What's Nu(-metal) Cat?
Not sure the pun worked there
Well last week was certainly a busy one. With so many albums to crawl through it took me some extra time to get this letter out, but I think that a Monday release might be better in general so I may be trying that going forward.
This week we’ve got a huge breakdown of nu-metal and alt-metal and the usual album reviews and recommendations. We’ve also got a best of May letter coming up soon, so keep an eye out for that in the coming days.
In the meantime, shoot this letter over to someone who needs some more musical variety in their life and follow us on Twitter.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Gojira - Fortitude
Gojira just keeps doing it. They’ve evolved from one of the most innovative bands in metal to a genre fixture, which is a more difficult transition to make than one might think. Fortitude shows the group handling the transition admirably. Chock full of meaty riffs and vocals that are just legible enough, the album appeals to both the longtime fans and those who might not be quite so enamored with the group’s more extreme origins. It’s a masterclass in people-pleasing metal that’s still heady enough for the obsesses, and it’s absolutely brilliant.
https://store.gojira-music.com/music.html
Great Metal from this Week
As expected, the week of smaller releases yielded less impressive results when it came to overall scores but the period of discovery did illuminate a host of excellent bands. Give these a listen and keep an eye out for them all in the future.
Big Lamb of God vibes from this one. A bit groovy, a bit technical and monstrously powerful vocals.
A bit of power metal influence coming off of this melodic metal group. Long songs and plenty of guitar solos to keep you happy.
Akhenaten - The Emerald Tablets of Thoth
Super fun tech death adventure with plenty of nerdy themes and Egyptian mythology references.
Excellent black metal. Clean across the plate, great mixing, tremendous sound.
Logistic Slaughter - Lower Forms of Life
Absolutely disgusting brutal death metal. Fast, intense, gross and insanely fun if that’s your idea of a good time.
Check out these releases as I catch them by following our Fresh Kills playlist on Spotify.
Subgenre Guide - Alt-metal/Nu-metal
Oh nu-metal. It’s one of the most readily dunked-upon genres by both metal fans and haters alike. This disdain doesn’t come without reason. The nu-metal movement of the ‘90s and ‘00s produced some of the most offensively dreadful music in recent memory, and promoted fashion choices so bad that I don’t know they’ll ever rear their head again. Despite the genre’s many shortcomings, it was undeniably influential at its height, and you can hear that in the music of today’s most respected metal artists.
For the purposes of simplicity, I’m smashing together alt-metal and nu-metal into a single dissection. Technically, nu-metal is a subgenre of alt-metal, but the line between the two is thin and blurry. I’ll do my best to indicate when the separation of the two genres occurs, but just about everyone has a different interpretation of what makes something nu-metal or alt-metal.
As always, we’ll kick things off with the actual sound of these genres. Alt-metal is a bit of a mish-mash of sounds. Some have expanded the umbrella so wide that it encompasses bands like Ministry, whom I’d consider industrial metal, and Alice in Chains, whom I’d consider grunge. But despite its wide range, there are a few sonic signifiers of an alt-metal band. The most notable element of alt-metal is a low-tuned “chugging” style of guitar. Alt-metal songs also tend to be less instrumentally dense while remaining more diverse in sound than other metal genres. For instance, most black metal songs have a few iconic traits that force a lot of notes into a very small space, and even slower genres doom metal relies on a single element (feedback laden guitars) to fill up much of the space on a track. Alt-metal, being unshackled from a definitive sound profile, utilizes the bass in a far more interesting fashion than most metal subgenres. Often the bass is groovier and more present than in other metal genres, which opened the style up to hip hop (Rage Against the Machine), prog (Tool, Primus) and grunge elements (Soundgarden).
Alt-metal vocalists sing in a similarly wide range of styles, but the consistent element among nearly all alt-metal vocal performances is a mixture of harsh and clean vocals. In many instances the harsh and clean vocals are sung by the same person, but it’s not abnormal to hear of bands with dedicated clean and harsh vocalists. The harsh vocals used in alt-metal tend to be less aggressive and more legible than those found in death metal or black metal. Of the metal subgenres that existed during the advent of alt-metal, thrash is closest to the alt-metal vocal style.
Over in the more niche nu-metal style, many alt-metal elements remain essential. Notably, the guitars are still played in a downtuned “chugging” style, the bass is usually groovy and more present in the mix than is typical for metal, and the drums are mostly used for timekeeping, though some bands (re: Slipknot) are known for getting flashy behind the kit. Nu-metal vocals also mix harsh and clean vocals, but many of the clean sections are a mixture of rapping and singing (Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park). On the whole, nu-metal is even more indebted to groove metal and hip-hop than its predecessor and parent genre.
