- Nov 5, 2006
- 5,280
- 559
- 113
This is where I come clean and admit that my first exposure to heavy music was nu-metal. I'm only 24 and this shit was the bees knees when I was a kid and hadn't discovered Metallica yet. Therefore, I've taken it upon myself to relisten to songs from bands I used to like (or at the very least, heard) in order to a). figure out what appealed to me about them then and b). see if there's anything about them that is even remotely good to me now. I never listened to Mudvayne, Mushroomhead, or Static-X so I'll leave those out.
I'll start with Korn since they were one of my favorites. The three songs I chose are Blind, Got the Life, and Falling Away from Me. I'm not going to review each of these individually because they all have one thing in common. The riffs on all three songs are stupidly catchy. When I say stupidly I mean exactly that, stupid. Not simple, not minimalistic, STUPID. Stupid in a bubblegum pop sort of way with two notes played repeatedly in a rhythmic fashion. For what the riffs lack in creativity is made up for in guitar pedal effects since the guitars sound different on every song. In all seriousness, it wouldn't be too far off to say that this IS bubble gum pop with heavy down-tuned guitars and a counter-cultural urban aesthetic. This is all sorts of bad but if there is anything positive to say about this band, it's that Jonathan's voice is unique. Whiney and grating after a while but unique nonetheless. Too bad this is all but ruined with what he's actually saying in the songs. These lyrics are straight out of a 12 year old girl's diary. This is the most whiney, cry-baby shit I've ever heard and all said with a limited vocabulary. These words are not too far off from "why did you hurt my feelings?" level bluntness without being subliminal or even so much as metaphorical. Everything about this band screams "I dropped out of high school". I guess I understand why I liked them but Jesus.
Next up is Slipknot. The songs I chose are Wait and Bleed, Surfacing, and Left Behind. Wait and Bleed is just kind of a radio rock song made a bit heavier. I can definitely see why I liked this but it's kind of generic as is anything purpose-made for the radio. Either way, this isn't terrible. Surfacing is pretty bad. Again with the retardedly blunt lyrics (fuck it all, fuck this world!). Do nu-metal bands purposely write lyrics to appeal to angsty teenagers or do they actually have a significantly low reading/writing level? I guess we'll never know. Next up is Left Behind. This is probably the best out of the three and has a pretty good balance of heaviness and clean singing. I can definitely see myself having gotten down on this when I was younger.
Disturbed is up and the song is Voices. I stopped after one song because I recognized it and remembered why I never liked this terrible band.
I'm not going to bother with Linkin Park songs because I hear them played every so often (co-workers insisting that the radio is better than no music at all). I can't remember if I ever liked Linkin Park. I think I found their riffs heavy and I got down on the screaming sections but the lyrics always sounded like they were made so kids could prove to their parents that not all modern music had naughty language. Kind of made it hard to feel rebellious while listening to it.
I've only really heard the self-titled album by the Deftones and I actually got into it long after I grew out of nu-metal. Maybe because it isn't really nu-metal. Either way, it has much more of an artsy grunge feel that I was into for a minute. I just listened to Hexagram and this isn't bad.
Twists red cap backwards. I think that's all I have to say about Limp Bizkit.
I'm just gonna go ahead and talk about System of a Down's Toxicity album because I played it a ton back in the day. This is probably the only nu-metal album I come anywhere close to regretting selling. There's a lot of potential good here, especially with the quirky vocals and lyrics. The only thing that makes this suck is, again, the riffs which are standard nu-metal fare (aka not important and used primarily for rhythm). Seriously, if the band had put a little more effort into the riffs, or at least made them speak for themselves more, this could've been turned into a silly grind album along the lines of Macabre.
I get nostalgic when I drink.
I'll start with Korn since they were one of my favorites. The three songs I chose are Blind, Got the Life, and Falling Away from Me. I'm not going to review each of these individually because they all have one thing in common. The riffs on all three songs are stupidly catchy. When I say stupidly I mean exactly that, stupid. Not simple, not minimalistic, STUPID. Stupid in a bubblegum pop sort of way with two notes played repeatedly in a rhythmic fashion. For what the riffs lack in creativity is made up for in guitar pedal effects since the guitars sound different on every song. In all seriousness, it wouldn't be too far off to say that this IS bubble gum pop with heavy down-tuned guitars and a counter-cultural urban aesthetic. This is all sorts of bad but if there is anything positive to say about this band, it's that Jonathan's voice is unique. Whiney and grating after a while but unique nonetheless. Too bad this is all but ruined with what he's actually saying in the songs. These lyrics are straight out of a 12 year old girl's diary. This is the most whiney, cry-baby shit I've ever heard and all said with a limited vocabulary. These words are not too far off from "why did you hurt my feelings?" level bluntness without being subliminal or even so much as metaphorical. Everything about this band screams "I dropped out of high school". I guess I understand why I liked them but Jesus.
Next up is Slipknot. The songs I chose are Wait and Bleed, Surfacing, and Left Behind. Wait and Bleed is just kind of a radio rock song made a bit heavier. I can definitely see why I liked this but it's kind of generic as is anything purpose-made for the radio. Either way, this isn't terrible. Surfacing is pretty bad. Again with the retardedly blunt lyrics (fuck it all, fuck this world!). Do nu-metal bands purposely write lyrics to appeal to angsty teenagers or do they actually have a significantly low reading/writing level? I guess we'll never know. Next up is Left Behind. This is probably the best out of the three and has a pretty good balance of heaviness and clean singing. I can definitely see myself having gotten down on this when I was younger.
Disturbed is up and the song is Voices. I stopped after one song because I recognized it and remembered why I never liked this terrible band.
I'm not going to bother with Linkin Park songs because I hear them played every so often (co-workers insisting that the radio is better than no music at all). I can't remember if I ever liked Linkin Park. I think I found their riffs heavy and I got down on the screaming sections but the lyrics always sounded like they were made so kids could prove to their parents that not all modern music had naughty language. Kind of made it hard to feel rebellious while listening to it.
I've only really heard the self-titled album by the Deftones and I actually got into it long after I grew out of nu-metal. Maybe because it isn't really nu-metal. Either way, it has much more of an artsy grunge feel that I was into for a minute. I just listened to Hexagram and this isn't bad.
Twists red cap backwards. I think that's all I have to say about Limp Bizkit.
I'm just gonna go ahead and talk about System of a Down's Toxicity album because I played it a ton back in the day. This is probably the only nu-metal album I come anywhere close to regretting selling. There's a lot of potential good here, especially with the quirky vocals and lyrics. The only thing that makes this suck is, again, the riffs which are standard nu-metal fare (aka not important and used primarily for rhythm). Seriously, if the band had put a little more effort into the riffs, or at least made them speak for themselves more, this could've been turned into a silly grind album along the lines of Macabre.
I get nostalgic when I drink.
