Unfortunately vocalist Lynn Strait died before he was able to record tracks for their second album. The album has more of a punk vibe than anything else on the list but it was openly accepted by the nu metal community. Snot delivered high energy live performances and were able to match that energy musically on their first album. Here’s a band many of us were introduced to at Ozzfest 1998. This was also my first mosh pit and a young man never forgets his first time, just awkwardly flailing his stringy body against other children who also thought wearing black nail polish was cool.Īpartment 26 were nice to me once when they played outside a Slackers CD’s and Games so they make the list. This album was powerful and melodic and even had some Zakk Wylde style riffing on it (listen to the song “Black” and wait for the chorus). Leave it to a Swedish band to put out music for the Ozzfest crowd that really isn’t embarrassing in hindsight at all. Statement was their first album on a major label and fed the masses the same grooves that we came to expect from the era but were able to stand out with a melodically capable and impressive vocalist.
Nonpoint may seem ignorable when laying out the high points of nu metal but let’s first give them some metal credibility to naming their band after a Believer song. Basically, nu metal’s favorite perpetual opening band.
They were not exactly breaking ground but their first major label release, Gift, was full of angsty and memorable tracks that although didn’t age extremely well still hold a special place for those of us who went deep into the genre. Taproot existed, and we were all fine with that. Also, if there is one band that Mike Patton should be angry with for making the Faith No More impact on nu metal glaringly evident it’s Mushroomhead, try to make it through “Nowhere To Go” and not hear it. The songs are well constructed and catchy but still hold that simplistic nu metal charm. It is actually included based more on its musical merits than the bands Slipknotian stage gear. This album is the most recent album on the list with release year of 2003. The Height of Callousness was their second album and it was slightly more aggressive, catchier, and the singer got a cool red streak in his hair (we were easy to impress back then). I am not sure what they did after this album but their first two albums were solid nu metal releases. Let’s start by scraping the bottom of the nu metal barrel. With that out of the way, let’s look at the top 29 nu metal albums of all time. We also chose to select one album from each band in order to maximize your nostalgia. So, in order to quell the potential arguments that this or that band doesn’t belong, we are going to simplify this, any band whose shirt looked good with your JNCO’s in 1999 is officially nu metal. Partly due to the fact that the genre is characterized as a one where the melding of influences was expected, with bands merging sounds from metal, hip-hop, funk, grunge, industrial and goth. Now, it is somewhat difficult to nail down exactly what characteristics make a band nu metal.
It is a genre that began to develop in the early to mid-1990’s and gained tremendous popularity at the tail end of the decade.
Nu metal is a sub-genre that often gets scoffed at and even fully disregarded when looking at metal as a whole.