While you could feasibly (albeit barely) stretch the definition of alt-metal all the way back to formative metal bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, most agree that the movement began in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s after springing out of the alternative rock movement. (An aside: I’ve always hated the term “alternative.” It tells you absolutely nothing about the genre, and doesn’t even work if you use it as a direct definition (e.g. alt-metal is not an alternative to metal, it’s another style of metal). More than any other genre or subgenre, the “alt” signifier is just dumb label marketing bs.) Much like alt-rock bands, early alt-metal bands sought to implement funk, groove, and hip-hop elements into their pre-existing style of metal.
A majority of the early developments in alt-metal took place in California, specifically Los Angeles. There, funk bands like Fishbone influenced groups like Faith No More to create funk metal. This groove focused style of metal smashed the more bombastic and raucous elements of funk with the heavy instrumentation of metal. The resulting sound was more immediately fun and accessible, its more abrasive elements concealed by an undeniable groove.
At the same time, grunge came into popularity, making the general population more amicable to a harsher sound. This paved a smoother road for alt-metal bands to make in-roads on the radio, expanding its influence and taking another leap in its second wave, nu-metal.
Groups like Korn, Slipknot, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit used this newfound popularity to dominate radio waves in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Some groups, notably Limp Bizkit, have not held up terribly well under modern scrutiny, but I would argue that the other three groups have had a major influence on the metal we hear today. Also among this wave were System of a Down and Deftones, both of whom have enjoyed critical acclaim throughout their careers while influencing countless modern metal acts.
Today, nu-metal and alt-metal are largely viewed in a negative light, but I believe that we’re ripe for a re-evaluation of that perspective. It’s certainly fair to claim that the steroidal rage of early nu-metal was embarrassing, and the bands who utilized unguided rage (e.g. Limp Bizkit “Break Stuff,” Trapt “Headstrong”) have been rightly lambasted. But at the same time, nu-metal encouraged mind expanding cross-genre collaboration with genres that were not considered popular or respectable in the rock community. Some modern bands have started to reclaim the spirit of these genres without stumbling into its pitfalls. Melted Bodies brings a decidedly extreme spin on System of a Down for an even more localized look at economic injustice. Poppy has flipped from her gooey bubblegum pop to a pop influenced spin on nu-metal that works shockingly well. Fever 333 and Ho99o9 have used nu-metal to bring some much needed diversity to a genre that grabbed black sounds without bringing their creators into the limelight. Even Dorian Electra has used portions of the nu-metal sound to poke fun at the genre while imbuing it with a new sense of life.
For our essential alt-metal/nu-metal song I’ve got to go with my heart. Here’s “Wait and Bleed” by Slipknot.
Non-Metal AOTW
Origami Angel - Gami Gang
Oh my god I love this so much. Many of you may know that the roots of my heavy music fandom come from pop-punk and emo adjacent groups that I listened to in middle school. Origami Angel’s Gami Gang perfectly blends and updates all the sounds I loved as a twelve year old for my twenty-seven year old self. The lyrics are nostalgic in the way that you want all emo music to be and the instruments are just a bit heavier than you’d expect them to be. This one is going to be making some of my lists for sure. Don’t sleep on it.
Runners-up
Croation Amor & Varg2™ - Body of Content
Were it not for Gami Gang being custom made for me, this off-the-wall piece of electronic magic would have easily captured #1 this week. Weird and unexpected but thrilling in all the right places. Do not miss this one.
I’ve been on a bit of an anime kick lately so that may have factored into my love for this, but it’s still FlyLo and it’s still a uniquely funky, psychedelic journey of electronic delight.
Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God
Prog rock goodness with just enough pop rock to keep it engaging and painless.
Matt Sweeny & Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy - Superwolves
Experimental guitar mainstays continue to create great experimental folk rock.
Burial & Blackdown - Shock Power of Love (EP)
Great UK electronic music. If you don’t know who Burial is by now, it’s time to find out.
Things to Look Forward to
Very little metal that has caught my interest this week, but we could still end up with some magic. On the non-metal side we’re looking a bit better. I have high hopes for Iceage and Squid, the former being a longtime favorite and the latter being a band that has received significant buzz lately. GoGo Penguin always brings something interesting to the table so their remix album should be no expectation. Finally, Weezer has been embarrassing forever but as a band that dropped back-to-back iconic records, there’s always a reason to watch the trainwreck and hope it stays on the rails.
Metal Albums
Non-Metal Albums
If there’s something that caught your eye that didn’t make it on the list, let me know about it in the comments.
Shrinekeeping
That’s all for this week! Share and subscribe using the buttons below and I’ll see you next week!