Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, and also called aggro metal) is a subgenre of alternative metal that combines elements of heavy metal with other genres, such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge, Also with rap rock. The genre had great commercial success at the end of the 90s and the beginning of the new millennium.
Nu metal is essentially a mixture of several different genres (most notably grunge, post-industrial music, post-grunge, industrial rock, rap rock, funk metal, alternative rock, trip hop, electronic mucic and Industrial metal). It is characterized by downtuned guitars with liberal use of palm muting, vocals that range from screaming to rapping (often in the same song), stop-and-start driving bass with a "funky"/slapped quality, hip hop-influenced drumming, varying degrees of electronic manipulation and roughly equal prominence of all instrumentation. The lyrics usually focus on personal crises and painful experience
Nu metal music emphasizes atmosphere, rhythm, and texture over melody and instrumentation. Nu metal songs often use rhythmic, syncopated riffs played with distorted electric guitars tuned in low ranges (although not always), a very aggressive and sometimes louder bass than the guitar sound, and some sound. industrial, applied through a DJ or a keyboard player (bands that have one).
Categorizing specific artists as nu metal is difficult, an issue that becomes more evident in the community of traditional metal fans, who take offense to the term. Nu metal is close to alternative metal, but there were so many bands that emerged in the mid-90s with a similar style that a name was sought to encompass them, "new metal."[citation needed] Linkin Park's album Meteora, for example, it is listed as "alternative" on AOL Music Now6 and in three different genres on Metacritic.7
In an interview, Jonathan Davis stated that "they hate the term nu metal", arguing that "it doesn't mean anything".89 In 2010, in an interview with Fieldy he indicated that Korn did not fit into any label, but that he felt comfortable with the term "nu metal" because it seemed to be the closest to them.10
The most famious bands in the genre is Slipknot, Korn, Linkin Park, System Of A Down and Papa Roach. The first bands in Nu metal history are Korn, Limp Bizkit and Deftones. the most famious nu metal songs are Bring Me To Life by Evanescence, Last Resort by Papa Roach, Bodies by Drowning Pool, Numb and Papercut by Linkin Park, Down With The Sickness by Disturbed and Dig by Mudvayne.
In 1999, Crazy Town's first album, The Gift of Game, came out, which rose to fame with its single Butterfly; with an alternative rock and rap rock sound, and was at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001.
Linkin Park would release their debut album, Hybrid Theory, in 2000. This album was a success, being in the Top 10 of most of the lists where it appeared. Currently, the album has sold more than 30 million copies,24 making it the best-selling nu metal album. Their music is related to rap metal and alternative metal, and also includes electronic elements, such as keyboards, turntables, and samples.
On June 20, 2000, Deftones' third album, White Pony, was released with the incorporation of Frank Delgado as DJ (until that moment, he had been a collaborator and not an official member).
On September 4, 2001, System of a Down released its second album, Toxicity, selling more than 12 million copies worldwide and making the band known throughout the world.
On June 11, 2002, Korn released Untouchables. The album includes the Grammy-winning song "Here to Stay," which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 434,000 copies sold during its first week. According to Nielsen SoundScan as of January 4, 2013 the album has sold more than 2,400,000 copies in the United States, and around 5 million copies worldwide.
On the other hand, Evanescence released the album Fallen in 2003, which managed to sell more than 17 million copies worldwide. Also Meteora, which is the second album by the group Linkin Park, released on March 25, 2003. The album has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, 6 million in the US alone in its first week alone. it sold an estimated 810,000 copies. In that same year, Korn released Take a Look in the Mirror.
On May 25, 2004, through Roadrunner Records, the band Slipknot released their third studio album, titled Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). The album received reviews and entered the Top 10 sales in eleven countries, becoming platinum in the United States. They received the Grammy Award in the category of Best Metal Performance for the song "Before I Forget."
In 2005, the band KoЯn released See You On The Other Side. It is the band's seventh studio album and has sold more than 2,400,000 copies worldwide. In that same year, Limp Bizkit released their fifth studio album, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1).
The second generation of nu metal bands appeared in the late 90s and early 2000s and is characterized by greater experimentation and the inclusion of new sounds brought from other genres. Bands like Linkin Park, Drowning Pool, Taproot, Orgy, Adema, Mudvayne, Slipknot, Disturbed, System of a Down and Papa Roach.
The fame of nu metal achieved such success to the point that artists with little or no relationship with it, dedicated themselves to the genre in the short term. Some notable examples are that of the pioneer of heavy metal in South Korea and creator of K-pop Seo taiji who, after experimenting with funk metal on his first album as a solo artist, decided to experiment with nu metal on his album Vol. 6 : Ultramania; the rappers Kid Rock with his album Devil Without a Cause, Cypress Hill with his albums Skull & Bones and Stoned Raiders, Vanilla Ice with his albums Hard to Swallow and Bi-Polar16 and Ice Cube with his album War & Peace Vol. 1 ( The War Disc);1718 Also, recognized thrash metal and groove metal bands approached nu metal, such as the cases of the bands Metallica, Slayer,19 Anthrax, Damageplan, Fear Factory, Machine Head20 and Sepultura;21 Likewise, the iconic funk metal band Primus, joined the genre.2223
In 2000, Skindred appeared, presenting their first album Babylon', which would show an original sound with touches of reggae.