Nu-Metal isn’t exactly the most popular of genres. It’s the guy that never got the prom date, the girl that was still a virgin at 35, and the guy that was always picked last for sports. It’s the underdog, and in many respects, that’s exactly why so many kids identified with the genre. Let’s be honest though, the year is no longer 1999 and most of us have since grown up and realized the music was crap.
However, for every 1,000 misogynistic, shitty songs about sex, and every 2,000 songs about how much parents suck, there was at least one or two gems that actually stood out from the cesspit of a genre.
So, want to listen to 5 Nu-Metal songs that don’t suck (well in my opinion, feel free to disagree)? Then get your dosage after the jump. Before you do though, please realize that I don’t care who or what is Nu-Metal as I don’t even recognize it as a real genre. So don’t bother telling me that some a band is actually “Industrial Aggro Alternative Carnival Funk Grunge Metal” instead please, because not only do I not care, I also don’t care.
#1 Slipknot – Eyeless
Okay, so Slipknot may not be the most respected Metal band around, and they may forget to take their Halloween masks off 364 days a year (except when they want to be pop stars), but back in 1999 when the band first burst onto the scene, they seriously changed things. They single handedly took heavy music straight into the mainstream, with the band’s second album Iowa topping the charts in various parts of the world. They were the heaviest band since Pantera to reach such success.
Slipknot, I’ve always seen as being more than Metal than Nu. I mean whilst some bands sang about doing it all for the nookie, Slipknot were screaming about how they want to slit your throat and fuck the wound. I’ve got to be honest, as a 13-year-old, I ate that shit up and loved it. And who wouldn’t? Songs about death are cool as fuck. Songs about sex are just as cool. So songs about death and sex are doubly awesome.
The debut self-titled album is arguably the most “Nu” Metal album from the band, and Eyeless is the best song from said album, so it only makes sense that this makes my list.
#2 System of a Down – Suite-pee
Yeah I know, I’ve given System of a Down a lot of flack in the past, but if I can be 100% honest for just a second, their debut album really was awesome. It was the first SOAD album I bought, and it literally blew me away. The more popular Toxicity never quite impressed me so much, but there was just something about the ADHD induced insanity displayed on the first album that was so fresh over ten years ago when the band first began.
Album opener, Suite-pee is fucking manic, and has me singing along to every line every time I play it. “I wanna fuck my way to the garden, because everyone needs a motherfucker!” Indeed they do.
#3 Limp Bizkit – The Truth
The first rule of being a Limp Bizkit fan, is you don’t talk about being a Limp Bizkit fan. The second rule of…
Yeah, you get the idea. Limp Bizkit are hardly the coolest band ever. In fact, they’re probably the least, but you’ve got to give them credit where due. They always stuck to their guns and kept doing what they were doing. Whilst other bands jumped onto the emo ship once that gained fame *cough* Papa Roach *cough* or tried desperately to be taken seriously as atists by ripping off U2, Limp Bizkit just kept on being dumb.
Well okay, that’s not quite true, as seen in the song, The Truth. The band did briefly try to come across as being more mature, with some RATM inspired Rap Metal, but the results aren’t as bad as you may anticipate. The Truth is perhaps the greatest Limp Bizkit song ever, so it’s a shame they’ll always be remembered for the songs people hated, rather than the songs they released that didn’t suck quite so much ass.
#4 Deftones – Digitial Bath
Deftones will always be my favorite band that came out of the whole Nu-Metal movement. They represent a band that truly progressed and evolved as a band without ever compromising themselves. White Pony was the band’s third album, and arguably their greatest, mixing various soundscapes and sound design.
Digital Bath is a perfect example of the experimentation on display in Deftones‘ White Pony. The song is describes a person fantasizing about pushing a electrical device into a bath, so that it electrocutes the female that is occupying the bath. In that sense, it’s a perfect Nu Metal song. Misogyny FTW!
#5 Mudvayne – Death Blooms
I know it’s hard to believe now, but once upon a time, Mudvayne were actually not shit. In fact, they were rather good on their debut album, L.D. 50. They had the key Nu-Metal sound, not to mention the face-painted, Slipknot kind of look on the go, but the music itself was much more progressive, experimental, interesting and Math-Metal inspired than many of their contemporaries. It was hard for the band to stand out, when the Nu-Metal genre was so saturated, but the just about managed to do it.
And then they threw it all away by playing radio-friendly shit on MTV instead… Mudvayne suck these days, but why not check out Death Blooms from their first album. The song remains one of their best.
