The premise of Nu Metal always seemed like a good idea on paper. However, when put into practice, the results were not brilliant. A lot of metalheads took offense to the borrowing of the term ‘Metal’ for music which is actually closer to the Rock genre and well, the music also sucked, let’s be honest. Whiny middle class white kids, with minimal talent, rapping with an incompetent flow about how much their lives suck, backed by horrendous instrumentals.
Above is a different take on the genre though. The band Hacktivist have taken music that is closer to the sounds of artists like Tesseract, Meshuggah and Between the Buried and Me and have decided to rap over it. Nu-Djent? Progressive New Nu Metal, with actual Metal? Yeah, I have no idea what kind of labels kids are slapping on this stuff, but it’s a lot better than half the bands I listened to in school (*cough* Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit).
So, will I listen to Hacktivist again? Perhaps not, as I prefer my vocals to either be screaming or singing, but I still find it interesting the different styles and approaches that people are taking with music. And if you think the band are bad, I dare you to try and listen to the new Linkin Park album. I know which I would rather listen to….
