Nu metal

• 1. Origins And Precursors

  ›

  In 1987, the thrash metal band Anthrax released an EP titled I'm the Man that combined hip hop and metal. This record laid groundwork for a genre that would not yet have a name. By the early 1990s, bands like Pantera and Faith No More were developing groove metal and alternative styles that influenced future sounds. Korn bassist Fieldy cites musicians such as Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Les Claypool of Primus as influences on their rhythmic approach. Jonathan Davis, lead vocalist of Korn, stated that if there was no Dimebag Darrell from Pantera, there would be no Korn. Mike Patton of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle became a major influence on many vocalists due to his wide range of vocal styles. Joel McIver acknowledged Korn as the band that created and pioneered the nu metal genre with its demo Neidermayer's Mind, which was released in 1993. The term nu metal is often attributed to producer Ross Robinson, who has been called The Godfather of Nu Metal between producers.

• 2. Musical Characteristics

  ›

  Nu metal guitarists often use seven-string guitars that are down-tuned to produce a heavier sound. These riffs are heavily syncopated and based mostly on guitar riffs rather than solos. Mid-song bridges and the general lack of guitar solos contrasts it with other genres of heavy metal. Kory Grow of Revolver wrote that in its efforts to tune down and simplify riffs, effectively drove a stake through the heart of the guitar solo. Some nu metal bands use five-string and six-string instruments for bass guitars. DJs are sometimes featured to provide instrumentation such as sampling, turntable scratching and electronic backgrounds. Vocal styles used in nu metal music include singing, rapping, screaming and growling. Vocals in nu metal are often rhythmic and influenced by hip hop. While some nu metal bands, such as Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, have rapping in their music, other nu metal bands, such as Godsmack and Staind, do not. Blast beats and double bass drumming, which are both common in heavy metal subgenres such as black metal, thrash metal and death metal, are uncommon in nu metal, with drummers such as Slipknot's Joey Jordison and Mudvayne's Matt McDonough being notable exceptions.

• 3. Mainstream Breakthrough

  ›

  Billboard cited the 18th of August 1998, as the Biggest Day in Nu-Metal History, which saw the release of Korn's third album Follow the Leader, Kid Rock's major label debut Devil Without a Cause and Orgy's debut album Candyass. Follow the Leader peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200 and was certified 5× platinum by the RIAA. In 1999, Korn's fourth studio album Issues peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold at least 573,000 copies in its first week of release. The Woodstock 1999 festival featured multiple nu metal artists and bands such as Korn, Limp Bizkit and Sevendust. During and after Limp Bizkit's performance at the festival, violence occurred and people tore plywood from the walls during the performance of the band's song Break Stuff. Several sexual assaults were reported to have happened during the festival; a rape that was reported during Limp Bizkit's performance, and gang rape was reported to have occurred during Korn's set at the festival. Despite the incidents at the festival, Limp Bizkit's popularity and the sales of their then-recent album Significant Other were not affected. That same year, both Papa Roach's second studio album Infest and Disturbed's debut studio album The Sickness were released. Both albums became multi-platinum hits.

• 4. Commercial Decline

  ›

  In 2003, MTV wrote that nu metal's mainstream popularity was declining in 2002, citing that Korn's fifth album Untouchables and Papa Roach's third album Lovehatetragedy both sold less than the bands' previous releases. MTV also wrote that nu metal bands were played less frequently on radio stations and MTV began focusing on other musical genres. By 2004, several nu metal bands had begun to experiment with other genres to adapt to the changes in trends. Linkin Park's third studio album Minutes to Midnight, released in 2007, was noted for its near-complete departure from the band's nu metal sound. Describing the album's style, singer Chester Bennington stated, We've really moved away from anything that sounds like nu-metal. In 2005, Limp Bizkit released an EP called The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) which had little promotion and advertising. The album was not very popular; its sales fell 67% during its second week of release. In 2006, Limp Bizkit went on hiatus. By the mid-late 2000s, the popularity of emo exceeded that of nu metal. Also during this time, metalcore became one of the most popular genres in the new wave of American heavy metal.

• 5. Underground Revival

  ›

  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. 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. 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. 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.

• 6. Modern Resurgence

  ›

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

• 7. Cultural Reception

  ›

  Despite its popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, nu metal has often been criticized by many fans of heavy metal music, often being labelled with derogatory terms such as mallcore and whinecore. Gregory Heaney of AllMusic called nu metal one of metal's more unfortunate pushes into the mainstream. Lucy Jones of NME called nu metal the worst genre of all time. When Machine Head moved to the nu metal genre with their album The Burning Red and their vocalist Robb Flynn spiked his hair in the fashion of many nu metal musicians, the band were accused of selling out and many fans criticized their change of appearance and musical style. Jonathan Davis, the vocalist of Korn, spoke about the criticism of nu metal from heavy metal fans, saying: We're not rap rock, we're not nu-metal... We might have invented a new genre of heavy music or rock, but I believe the term nu-metal was made up for all the bands that followed us. Those guys to me are nu-metal. And we're just Korn. In 2014, Davis spoke about the nu metal label, saying: If we invented nu-metal then fuck yeah, cool. It's pretty cool to say we helped invent some kind of movement, that's pretty insane.