may be toxic
and it might be mostly remembered as an embarrassment
but Nu Metal and those that inspired it might gain critical classic status sooner rather than later
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