With the exception of Eighties glam, no hard-rock subgenre has been more critically reviled — or found more chart success — than the nu-metal that dominated the airwaves during our most recent millennial shift. Fusing Nirvana's trademark dynamics with influences from rap and electronic rock, nu-metal was brash, funky and free of the hand-wringing guilt that kept flannel's most visible flag-flyers from embracing their stardom. Though it was eventually toppled by skinny jeans, screamo and a resurgence of more traditional-style metal, much of music that came out of the movement — and these 20 records, in particular — stands the test of time. It makes sense, then, that the sound is having something of a resurgence of its own today, at the hands of rising groups like Vein and Cane Hill for whom it served as the gateway to sonic excess.

Video of Korn - Korn Self Titled - Full Album 1. Korn - Korn (Immortal/Epic, 1994)

"Are you ready?" Jonathan Davis roars at its open, and a generation of pissed and pained kids were. When it dropped the year Kurt Cobain killed himself, Korn's debut was so undeniably funky, emotionally raw and impossibly heavy that even thrash-meisters Sepultura wanted to follow these new metal leaders (see Roots, below). Many years later, ferocious yet dense and nuanced cuts like "Blind" and "Faget" still get the mosh pit going with virtually unmatched cathartic power.

Video of Sepultura - Roots Bloody Roots [OFFICIAL VIDEO] 2. Sepultura - Roots (Roadrunner, 1996)

A polarizing creative and commercial breakthrough akin to Metallica's "Black Album," Sepultura's Roots saw the Brazilian band draw on far-flung influences — from the aforementioned Korn, to their homeland's indigenous tribal culture — to make something altogether original, unexpected and endlessly influential, even to one Dave Grohl, who has admitted A-B'ing his records against it. Savage and punishing yet spiritual and uplifting, Roots also boasts the distinction of bringing together proto-nu-metal hero Mike Patton and his acolyte Jonathan Davis together on one track, the atmospheric "Lookaway."

Video of Inside Deftones' 'Around the Fur': Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter on Game-Changing Album 3. Deftones - Around the Fur (Maverick, 1997)

Syncopated riffs, big pants and goofy band names are nu-metal trademarks, and Deftones initially fit the bill, but when singer Chino Moreno opened his mouth on this remarkable second album, he uncorked a haunting, sexually ambiguous edge that owes more to Eighties dream-pop groups like the Cure and Cocteau Twins — both of whom the Sacramento-bred band later covered. The result was the first true Deftones album, setting the stage for their future triumphs and never-ending evolution.

Video of INCUBUS - S.C.I.E.N.C.E. [FULL ALBUM]-(HQ) 4. Incubus - S.C.I.E.N.C.E. (Epic, 1997)

Before frontman Brandon Boyd gave up on shirts entirely and his Cali band found soft-rock chart success, Incubus were be-dreaded fun-in-the-sun spazzes, mashing together metal, funk, hip-hop, trip-hop, jazz and more on their sophomore album S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Cuts like "Vitamin," "Idiot Box" and "A Certain Shade of Green" have been live staples ever since, and for good reason: They might be heavier than the group's more recent fare, but they're no less hooky and full of refreshingly good vibes.

Video of Sevendust - Self-Titled Debut [1997] (Full Album in 1080p HD) 5. Sevendust - Sevendust (TVT, 1997)

Most critics lazily compared Sevendust's debut to Living Colour, but truly crushing numbers like "Black" and "Bitch" showed that the Atlanta band had much more in common with Metallica and the group frequently cited as the forefathers of nu-metal, Faith No More.

