In the 90s, rock combined with rap and dubious hair to spawn a new sound. Korn, Kerrang! and the festivals and labels behind the genre ask how it happened and why it keeps rollin’

Nu-metal. For some it was a welcome antidote to hair metal and Britpop; for others it was simply the most maligned genre in musical history. Even today, just mentioning the fusion of rock and rap that came pogoing out of California 20 years ago in ridiculously wide trousers can cause extreme reactions.

“When I hear that term, it makes my palms sweat … it always made me cringe,” Brandon Boyd of formerly nu-metal-whether-they-like-it-or-not bunch Incubus told the Guardian last month. He’s not the only one. The bandwagon jumpers of the world – hi Crazy Town – quickly tipped nu-metal on its side, causing an almost overnight backlash from music press and fans alike.



Two decades after its mainstream breakthrough, though, a whole new generation are embracing nu-metal once more. Whether it’s Issues’ Billboard Top 10-smashing fusion of chart R&B and chugging metalcore, Cane Hill’s clear Slipknot influence, or Darke Complex’s ever-so-slightly bonkers take on nu-metal’s aesthetic extremities (seriously, guys, what’s with the S&M mask?), it seems there’s life in the old dog yet. We caught up with some of the genre’s key players to talk through the genre that just keeps on rollin’ …

James ‘Munky’ Shaffer, guitarist of Korn: It’s hard to remember the early days of nu-metal because everybody was so fucked up on speed! But I think you could see something happening, as far as where music was headed, in bands like Rage Against the Machine, and – even before that – Pantera. For us, it was just listening to bands like Sepultura and getting inspired, and also 90s hardcore rap – Geto Boys, NWA – all that stuff had a major influence on us too.

Paul Rees (Kerrang! magazine editor, 1999-2002): Through things like the Anthrax and Public Enemy tour [in 1991], we were very much aware that the landscape was there for something different to happen. I saw that Anthrax tour at Brixton Academy, and it was an exclusively white metal audience, but Public Enemy went down a storm. Groups like them, and NWA, and Eminem later … your parents would hate it! They were out there on that rebellious, anti-establishment fringe – the mainstream press didn’t like them, so that endeared them to metal fans.

The first nu-metal thing was probably Korn. That first Korn album was obviously something different – they made a real impact both on Kerrang! readers, and people on the magazine. They were one of those bands people came in banging on the table about. I think [Sepultura’s] Roots was massively important, and those first couple of Deftones albums [1995’s Adrenaline and 1997’s Around the Fur].



Andy Copping, promoter at Live Nation and Download festival booker: After Britpop, things were starting to move more into the dance world, and rock was starting to be perceived as a dirty word, and then suddenly it became super popular – I remember Blind by Korn and Last Resort by Papa Roach were really resonating with music fans over here, and it did move very quickly. I think it was that generation’s reaction to wanting to latch on to a scene. It was definitely of its time, as – in fairness – are most genres. It’s normally down to people being bored; looking for something new.

Julie Weir, label manager at Music for Nations and ex-Visible Noise: There was energy, enthusiasm and a genuine, warm atmosphere. Something for kids to get their teeth into in an otherwise vanilla musical landscape – this was during a political lull, and before 9/11 and the Iraq war. Suburbia needed rebellion. The song structures were hardly the most complex thing in the world, but let’s face it: simple things work. And the trousers … crikey! I was guilty of a few pairs myself.

Dez Fafara, frontman of Coal Chamber and DevilDriver: There was a massive camaraderie between all of the bands. When Deftones got signed [to Madonna’s label Maverick], we were all there – all the bands watched Madonna come in in a limo and meet them and sign them. Everybody cheered people on – I remember seeing Marilyn Manson at the Whisky [a Go Go] in front of 100 people back in the day. But when you’re inside it, and caught up in it, you don’t realise what it is or what it’s going to be. Looking back, we were obviously forerunners in a scene that was helping to save Los Angeles. Hair bands had basically killed the scene. We were watching Korn bus people up from Huntington Beach to their shows at the Whisky and the Roxy; Coal Chamber was selling out the Whisky and the Roxy at that time; System of a Down was just starting to come up; Snot was just starting to come around. I’m the one that discovered Static X, at a place called the Coconut Teaser in front of about 15 people, and got them a deal.



They love bands called Snot and Orgy and dress like S&M fans. Welcome to nu metal Read more

James ‘Munky’ Shaffer: I guess there was a sense of community, but there was also a sense of rivalry. That unspoken thing that people don’t wanna say. You’re like, “Hey, what’s up man! We’re gonna do a show together!”, and then you go back into the dressing room like, “We’re gonna destroy these guys tonight!” It’s just showbusiness.

Julie Weir: The main scene was being drip-fed to the UK from the US, with mainstays of System of a Down, Korn, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park at the arena level, and bands like Static X, Taproot and Hoobastank as the smaller end. Obviously, Lostprophets were one of the biggest bands of the time – they signed to Visible Noise in 1999 and went on to sell millions of records. We were running alongside Hundred Reasons, who were signed to Sony at the time, so I always remember it as a constantly healthy competition.

