The LOL At Nu-Metal thread

[Big Papa Paegan]

Lacuna Coil were pretty damn good until Evanescence broke and they dumbed their style down to fit the trend. I'm also in the minority that really likes the male singer's voice.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

I remember when Evanescences debut album came out the local NY paper, Daily News, wrote an article talking about how ahead of their time they are, and how there are no other female fronted metal bands there are. I wrote them a letter telling them to do some research and how there are many female fronted metal bands, naming Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Otep, and others. Suffice to say, I never got a response.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Oh man, I can go on all day at the amount of shitty nu-metal I used to listen to. I can occasionally go back and listen to some of this stuff and still have fun with it but it still stumps me as to why I ever thought this was great stuff musically and lyrically. Here's a taste:

Lifer - Boring

Reveille - Inside Out

Papa Roach - Snakes

I posted this on the first page over two years ago. Here's a commentary:

1.) Lifer - One of the worst bands anyone could listen to. Pretty much was the blueprint to a typical nu metal band: bland, downtuned riffs, DJ scratches, rapping vocals, and awful fashion sense. Thank God the band fell off the face of the planet after this track. It's worth noting that two members of Lifer went on to join Breaking Benjamin. Which band is worse?

2.) Reveille - Laz brought them up a few posts back. These guys released an album in the late 90's but it wasn't until their second album came out in 2001 that got them really noticed. Typical rap/metal garbage in the worst ways possible. It really sounds like the singer wanted to be the next Eminem but couldn't get noticed and formed a rock band to cash in on the trend. You can also hear the obvious New England influence in their sound. The video Laz posted just about says it but the song I put up here is probably the only track anyone really remembers from them.

3.) Papa Roach - UGH. Ok, these guys were obviously trying to do a poor man's Faith No More but did it more in the style of Korn and less like early Incubus or Deftones. I listened to "Infest" quite a bit in 8th grade and decided that the song above was the best track. They attempted to jump on the numerous music trends of the 00's to horrendously LOL results. It's really amazing to me to see that Papa Roach is still a predominant figure in mainstream rock considering their one note style hasn't changed much from when they were big while their other contemporaries have faded away.

 

[Gary]

One thing I liked then but don't anymore is how many of these bands were clearly inspired by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, KMFDM etc. to try and mix Nu Metal with Industrial Techno. Even Fear Factory fell into the trap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDxo-fbW9c

Other examples

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F9y-J5H7wA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-TO-L1Escc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO58yKAm5zQ


"Hey, let's take what White Zombie and Prong did and ruin it"

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvQMPagkFPA

I remember one friend of mine sophomore year was really in love with this band. She was also a juggalette and looks to be a 49-year-old trailer park "cougar" stuck in a 28-year-old'd body

 

[Fall of Epic]

Great Cesaro's ghost! How could I forget about these?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-WehSAYGxk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Yw5ctqjAs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA5cYjpmRS8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYEy-DC3fWs

All these bands came and went faster than a heartbeat. The Union Underground only stuck around because they played the theme to Raw for a few years. Earshot has the distinction of being the very first band I ever saw live as they were the first band to take the stage at the first concert I attended. I recall absolutely nothing from their set other than the crowd being bored to death. That Stereomud song actually got a bit of airplay in 2001 then they quickly disappeared shortly thereafter. I don't know ANYBODY that heard of Neurotica or bought that one terrible album they put on. Hell, the only reason I know who they are is because they contributed that song to WWE Forceable Entry album (which probably deserves an entry here in itself).

 

[Fall of Epic]

One thing I liked then but don't anymore is how many of these bands were clearly inspired by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, KMFDM etc. to try and mix Nu Metal with Industrial Techno. Even Fear Factory fell into the trap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDxo-fbW9c

Other examples

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F9y-J5H7wA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-TO-L1Escc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO58yKAm5zQ


"Hey, let's take what White Zombie and Prong did and ruin it"

I think we can add one more to that list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWjgS4O1Aes

I saw these guys open for Korn in 2002. Bore me to tears and I was a Korn fan back then!

 

[Brocklock]

Although, this is basically a Korn song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4-oHTbGU4I


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

 

[Gary]

WWE Forceable Entry album (which probably deserves an entry here in itself).

