Nu-Metal: You Bastard, Jan 2002
By: James Faherty
It's a bit like a disease really; it's spread across the globe, infecting people's homes and lives... Yep, I'm talking 'bout Nu-Metal.
... What's so 'nu' about it anyway? From what I'm hearing and seeing, it's all the same; a re-hash of rock music from yesteryear with a little bit of 'mixing' and 'scratching' i.e. a twat with multiple facial piercings and a puffa jacket, standing in front of some decks he just happens to nudge occasionally throughout the song. And what's with the vocalists anyway? Funny how they all seem to have a childhood where their dads dressed them up as fairies or their mums fed them cat food while they were living in a skip for the first 12 years of their life. Either that or they all come from Alabama...
Legions of bands have spawned, mostly from America, and decided to walk the nu-metal path through life. Inevitably this has upset a number of rock music fans, but it has also appealed to a whole new audience: mostly middle-class pre-pubescent kids dressed in black hoodies and baggy jeans, congregating outside the local Woolworths. To be honest, it's reached saturation-point, Korn being the nu-metal 'pioneers' back in the early nineties with their '94 self-titled debut kicking things off, bands like Deftones and Limp Bizkit taking things that one step further, but now we're faced with the problem of sifting through the countless amounts of crap to try and find some real talented rock musicians.
Of course, there are a few saviours who have chosen not to follow the red cap-route and have come up with some startlingly original material, showcasing fresh, new talent; for instance the wonderfully belligerent Muse, taking rock to dizzying new heights with their unique brand of pomp-rock, or Feeder where every time you hear one of their infectious power-pop tunes you can't help reminiscing about summer festival fun again.
It's not only the new bands who have decided to take the financially secure route: older acts have transcended into the more commercial genre unexpectedly, such as Cypress Hill with recent single, 'Trouble': arguably a good tune but we are left asking 'why'? Why change from the solid direction they were going in just to attract a new audience at the expense of losing old fans?
If the truth be told, it has all become just a phase anyway, a part of the adolescence cycle in every youngster's life: voice breaks, hair starts growing in weird places, there's the urge to rebel against parents, listen to nu-metal, then as soon as the teenage phase is over then so is the nu-metal one.
I guess there's nothing inherently wrong with the actual musical concept of nu-metal; I just can't help feeling that everyone is getting sick of being force-fed tunes from Linkin-Bizkit-Roach, or whoever has infiltrated the top ten, leaving less room for those artists who deserve more praise and can offer something far more original and technically viable.
So, remember: just because they wear masks, it doesn't mean they're any good. They adorn those things merely to disguise the $$$ signs that gleam in their eyes.