Five songs that predicted the strange rise of nu-metal
“The rapping was now repeated with greater insistence, and this time bore a hint of metal.” – HP Lovecraft
There are still fewer genres that trigger such derision as nu-metal.
It wasn’t since the days of hair metal’s MTV domination 20 years earlier that the metal world had suddenly grown so commercially popular. For a long time, heavy metal was the outlier soundtrack for a besieged sub-culture, all sleeveless denims and testosterone-fuelled affirmations of heterosexuality long scoffed at by much of the music critics, just how the metalheads liked it.
Jump two decades, and an entire swathe of schoolkids were hooked on the Kerrang! TV station’s endless rotation of nu-metal videos, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, and Disturbed, for a moment rubbing shoulders with the 2000s’ premier pop royalty. Metal has never been bigger. Indeed, Linkin Park’s debut LP, Hybrid Theory, still stands as one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, shifting a hefty 17 million certified copies.
Yet, time hasn’t been kind to the nu-metal era. While enjoying a nostalgic reappraisal from misty-eyed millennials and finding its guitar crunch amid the likes of Nova Twins or 100 Gecs’ Y2K fascinations, much of the 2000s cohort will trigger a pang of cringe at the white boy rap, frosted-tipped silliness, corporate aggression, and flat chugging thud of a thousand imitators.
The fact is, Korn were pretty raw and different when first emerging from the alternative metal wilderness back in 1994, all dirty funk bass and seven-stringed guitar sludge scoring Jonathan Davis’ unique presence in the metal world. Deftones, System of a Down, and Slipknot would suddenly find themselves swept up in the Family Values orbit, whether they felt any real affinity or not.
Whatever the merits of the early pioneers, no one could argue that nu-metal aged like milk before long. While perhaps flashing a unique meld of hip-hop and groove stylings, plus offering a gateway to metal’s rich heritage, the glut of baggy jeaned idiots would see the absolute horrors of Crazy Town, Trapt, and Adema make the music world beg for The Strokes to herald the indie revival that struck nu-metal dead just as Seattle had to hair metal in the early 1990s.
Still, one may run away from their nu-metal folly, yet it’s likely that one blast of ‘Rollin’’ or a sudden exposure to ‘Freak on a Leash’s eerie opener shoots a powerful transportive pull to that time when you wore your Korn t-shirt proudly and ensured your PDQ trainers were the size of small boats. With your wallet chain in hand, let’s take a look at the five singles that helped shape metal’s pop moment, for better or worse.
Five songs that predicted the strange rise of nu-metal:
Run-DMC – ‘Rock Box’
Release Date: March 1984 | Producer: Larry Smith, Joseph Simmons, and Darryl McDaniels | Label: Profile
As the new school hip-hop was pulling rap away from Grandmaster Flash’s superhero party breaks, emerging sampler hardware and drum-machine technology afforded the Hollis trio Run-DMC the means to spin a more street-level, tougher hip-hop punch, bridging Afrika Bambaataa with the later Ice-T and NWA.
Initially, Def Jam honcho Russell Simmons was unsure of 1984’s ‘Rock Box’. A wait in the studio for heavy metallers Riot to finish their sessions struck the Run-DMC team to add some guitar riffs to their eventual single, roping in Eddie Martinez to lay down some shreds atop the Oberheim DMX’s synthetic percussion pop.
‘Rock Box’ would garner the trio another winner. While rock and hip-hop would win greater acclaim with a certain Boston outfit two years later, Run-DMC were sowing the sonic seeds that made nu-metal possible in a decade’s time.
Anthrax – ‘I’m the Man’
Release Date: December 1987 | Producer: Anthrax, Eddie Kramer, and Paul Hammingson | Label: Megaforce
It’s clear that New York thrash legends were having fun here. Standing as one of the ‘Big Four’ with Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer, Anthrax sought to parody the Def Jam sounds coming from the likes of Beastie Boys by slathering their ‘I’m the Man’ comedy metal with all thick dollops of turntable scratching, meaty riffs, and a chaotic Buchanan and Goodman style break-in japery between all members.
Mela and hip-hop would come together with more fire in its belly for 1991’s rock rework of ‘Bring the Noise’ with Public Enemy, but ‘I’m the Man’s studio piss-take hovers all over the sillier ends of Limp Bizkit’s later habit of comic skits and tongue-in-cheek videos during their 2000s heyday.
Faith No More – ‘Epic’
Release Date: January 1990 | Producer: Matt Wallace | Label: Slash
Amazingly, Faith No More’s most popular single was a last roll of the dice for Faith No More. Dropped amid the post-festive downtime in musicland after a waning label difference, there was little expectation that The Real Thing’s second single would make much of a splash, but ‘Epic’ would blow the rock doors off. Arriving like a cartoon whirlwind, its comic alchemy of funk slap, metal shred, snotty rap, and a little classical bluster marked a wholly unique mark on the day’s rock charts.
For many of the later school of nu-metal, ‘Epic’ beamed down from the parted heavens like a totemic prophecy, giving command to meld metal guitars with rap vocals and that all-important groove at its electric centre. Nu-metal pioneers Korn loved them and invited drummer Mike Bordin to pick up the sticks after David Silveria was out of action for seven months in 2000.
Pantera – ‘Walk’
Release Date: February 1993 | Producer: Terry Date | Label: East West
It wasn’t that long previously that Texas’ Pantera was right in the midst of the spandex hair metal that thrash was rebelling against across the 1980s. Yet, needs must. Swapping sprayed Barnets and neon flash for denim shorts and blue collar muscle, a likewise refined metal arrest severed their glammy past with 1990’s Cowboys from Hell, helping birth the decade’s groove metal in earnest.
It was 1992’s follow-up, Vulgar Display of Power, that changed everything for Pantera, however. With guitarist Dimebag Darrell summoning a beefy but irresistibly flowing riff in skulking tandem with Vinnie Paul’s prowling percussion, the nu-metal formula was burnished right there, ‘Walk’ standing as Pantera’s defining hour.
‘Walk’s importance on nu-metal was summed up by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis upon the death of Pantera’s lauded guitarist, “If there was no Dimebag Darrell, there would be no Korn.”
Helmet – ‘In the Meantime’
Release Date: June 1992 | Producer: Helmet | Label: Amphetamine Reptile
In the explosion of major label interest in Nirvana’s grunge dam break over the Billboard charts, New York’s Helmet found themselves clamoured at by every record company eager for a piece of the alternative work world. With Interscope winning out, Helmet found themselves enjoying bigger budgets and a more mainstream presence with 1992’s Meantime sophomore album.
Nu-metal’s penchant for tight, groovy metal riffs and arresting crunch would power Meantime, captured perfectly on Meantime’s second single, ‘In the Meantime’. Swung with frontman Page Hamilton’s downtuned guitar attack and John Stanier’s syncopated backbeat, the underground hit flexes the punk heft in potent, terse blasts of full-chested pummel, finding a happy marriage of alternative rock and heavy metal.
Such angular rhythms and aversion to soloing would see the future nu-metal cohort all scribbling notes furiously when forming their Helmet-inspired successors.
