ARE YOU READY?…
In part 1 of this article, I went over five nu-metal albums celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, in an attempt to figure out whether all the jokes about nu-metal as the annoying, fratty, redheaded stepchild of metal rang true. So far, my findings have been inconclusive to say the least. There have been some highs, sure, but also some pretty embarrassing lows as well. As the old saying goes though, it isn’t over until the fat lady sings (or the cargo-shorted man screams). So let’s have a look at 5 more of these albums to see if we can come to any solid conclusions.
Dope – Felons and Revolutionaries (Released 14/9/99)
I won’t sugarcoat it: this album is bad, it’s very bad, in fact it’s far and away the worst album I’m going to cover here. It feels like the end result of Static-X, Marilyn Manson and Ministry doing a botched fusion dance. Before you even get to the actual songs, the sound of the album itself is just awful. The drums sound so flat and bland, the guitars are super thin and tinny, it sounds like it was recorded on kids’ “build it yourself tape machine”, either that or a potato, and the vocals sound like the guy’s answer to the question “how much flanger?” was just “yes.”
It’s not the case of great songs being massacred by bad production either, because the quality of the songs is pretty abhorrent from front to back. There are bits of some sort of good ideas sprinkled in. Tracks like ‘Pig Society’, ‘Everything Sucks’ and ‘I Am Nothing’ have some decent enough riffs, ‘Intervention’, while I don’t like it, I can appreciate going for a faster pace, and I’d say that ‘Wake Up’ could be a fully alright song if it didn’t sound diabolical.
That’s the main problem really, these songs just fail on a conceptual basis. Not only are the riffs and grooves painfully uninspired, but the vocals are horribly gravelly, not catchy at all, and covered in so much flange it sounds like he’s perpetually gargling water, with lyrics that try so hard to be deep, but can barely say anything substantive beyond “fuck society”. Real deep stuff. Worst of all, as I’ve harped on already, is that the production on every single song is unbelievably stilted, tacky and lifeless, at its worst on tracks like ‘Debonaire’, ‘Kimberly’s Ghost’, and especially ‘Sick.’ It genuinely hurts to hear.
Also, circling back to the topic of bad covers, not only is their stab at Dead or Alive’s ‘You Spin Me Round’ wrong on endless levels, but, and I hate to be that guy, I can’t be the only one who finds four white guys covering N.W.A’s ‘Fuck Tha Police’ a bit morally dubious. Please, avoid this album like the plague. It’s ironic this album has the title it does, because I feel like those responsible should be in prison.
Primus – Antipop (Released 19/10/99)
OK, OK, I know, this isn’t exactly a true blue nu-metal album, but I think it’s definitely worth discussing here. Primarily known for their zany, humourous brand of funk-metal, with ‘Antipop’, Primus sought to infuse their oeuvre with some contemporary sounds, roping in a number of guests in the process.
Despite the band’s own dislike for the album, a lot of the results are really cool. The opening trio of tracks do a great job at making a case for this fusion, the characteristically low-end plunging riffs of nu metal meshing perfectly with Larry’s extra sharp guitar accents, as well as Les Claypool’s animated delivery and prodigal bass abilities. Much the same is also true of tracks like ‘Greet The Sacred Cow’, ‘Final Voyage of the Liquid Sky’, or ‘Momma Didn’t Raise No Fool’ too. Put it one way, this album’s got some serious bangers.
As well as that though, this album is definitely more stylistically diverse, because, duh, it’s Primus, and of course these moments are also great. There’s the partial return to the sounds of their classic era on ‘Power Mad’ or ‘Ballad of the Bodacious’, an intriguing little Tool-esque detour on ‘Eclectic Electric’ or even a quasi-folk jaunt on the closing track featuring Tom Waits.
This album really has something to please every Primus fan, and perhaps a few nu-metal hypebeasts too. It’s a shame this isn’t as widely discussed in talks about the genre, as if it were, I reckon it would come out as easily one of the best and most artistically credible for the time.
Crazy Town – The Gift of Game (Released 9/11/99)
This one is definitely a strange one, as I think it best represents the moment “peak nu-metal” was reached. In a genre where the outcasts seek to lash out at the popular kids, it seems this time the popular kids want to have a go, at least that’s the vibe I get. The reason being that it’s so lowest common denominator that it feels like what happens when nu-metal becomes a commodity. I’d say none of it is world shakingly bad, but none of it is really very good either, making me wonder why they even bothered.
Tracks like the opener ‘Toxic’, ‘Think Fast’, their cover of ‘Only When I’m Drunk’ and ‘Face The Music’ have all the hallmarks of classic nu-metal: moshpit igniting riffs, steady funk grooves, and some cool DJ scratching, but just forget about the songwriting, memorability, star power, you know, the important stuff.
Unfortunately for us, they also brought along some of its worst characteristics, including the cheesy, “cool” white guy rapping, and the fratty and edgy “fuck you, I’m awesome” lyrics, with the occasional relationship troubles thrown in.
They also put their fair share of tacky, badly aged electronics on here too, with the alien vocoders on ‘Darkside’, the synth heavy ‘Black Cloud’ (a particularly boring attempt at a rap ballad with some pretty bad singing), B-Boy 2000, and the horrendously named ‘Lollipop Porn.’ I would single out the track ‘Hollywood Babylon’ though. Not only does it suffer from many of the same problems vis a vis production, but also has a Big Lion feature that sticks out like a sore thumb.