Video of Limp Bizkit - Three Dollar Bill Y'all $ (Full Album in HQ) 6. Limp Bizkit - Three Dollar Bill Y'all $ (Flip/Interscope, 1997)

When they first hit the scene — before Fred Durst became the universe's Frat Boy in Chief and metal's most hated man — Limp Bizkit were scrappy, off-kilter rap-rock weirdos, setting freak-and-geek guitar hero Wes Borland's squealing art-noise riffage against Durst's A.D.D. white-boy freakouts. Three Dollar Bill's punky George Michael cover was the band's first hit, but more abrasive cuts such as "Stuck" and "Pollution" are the real standouts — raw, shambolic and hyperactive with genuine vitriol.

Video of Social Enemies 7. Orgy - Candyass (Elementree, 1998)

Korn's Jonathan Davis was such a big fan of Orgy's swirling, gothy "death-pop," he signed them to his label Elementree, sang on their song "Revival" and took them out on the first-ever Family Values Tour. On the strength of such support and the band's crunchy cover of New Order's "Blue Monday," Candyass, their debut, went platinum, but it stands up on its own merits, as well — a dark monolith of lipstick-smeared Manson-esque glam and debauched Eyes Wide Shut insinuation.

Video of Fear Factory - Obsolete [Full Album Digipak] 8. Fear Factory - Obsolete (Roadrunner, 1998)

Industrial-metal terminators Fear Factory wouldn't go fully nu until their next album Digimortal — which saw them rapping and rocking braids alongside Cypress Hill's B-Real — but there was already an undeniably strong strain of the sound on their dynamic third album Obsolete. It's there in Burton C. Bell's hip-hop-inflected delivery and the DJ scratching over the breakdown on "Edgecrusher," in the soulful crooning on pseudo-ballad "Descent," and definitely in the group's "bonus" radio-hit cover of Gary Numan's "Cars." As such, Obsolete stands as nu-metal's most ambitious man-vs.-machine concept album.

Video of Soulfly-1998-Full Album 9. Soulfly - Soulfly (Roadrunner, 1998)

After the devastating splintering of Sepultura at the peak of their power and popularity, main man Max Cavalera went his own way, following the nu-metal left turn of Roots deeper into the wilderness with Soulfly — a band that found its name in "Headup," the singer/guitarist's 1997 collaborative track with the Deftones. The group's self-titled debut is a wide-ranging affair, featuring cameos by a late-Nineties alt-metal who's who — Chino Moreno, Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst and DJ Lethal, Fear Factory's Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares and others — and spanning from the punky Hootie & the Blowfish tell-off "No," to the tribal instrumental title track, to the excoriating bounce of classic opener "Eye for an Eye."

Video of spineshank - strictly diesel 10. Spineshank - Strictly Diesel (Roadrunner, 1998)

On their largely overlooked debut album, Strictly Diesel, Spineshank found the sweet, strange spot between a less–death-metal Fear Factory and a more-aggro Orgy (fitting reference points since the former's Burton C. Bell and the latter's Amir Derakh both make cameos on Strictly Diesel). But the most accurate comparison might be to an industrialized Deftones, especially in frontman Jonny Santos' Chino Moreno-esque vocals, veering between excoriating shrieks and silky crooning. Come for slappers like "Intake" and "Shinebox," stay for the surprisingly effective cover of the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

Video of Slipknot - Slipknot (1999) (Full Album) 11. Slipknot - Slipknot (Roadrunner, 1999)

Death metal never got so close to the pop charts as through this band of masked Iowans, whose platinum debut, while catchy and groove-based, essentially used multi-percussionist blasts and grinding guitars to drive an adrenaline plunger through nu-metal's heart. Two years later, with Iowa, Slipknot would prove too extreme for that genre altogether.

Video of Static-X - Push It (Video) 12. Static-X - Wisconsin Death Trip (Warner Bros., 1999)

Though singer-guitarist Wayne Static's towering hairdo sometimes overshadowed his band's creative output, Static-X's irresistibly syncopated and beautifully streamlined debut album brought a fun industrial danceability to nu-metal's down-tuned sturm und drang. The band wouldn't match the minimalist sublimity of rafter-shaking bangers such as "Push it," "Bled for Days" and "Fix" over the course of its five following LPs, and with Static's death in 2014, all chance of that ever happening vanished.

