Nu metal - WikiHQ

Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, with a metal umlaut) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip-hop, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu metal rarely features guitar solos or other displays of musical technique and emphasizes rhythm with instrumentation that is heavily syncopated. Nu metal guitarists often use seven-string guitars that are down-tuned to produce a heavier sound. Vocal styles are often rhythmic and influenced by hip hop, and include singing, rapping, screaming and sometimes growling. DJs are occasionally featured to provide instrumentation such as sampling, turntable scratching and electronic background music. Nu metal is one of the key genres of the new wave of American heavy metal.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, bands like Pantera, Helmet, and Faith No More were influential in the development of nu-metal with their groove metal and alternative metal styles. Korn is often credited as pioneering the subgenre in the mid-1990s with their self-titled debut album. Nu metal became popular in the late 1990s, with bands and artists such as Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Slipknot all releasing albums that sold millions of copies.

Its popularity continued through the early 2000s, with bands such as Papa Roach, Staind, and P.O.D. all selling multi-platinum albums. The popularity of nu metal came to a peak in 2001 with Linkin Park's diamond-selling debut album, Hybrid Theory. By the mid-2000s, however, the oversaturation of bands, combined with the underperformance of several high-profile releases, signaled the subgenre's decline. Many nu-metal bands disbanded or changed their sound in favor of other genres.

The 2010s brought a nu-metal revival; many bands that combined it with other genres (for example, metalcore and deathcore) emerged, and some nu-metal bands from the 1990s and early 2000s returned to the nu-metal sound. Bands such as Of Mice & Men, Emmure, Issues, My Ticket Home, Bring Me the Horizon, and Motionless in White combined nu metal with metalcore or deathcore. Artists like Grimes, Poppy, and Rina Sawayama integrated nu-metal sounds into electronic pop music in the late 2010s and early 2020s, and interest in nu metal rose in the early 2020s.

Characteristics and fashion

2010s: Underground revival

thumb|[[Of Mice & Men (band)|Of Mice & Men is one of several metalcore bands that added elements of nu metal to later albums.]]

During the mid-2010s, there was a discussion within media of a possible nu metal revival because of bands fusing nu metal with other genres. Despite the lack of radio play and popularity, some nu metal bands recaptured some of their former popularity as they released albums in a nu metal style. Many metalcore and deathcore groups gained moderate popularity in the 2010s and used elements from nu metal. This fusion is nu metalcore. Suicide Silence's 2011 album The Black Crown, which features elements of nu metal and deathcore, peaked at number 28 on the Billboard 200. In 2014, Issues' self-titled debut album peaked at number 9 on the same chart. The album features elements of metalcore, nu metal, pop and R&B. Of Mice & Men's 2014 album Restoring Force, which features elements of nu metal, peaked at number 4 on the Billboard 200. Bring Me the Horizon, often described as a metalcore band, released their fifth album That's the Spirit, which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200, in 2015. The album draws from multiple genres including nu metal and would experiment further with nu metal on their 2020 album Post Human: Survival Horror. The band's keyboardist has described them as a nu metal band. Motionless In White in Graveyard Shift and Disguise features elements of industrial, gothic, metalcore and nu metal.

Some media outlets viewed a nu metal revival as beginning in the 2010s with groups like Blood Youth, Cane Hill, Stray From The Path, Sworn In, DangerKids, Islander, and Blind Channel. Within this movement, nu metalcore became increasingly prominent through the popularity of groups like Vein.fm, Loathe and Code Orange. According to PopMatters writer Ethan Stewart, Code Orange's 2017 album Forever led to nu metalcore becoming "one of the most prominent flavors of contemporary metal". Other notable acts in this wave include Tallah, Orthodox, Vended, and Wargasm.

thumb|[[Skillet (band)|Skillet frontman John L. Cooper founded Fight the Fury to return to a specifically heavy sound.|274x274px]]

In 2018, John L. Cooper, the frontman of Christian rock band Skillet, formed Fight the Fury as a side project inspired by the sound of acts like Metallica, Disturbed, and Slipknot. Echoing elements of nu metal from Collide in 2003, the Still Breathing EP explores various social themes, such as child abuse, spiritual issues, and mental health.

thumb|left|[[Poppy (entertainer)|Poppy incorporated nu metal into electropop on her albums I Disagree and Am I a Girl?.|160x160px]]

Electronic and art pop singer-songwriters incorporated nu metal into their sound in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Poppy has incorporated nu metal on her albums Am I a Girl? and I Disagree, Grimes on album Miss Anthropocene and Rina Sawayama on Sawayama. The songs "We Appreciate Power" and "Play Destroy" were pioneering examples. I Disagree received critical acclaim for this fusion, with single "Bloodmoney" nominated for the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, making her the first female solo artist to be nominated for the award in its history. Dorian Electra incorporated nu metal influences on their album My Agenda, as did Ashnikko on Demidevil, particularly on single "Cry". The Guardian noted that these mostly female artists have revived nu metal, a mostly male genre, and successfully adapted it to showcase a female perspective. Rina Sawayama said "metal itself lends itself to toxic masculine tropes, but it's also almost taking the piss out of a very masculine expression of emotion". Smaller bands have also rose to the scene in the early 2020s with the genre, including London-based Wargasm, who have been "validated by the nu-metal daddies," after Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis described them as "his new favourite band."

thumb|[[Linkin Park generated a large amount of media publicity by its revival in 2024.]]