The straight rap tracks aren’t much better honestly. Big single ‘Butterfly’ I suppose is enjoyable in a kind of corny, Vanilla Ice way, but is symptomatic of an album’s most successful song sounding so unlike the rest. Additionally, the tracks ‘Revolving Door’ and ‘Players (Only Love You When They’re Playing)’ not only sound quite tacky instrumentally, but in the case of the former, just sound like a supermarket-brand ‘Butterfly’: inoffensive, but that’s it.
Everything about this album should’ve indicated nu-metal was on its last legs, and if you wanted to argue it was at least a nail in the coffin, I wouldn’t disagree.
Korn – Issues (Released 16/11/99)
Of course, with everybody else getting in on the hype, it’s no surprise the genre’s founding fathers saw fit to leave their stamp on the year. Thing is, while this album is certainly pretty good, there is also something in me that sees it as the beginning of the end in a way.
No doubt this album has some great tracks up its sleeve, like the iconic ‘Falling Away From Me’ and the dramatic ‘Trash’, as well as some pretty wicked deep cuts like ‘Somebody Someone’, ‘Counting’, or even a bit of experimentation with trip-hop on parts of ‘Wake Up.’ Tracks like these show not only were rhythm section Fieldy and David Silveria masters of groove, but also that both guitarists Head and Munky could still crank out a mean riff, and that singer Jonathan Davis was more than capable of delivering a compelling performance.
On the other hand, there are a fair few songs throughout the album like ‘Beg For Me’, ‘Hey Daddy’, ‘Let’s Get This Party Started’ or particularly the closer, that really sound like the band are getting bored with this style, as if they’re on autopilot, a thought arguably confirmed as they expanded their horizons on future albums. Compound that with some slightly flatter production and pointless interludes, and it makes for an album that, while still solid, seems a slightly unsteady end to the group’s classic run.
Methods of Mayhem – Methods of Mayhem (Released 7/12/99)
I imagine if I told you that Tommy Lee (yes, THAT Tommy Lee) started a nu-metal project, your first reaction might be one of disgust or deep seeded cringe. Believe me, I thought much the same, but after listening to it, I was actually very surprised by what I found.
The one main thing this record has going for it is its maximalism. It seems as though Tommy and his band are throwing literally everything at a given track sometimes. Heavy, moshing, menacing riffs, colourful, zany synths, electronic beats, a number of rap features, anything goes. It sounds like a lot, but when they manage to strike that balance, it makes for some serious cathartic yet fun bangers. Opener ‘Who the Hell Cares?’, ‘New Skin’ with Kid Rock (which should be a disaster, but isn’t) and ‘Metamorphosis’ are just a few examples.
Some of the features are also really cool, and make you have to give credit for who Tommy was able to pull on this. The appearance from underground rap trio Filthee Immigrants on ‘Proposition Fuck You’ makes for a very enjoyable, pretty thumping hip-hop track. Meanwhile, as much as I want to cry about it only being 40 seconds long, the feature from U-God on ‘Mr. Onsomeothershits’ does nothing but prove what you already knew: Wu-Tang are awesome.
All that being said though, the very full on approach the album takes can also be a real double edged sword. As it’s so maximal, you get some pretty intense and gnashed riffs and grooves, but almost all of the production sounds unbelievably tacky and corny now. The car crash of musical ideas and elements present on tracks like ‘Hypocritical’, ‘Anger Management’, ‘Get Naked’, and ‘Crash’ hit you with such force and garishness that it’s near unbearable. It’s like Senser on crack, but worse.
As far as vocals are concerned, I actually don’t think Tommy Lee does too bad of a job. Don’t get me wrong, some of his lyrics are pretty corny and edgy, and the typically late-90s white guy raps do make my face want to shrink in on itself, but somehow the “professional” features are often the worst parts.
Take Snoop Dogg on the opener, or the contributions from Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst and Lil Kim on ‘Get Naked’, but they all sound like they were just on a cash collection job here, and it’s as blatant as possible. Granted, the two straight big-beat tracks offered up by The Crystal Method near the end of this thing aren’t too bad, but they are still pretty tacky. It’s a shame because I love big beat music, and I know Scott can do WAY better.
Overall though, I will concede that because it is so maximal it can go REALLY hard when it wants too, but the tackiness and production overload is often way overboard. It’s a mess for sure, but, and I didn’t expect to be saying this, it’s a genuinely honourable mess. Fair play Tommy.
So, after all that, what did we learn? Well, what I will say is that in listening to these albums it’s illuminated one of nu-metal’s oddest characteristics. Most genres have the super successful band that rise to the top and achieve great success, but they also have a thriving underbelly of small, independent, great bands keeping it alive and evolving.
Nu-metal though, has the strange quirk, where, sure, the big bands make it big, but save a few very occasional exceptions, the rest just seems to sink into the landfill. Why that is I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the musical narrowness, or the propensity for its up-front sense of aggro to appear cringe more often than not. Maybe rap and metal 9/10 are too distinctive of genres to meld effectively, who knows?
Whatever the case, it is quite sad. Nu-metal was the soundtrack to a lot of my early teens, and so it will always have a special place in my heart. It’s just a shame a lot of it is honestly quite naff looking back, because it had the potential to be so much more. Indeed, there are a number of bands coming up now that openly talk about their love for nu-metal, so I suppose there’s hope yet. Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go listen to Slipknot’s debut for for the 1000th time.
HERE COMES THE PAIN!
