In Flames is the perfect gateway band away from nu metal and into, well, actually good metal, lol. Not to say nu metal can't be good, of course, but there's usually little incentive for a nu metal fan to peer into other metal genres.
Then again, most Slipknot fans I knew back in high school thought In Flames was garbage when I showed them Colony and Reroute.
I listened to Disturbed prior to my In Flamezination, but I still have a soft spot for Believe and Ten-Thousand Fists. Believe especially stands out from the nu metal crowd with some pretty interesting riffs and its overall laid-back vibe (imo it has a bit of a Passenger vibe to it).
I think Disturbed was a really fun band, but first they got kinda stale by the point of Asylum and Immortalized, then after their Sound of Silence hit they went to shit. Suddenly they were making cheesy ass ballads and motivational songs, fuck that shit.
.5 is not that bad. Devil in i, killpop, nomadic, one that kills the least, custer, negative one and if rain is what you want are pretty decent. I think All Hope Is Gone aged the worst.
Yeah, Disturbed was my favorite band back before I listened to In Flames, and I'm kind of ashamed to admit not so much that I liked them, but that they were my favorite. I have a weird view of their music in that the sheer lack of ballads (Save for "Darkness" and "Overburdened") in their discography up until "The Sound of Silence" seriously backfired on them, especially when Evolution came out. My top three for them switches around all the time, but I have it locked down to Ten Thousand Fists, Asylum, and Immortalized. The only song I don't like off Asylum is "The Animal", but while the first half is big and bombastic, they just go back to being their norm by the second half. I love every song, even now, but there's something the first half has that just makes it shine. Ten Thousand Fists is Ten Thousand Fists, I really don't need to explain that one. Immortalized is probably at the top for me though, it's just a great album all around with a lot of variety, at least for Disturbed. I know that's probably the lowest bar to clear in the history of music, but I appreciate it nonetheless. Their cover of "The Sound of Silence" is fucking beautiful too. I will die on that hill.
Indestructible would've been my least favorite album with how fucking confused in direction it is, but Evolution happened. This is where my weird view of them comes in: I actually love the ballads on it, especially since they were originally going to do an acoustic EP instead of an album following Immortalized, and I think that part works well (Particularly with "Uninvited Guest"), though they had way too many ballads on the album. It definitely feels like the success of their cover got into the album though. That being said, for me, it's the 'heavy' songs on Evolution that did nothing for me, and they still don't even for the upcoming album. They've lost their magic when it comes to writing heavier songs, and even the guitar solos feel stale. The lyrics have always had a big political presence to them, but the anthemic feel of the lyrics for Evolution and onward just feels forced and stale- And considering that they're trying to go for a "Fuck your political leaning, we need to be good towards each other" platform for the new album, I don't have high hopes for it being fun or diverse instrumentally or lyrically. If they had stopped after Immortalized, I feel like they would've gone out on a massive high note. It was a modern Disturbed album that felt fresh and awesome, whereas modern Disturbed now just feels bland and "awesome". Dave doesn't even have the fucking chin piercings anymore. Shit's fucked.
Same. I've always very much disliked nu metal. Almost everyone I know who is into heavy music liked or still likes nu metal and I just don't get it. Most of what I've heard is just so bad. Disturbed, Coal Chamber, Korn, Powerman 5000, Mudvayne, Drowning Pool, the list goes on. Even Slipknot, who some don't consider nu metal (I absolutely think they are)... I can't stand it. It's amazing to me that newer bands still pop up too. Back in the late 90s when I was a teenager, if you told me those bands would still be around, I would have called you a fucking liar.
Nu metal... everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul.
My favorite thing when it comes to nu-metal is the massive bass presence in it, particularly with so many slap basses. I fucking love the bass, and that's probably a conversation that I could go on for hours about if given the time (Which I'm never going to have these days). I haven't listened to Coal Chamber or Power Man, but I'd absolutely argue for (some) Korn and Mudvayne. The latter's especially grown on me since they have some crazy progressive shit, especially on L.D. 50. Everybody knows "Dig", sure, but "Death Blooms" is a genuinely phenomenal song that really should be heard more. It's also before Chad's clean vocals became really gravel-y, so it's actually rather pleasant to hear his singing. One other really cool thing is hearing other band members who don't typically do vocals get to chime in every so often. Head growled in "Ball Tongue" (I genuinely don't know why he doesn't do any vocals for Korn now, especially considering that he's seriously refined his vocals over the years), and both Clown and Chris Fehn did harsh vocals in "This Cold Black". I don't know, I just find that really fucking cool.
That being said though, it is a
really simple subgenre, especially in terms of the guitarwork (I know Head said at one point that Korn had simpler guitars because they just weren't good enough at it to get more technical), but I think that works out for it. I personally think that groove metal is like nu-metal for people who want heavier, trver metal, or thrash but slower, but what do I know. I don't think I've listened to any modern nu-metal bands, aside from trying to listening to a couple and not feeling them
at all. It's kinda like classic rock where I feel that you're just not going to get anything quite like what used to be. Though I think we can all agree that Limp Bizkit is a scourge upon humanity that should've been eradicated as soon as it formed. I know that 99% of that is just Fred Durst, but he really is that awful. "Hold On" is the only genuinely good song they have, and I'd still take an instrumental version of that over one with vocals if I could. Horrible singer, rapper, frontman, and face of the band, and it's such a shame because the guys otherwise do have talent. I seriously recommend Wes Borland's industrial side project, Black Light Burns (Particularly their debut album). "Iodine Sky" is something I just don't know how to put into words. It might be a boring listen to some, but I fucking love it.
I like a few Slipknot songs for every album. Enough for a full setlist. They're a pretty energetic band so it makes a good live.
This said, my favourite album must be All Hope Is Gone. Specially because of the more "trash/death" influenced songs.
I also don't think that they're as bad as some people might imply. At least, I don't think that they're far worse or terrible than bands like (don't judge me) Metallica. They have their place in the history of music and they sound like a real metal act, not like Disturbed or Limp Bizkit or many of those Nu Metal bands.
"This Cold Black" was the first song I listened to after "All Out Life", and holy shit, it blew my fucking mind- Still does. Wikipedia says they go more towards groove metal on it, which is seriously up my alley, but "This Cold Black" being as high octane thrash as it is is nothing short of absolutely fucking awesome. I seriously need to listen to the rest of All Hope is Gone sometime.
I have to resign to the fact that nu-metal undoubtedly killed rock and metal in the mainstream. The simpler playing, the controversies, the lesser talent, second wave/copycat bands... And Fred Durst, all killed the wave of rock and metal, and I think that's something that only really started coming back around 2016 or so (Funnily enough, the same year that nu-metal started really coming back too). That being said, as simple as it may be for the most part, when nu-metal bands try getting progressive, they're pretty cool at straying from the standard path, and when they try to be heavy, you get some
really heavy shit. Slipknot fits into the latter in such a way that there's very little that reaches them for me. They're no Anaal Nathrakh or Endon, sure, but something like "Disasterpiece" is one of the most brutal things I've heard otherwise, and I think they deserve more than to just be written off so easily simply because they're nu-metal. Nu-metal is at its worst when it's immature or safe and lacking in talent. Even some of the lesser nu-metal bands (The ones who genuinely made a name for themselves and are remembered fondly today, not any of the copycats/lazy fucks like Adema or some shit) are much better and much more deserving of a chance than the standard reputation what that nu-metal has given them.