Does it ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyFXfVPSc8Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJWxHB6OveI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pr82D-MpHk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyyDWFCimpk

I mentioned this already, but it kinda surprises me that this was a hit. Granted, 2002 was the last year that Nu Metal was particularly popular, but even by then the compilation felt like it was 2-3 years too late.

 

[Gary]

All these bands came and went faster than a heartbeat.

2000-2002 is really when the "came and went" phase in Nu Metal started. More and more bands started popping up, and the obvious became more clear: 1.) They all had the same shitty frontman that rapped/watered down guitar riffs/post-grunge worship/bad electro-industrial trappings, and 2.) They'd release one or two albums, then disappear from the face of the Earth.

This reminds me another one of the (many) reasons this genre mostly dropped from the face of the Earth: Outside of say, Deftones or System of a Down, none of these bands were really capable (or really showed any interest) of evolving. Laz mentioned one of the reasons why genres like Death Metal and Black Metal are still around is because they have an identifiable sound, but I think it goes further than that. Those genres had bands like Death, Atheist, Emperor and Arcturus experimenting with said sound and pushing the boundaries of their genres. Nu Metal was incapable of that because very few of the bands had the musical talent or insight to try something new in the genre, and it resulted in hundreds of bands that all sounded the same. By 2003, everyone hated it and kids went on to like shit such as Evanescence, Breaking Benjamin and commercialized Emo.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Most of those bands were still a big deal in 2002. Sure, no one cared about Kid Rock or Limp Bizkit anymore but bands like Drowning Pool, Saliva, and Boy Hits Car broke out just 6 months before. Disturbed, Our Lady Peace, and Sevendust have always been popular, Rob Zombie had just come out with his second solo album, and Edge's theme was pretty popular back then. It wasn't until later in 2002 that the genre started going down in flames.

Supposedly, a lot of cuts were left off the record for one reason or another. I know my copy didn't have Kane's theme ("Slow Chemical" by Finger Eleven" - had to download it separately). Papa Roach, Nickelback, Slipknot, and Godsmack supposedly records tracks that were shelved and never heard.

 

[Gary]

I always associated it all going down in flames around late 2001, but as I said earlier, that's probably because most of the people I knew that previously liked it wanted little to do with it anymore.

 

[Fall of Epic]

See, I actually listened to more nu metal in 01-02 than ever before. It wasn't until mid-'03 that I started listening to more "respectable" artists.

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

I picked up that one Mushroomhead album that had a cover of Seal's "Crazy", and enjoyed it for what it was.

"Ty Jonathan Down" was a decent enough song around 1999 since I was a pretty big Jon Davis fan at the time. I couldn't tell you any other Videodrone songs though.

I liked Earshot's second album where they stopped trying slo hard to sound like Tool.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Supposedly, a lot of cuts were left off the record for one reason or another. I know my copy didn't have Kane's theme ("Slow Chemical" by Finger Eleven" - had to download it separately). Papa Roach, Nickelback, Slipknot, and Godsmack supposedly records tracks that were shelved and never heard.

For some reason, the Kane song was exclusive to the Canadian release. I don't remember all the details other than being amused it was used for the Tom Jane Punisher soundtrack in 2004 (much like the Dudley Powerman 5000 theme being in the Freddy vs Jason soundtrack)

 

[MFer]

I swore I heard back then that Slow Chemical was supposed to be a Best Buy exclusive track, but maybe not. Also, a couple of those Forceable Entry songs were used for PPVs. Of course, there were many other nu-metal songs used for PPVs during that time period.


"2TM" WWF Backlash 2002 Highlights [HD]



King of the Ring 2002 Highlights

 

[Baby Shoes]

That was probably it. Best Buy exclusive for US but because different distributor in Canada, it wasn't exclusive there. Much like how certain store exclusive PPV DVDs around the time in the US were more available in Canada.

 

[Gary]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ruHfeq87qo

Years from now, people are going to have to explain to their kids how something like this could have happened.

 

[Brocklock]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ruHfeq87qo

Years from now, people are going to have to explain to their kids how something like this could have happened.

That song was on the WCW Mayhem album.

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

That Backlash video was awesome. Nice random RKO from Hogan! I can't bring myself to hate Creed though, and I always liked Young Grow Old.

What was that Mudvayne sounding song from the King of the Ring video?

 

[MFer]

That was Ride of Your Life by Stereomud Neurotica (sorry, all these fucking names blend in together).