In the early 2020s, several media outlets noted that nu metal has undergone a resurgence in interest among Generation Z listeners. In 2023, Google Searches for the term "nu metal" were reported as being at their highest in "nearly 20 years". Deftones and Slipknot began gaining popularity among Generation Z in the early 2020s when their music was featured in videos on the app

TikTok. Adema, Alien Ant Farm and Kittie. Late 2024 saw the surprise revival of Linkin Park after a seven-year hiatus following the death of frontman Chester Bennington in 2017. With new singer Emily Armstrong of the rock band Dead Sara and new drummer Colin Brittain, the band released their eighth studio album From Zero on November 15. Several songs on the album, such as lead single "The Emptiness Machine", "Heavy Is the Crown", and "Two Faced" call back to their earlier nu metal sound prominently featured on Hybrid Theory and Meteora.

Legacy

Reception

Despite its popularity around the turn of the millennium, nu metal has often been criticized by heavy metal fans and labelled with derogatory terms such as "mallcore" and "whinecore". Gregory Heaney of AllMusic called it "one of metal's more unfortunate pushes into the mainstream"; Lucy Jones of NME called it "the worst genre of all time"; and Garry Sharpe-Young dismissed it as "a dumbed-down and—thankfully short[-]lived exercise". When Machine Head adopted a nu metal sound on The Burning Red, the band were accused of "selling out", a charge they dismissed.

Several prominent metal musicians voiced similar disdain: Lamb of God's Randy Blythe said nu metal "sucks" and predicted audiences were "ready for angrier music", Megadeth's Dave Mustaine said he would "rather have his eyelids pulled out" than listen to it, and Gary Holt of Exodus said he was "so glad" about its decline. Some of nu metal's own influences also distanced themselves from it: Mike Patton of Faith No More said he felt "no responsibility" for the genre, while Page Hamilton of Helmet objected to being "credited with or discredited with creating" a sound the band "sound[ed] nothing like". Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails called many nu metal bands "insincere" and "a parody of itself". The animosity could be mutual: although Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit cited Rage Against the Machine as an influence, that band's bassist Tim Commerford called Limp Bizkit "one of the dumbest bands in the history of music", though he later said, "I do apologize for Limp Bizkit".

Others have defended the genre. Jody MacGregor of FasterLouder, while calling nu metal "music's most hated genre", argued it was "not as bad as people think". Coal Chamber's Dez Fafara said he was proud of the association and that nu metal bands "broke new musical ground", while Slipknot's Corey Taylor, The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan and Sevendust's Lajon Witherspoon praised its cross-pollination of styles and its influence on later metal. Jack Porter of The Michigan Daily argued that the label had become "a ghetto" for any heavy, radio-friendly band perceived as low in quality, causing serious listeners to overlook the genre's merits.

Rejection of the label

Many heavy metal musicians have rejected nu metal as a legitimate metal subgenre, arguing it is not "true heavy metal", and several of the acts most associated with the genre have likewise distanced themselves from the term. Slipknot described their own music simply as "metal metal", treating their link to nu metal as a coincidence of timing. Korn's Jonathan Davis long resisted the label, maintaining that the band may have "invented a new genre" but that "nu-metal" was coined for the bands that followed, and he also rejected the "heavy metal" tag, describing Korn instead as a funk band. By 2019, however, he had grown comfortable with it, calling it "pretty cool to say we helped invent some kind of movement".

Staind's Aaron Lewis, Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit, Mike Wengren of Disturbed and Godsmack's Sully Erna similarly disowned the nu metal or "heavy metal" labels. Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park said the band "never held the flag for nu-metal", which he associated with "arrogant, misogynistic" frat rock. Chino Moreno of Deftones—a band frequently grouped with nu metal early on—was especially vocal, refusing to be "lumped in" with the scene and criticizing peers such as Korn, which prompted a public exchange with Davis. Linkin Park's Chester Bennington initially said he "hate[d] that genre", but by 2012 had come to accept the label for the band's early work, noting that few others were blending metal and hip hop when Linkin Park began.

References

Bibliography

External links

They Did It All for the Nookie: Decibel Explores the Rise and Fall of Nu-Metal – Decibel
Heavy Metal Classifications: A History of Nu Metal – Metal Descent
The anatomy of a scene: Charting the rise, dominance and fall of nü metal – Firstpost
Vintage Korn: Life Is Peachy At 20 – MTV
`Numetal' Blends Hip-hop, Rock – Sun Sentinel