Video of Kittie - Spit ( Full Album ) - 1999 13. Kittie - Spit (NG/Artemis, 2000)

Kittie's core sister duo of Morgan (vocals, guitar) and Mercedes Lander (drums) were just 17 and 15, respectively, when the band dropped its breakthrough debut album, Spit, which made brash, no-holds-barred songs like "Do You Think I'm a Whore" and "Get Off (You Can Eat a Dick)" all the more shocking and hard-hitting. Nearly 20 years later, the group's take-no-shit attitude, primal playing and mix of little-girl sing-song and I-am-woman roars aligns them as much with Nineties riot-grrrl firestarters like Babes in Toyland, L7 and Hole as it does nu-metal.

Video of Mudvayne-L.D. 50 (2000) [Full Album] 14. Mudvayne - L.D. 50 (Epic, 2000)

With L.D. 50, Mudvayne took critical flak for their gimmicky carnivalesque image, but the album's prog-rock experimentalism and virtuosic playing hold up amazingly well — even if the rapping on tracks like "Under My Skin" binds L.D. 50 more to nu-metal than to the math-metal tag that the band (soon to be free of face paint and pseudonyms) preferred.

Video of Glassjaw- Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence (Full Album) 15. Glassjaw - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence (Roadrunner, 2000)

Produced by nu-metal producer extraordinaire Ross Robinson, these proud New Yorkers' debut album became an instant classic the minute fans heard "Pretty Lush." But that was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg: Between frontman Daryl Palumbo schizophrenic vocals, veering from soulful crooning to excoriating screaming, and the sharp, no-punches-pulled lyrics (see "Lovebites and Razorlines," "Babe"), Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence is an edgy and bold listen to this day — and evidence that the recently reunited band was always more than just the "East Coast Deftones."

Video of Crawling (Official Video) - Linkin Park 16. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory (Warner Bros., 2000)

Where their peers dabbled in hip-hop, Linkin Park had genre credibility in MC/producer/designer/guitarist Mike Shinoda; they also had a singer, in the charismatic Chester Bennington, with legit vocal chops. It may have been his hooks on irresistible songs like "Crawling" and "In the End" that made Linkin Park's gazillion-selling debut such a smash, but the band as a whole also proved itself as a boundary-smashing force to be reckoned with.

Video of System Of A Down - Toxicity 17. System of a Down - Toxicity (American, 2001)

Technically spotless, wildly eclectic and outspokenly Armenian, System of a Down's 1998 self-titled debut turned nu-metal on its ear; and with this darker and more streamlined follow-up, the band proved that it was more than just a novelty. Spastic lead single "Chop Suey!" is still one of the most awesomely bizarre songs to ever get repeated play on the radio. Wake up, indeed.

Video of P.O.D. - Alive - Satellite (HD) 2001 18. P.O.D. - Satellite (Atlantic, 2001)

Nu-metal's first outspokenly Christian act, P.O.D. exchanged the gnarlier hardcore of early albums like 1996's Brown for hook-heavy, raggae-infused rap-rock on this, their Bad Brains vocalist H.R.–assisted fourth studio album. The group was rewarded with multiplatinum success for their troubles, and the rousing singles "Alive" and "Youth of a Nation" became survivors' anthems for 9/11 and Columbine, respectively.

Video of Cleansation 19. Chimaira - The Impossibility of Reason (Roadrunner, 2003)

In their heyday, Cleveland, Ohio, bruisers Chimaira could slam like Sepultura, bring industrialized terror like Fear Factory, sneer and croon like Alice in Chains and even bring dark gothy vibes like the Cure (whose "Fascination Street" they covered). They did it all of the above on The Impossibility of Reason, with standout cuts like "Power Trip" and "Down Again" leading the way.