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I have a query in with a friend of mine to find a copy or link to an article we collaborated on forever ago about why nu metal died a quick death. Basically, it boils down to two key points:

1. It was never a "true" genre, but rather a catch-all term for any "heavy" band around a certain timeframe.
2. What Gary said about none of its acts wanting to further their sound or evolve.

Hell, I think the only bands that could rightfully be called "nu metal" that even attempted to evolve their styles are Korn and Slipknot. Everybody else either kept plugging away at what they were doing or toned it down to grasp at the fleeting mainstream success similar bands were enjoying.

I don't think Mushroomhead really belongs here. They've been around since the early 90's and are still around, and actually experiment with their music a decent bit. I'm not too big a fan of them, but there's certainly some songs I really enjoy, and their live show is damn good.

 

[Red Baron]

Scraping the bottom of the barrel here with Skindred.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsQhuxPsSjE

My god they were awful.

 

[Fall of Epic]

That was Ride of Your Life by Stereomud.

That was actually the Neurotica song I was talking about. Stereomud was on the album though, they did Raven's theme.

Yeah, I was thinking of putting Mushroomhead on here but that opens up another topic of discussion of bands that were marketed as nu metal to try to get more fans even though they were above it. I'm personally not really a fan of Mushroomhead but they pre-dated a lot of this garbage. It's funny because when they started getting more recognition in the early 2000's, they were labeled as Slipknot knock-offs when they were around and wore costumes onstage long before they were.

Skindred I think was the very last attempt anybody made to try to recreate another nu metal boom and it thankfully didn't work.

 

[Gary]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ruHfeq87qo

Years from now, people are going to have to explain to their kids how something like this could have happened.

That song was on the WCW Mayhem album.

I will say that this video is good for a laugh, as it has 1.) Really unfortunate hair styles 2.) White people appropriating Hip-Hop in the worst way imaginable, and 3.) Incredibly goofy "Nu Metal movements" from the band.

2. What Gary said about none of its acts wanting to further their sound or evolve.

Well, as I said, one of the reasons they didn't want to evolve or further their sounds is because they were incapable of doing so due to a lack of musical talent. Genres like Thrash and Death Metal usually require that you not only know how to play your instruments, but you know how to do riffs and solos that aren't rudimentary at best. Most Nu Metal bands couldn't do that, so they ended up going from popular to forgotten in the span of a few years. The differences between the bands posted here and something like these bands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YicGpZlINw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0mq1_OAekA

Couldn't be more obvious. As far as the mainstream goes, they may be considered "cult favorites", but their reputation and influence will live on for years to come. You can't say that for something like Full Devil Jacket.

 

[Fall of Epic]

The WCW Mayhem album could be entered here as well. More nu metal garbage than Forceable Entry and the former pre-dated it by over a year. You had ICP, kid Rock, Limp Bizkit, Primer 55, Risk-era Megadeth, and nu metal era Slayer.

It at least it had "Rap is Crap" on it.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Me and my brother used to love that mellow remix of "Faith" featuring Everlast on WCW Mayhem: The Album. Twelve year olds are goddamn idiots.

IIRC, WCW Mayhem: The Album also had a sweet Ruff Ryders song. And that irritatingly catchy attempt to make the Nitro Girls the next Spice Girls at least two (probably three years) too late, "Bailando". And "What Up Mach?"

Wikipedia tells me they had Cypress Hill on there and they actually somehow got Metallica to contribute a live version of "Seek and Destroy". So the album was bad not Forceable Entry level horrible though.

 

[Fall of Epic]

That version of "Seek & Destroy" became Sting's theme in the dying months of WCW.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Remember that clip of Billy Ray Cyrus & Fred Durst's duet on Arsenio from a few months back. I just found out there's more.

http://youtu.be/d8L7hFI8BpI
Twelve year old me would be confused as fuck right now. Now me is confused as fuck right now.

 

[BUTT]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PL74ARXreg

Can't believe I have neglected so long to mention the time Meat Loaf jumped on the nu-metal bandwagon (after most everyone else had jumped off) with this Evanescence-esque track, written by the power trio of Desmond Child, Nikki Sixx, and John 5 (of Marilyn Manson). To hear Meat sing this was :, but to see it as the opening song (and sub-title track) of 2006's Bat Out of Hell III was