James ‘Munky’ Shaffer: When we started touring, we noticed a lot of bands … copying us, to be frank! It was frustrating in the beginning, because some of it was really bad and obvious. Some of the bands were blatantly ripping us off. That’s when we took [1998 album] Follow the Leader in a bit of a different direction. Like, “Let’s try to experiment and widen our lane a little bit.” That’s how the title of the album came about – a sarcastic way of saying: “We know y’all are following us, but you don’t know what we’re gonna do!” Ever since then I’ve wanted to keep people guessing and not knowing what we’re gonna do next.

Paul Rees: In 2001, Kerrang! TV launched, and these bands were really visual – they invested a lot in the way they looked, and had great videos. All of a sudden you had this TV station, and there they were, wall-to-wall. Sales of the magazine rocketed – our circulation more than doubled in a year. That was because they’d brought a whole new, young audience into metal. Whether it was sustainable is open to debate.

Julie Weir: Very wide trousers, baseball caps and dubious hair with an excess of product … and an excess of makeup in a lot of cases. I also remember it kickstarting a generation’s passion for bands – possibly one of the last generations of bands that spawned sizeable festival headliners. It also provided somewhere for the weird kids to belong. If you grew up in suburbia or rural areas, that was much-needed.

Paul Rees: Unfortunately, it petered out pretty quickly – there were too many acts, and it got diluted. It became too gimmicky – when you’ve got things like Crazy Town, and Alien Ant Farm’s Smooth Criminal and all that sort of nonsense … there were lots of bandwagon leapers. But also hubris and ego got the better of a lot of those bands very quickly – Limp Bizkit and Fred Durst became this ludicrous, monstrously egomaniacal character. There was a sense, also, that it all got a bit too macho and a bit unpleasant, especially in America. With the Family Values tour, and Woodstock, it had become this big macho “jock” crowd, and there was an unpleasant edge to that. They handed people a big stick to beat them with.

Julie Weir: One thing that can’t be defended in the genre was the level of misogyny, sadly, in the lyrics and attitude. On the upside, though, it made the most mild-mannered teenager into a feminist powerhouse! That was a much-needed element of the time, creating short-lived bands like Sugarcoma and Defenestration.

Dez Fafara: After I left and started DevilDriver, I realised people were actually slamming nu-metal. I was like, “Wow, that’s the new thing right now? To slam all those bands? How crazy!” I never thought people would turn against the scene. I think scenes take a beating as they come to their end, and then they obviously recycle and they come back.



Andy Copping: Like everything, as soon as things become popular, there’s a backlash. We started to see, by the end of the 2000s, another wave – that’s when emo started to kick in with bands like My Chemical Romance. I remember around 2008, we were starting to see a resurgence of nu-metal bands. Limp Bizkit was a classic case – when they re-formed it was fever pitch.

Paul Rees: It’s frightening how far away that time is now, and it’s far enough away for people to feel nostalgic for it, and to want to go out and see Korn and Limp Bizkit again at an arena show. I think rock music’s in a really precarious, weird place at the moment. It’s gone underground again, and usually when it does that, interesting things happen and bubble up. I would hope people take that and do something different, rather than recycle nu-metal. It had its moment!



Dez Fafara: I had a 16-year-old kid freak out on me at a grocery store the other day because Coal Chamber was his favourite band – he wasn’t born back then! Somebody mentioned Cane Hill to me, and I look at their shit, and the influences say – in capital letters – “NU-METAL”. This is amazing! Last year I must’ve got a hundred fuckin’ demos given to me, and the first thing these kids say to me is: ‘We’re fuckin’ nu-metal, man!’ It’s gonna be cool to see a new wave of bands come in and do something really fuckin’ different. We need that right now.



Julie Weir: None of it has gone away, it’s just been rebadged. Bring Me the Horizon – one of the world’s most exciting, progressive and forward-thinking bands – were going to nu-metal shows growing up. Without the genre we wouldn’t have this generation of artists, who grew up listening to non-reality-show music!

Andy Copping: While She Sleeps, Bury Tomorrow, Bring Me the Horizon – a lot of these bands have formed bands themselves because they loved that genre. I wouldn’t call it a new wave of nu-metal, but everybody needs to be influenced. Musically, it’s not a million miles away from what nu-metal was all about, so it’s given it a shot in the arm. Suddenly a new generation can start seeing these acts and picking up on how great they are.



James ‘Munky’ Shaffer: I don’t even know who the fuck came up with the name “nu-metal”. It was wack! But hey, I’d rather be on the cutting edge of something that’s new and experimental – now they call us the nu-metal pioneers. I can live with that!



Download festival takes place from 9-11 June; DevilDriver play there on 11 June. Korn play Reading and Leeds festivals, which take place 25-27 August.











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