WTF is the difference between Nu-Metal and other metal?

Farlo · Post by **Farlo** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:15 pm

i classify nu metal, as any metal with fairly uninspiried lyrics.

the reason i started listening to metal was for the lyrical quality, we'll do a comparrison

eye of the beholder -metallica wrote:Do You See What I See?
Truth Is an Offence
You Silence for Your Confidence
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Doors Are Slamming Shut
Limit Your Imagination, Keep You Where They must
Do You Feel What I Feel?
Bittering Distress
Who Decides What You Express
Do You Take What I Take?
Endurance Is the Word
Moving Back Instead of Forward Seems to Me Absurd

whatever - godsmack wrote:And I wonder day to day
I don't like you anyway
I don't need your shit today
You pathetic in your own way
I feel for you
better fuckin' go away
I will behave
I'm doing the best I ever did
I'm doing the best that I can
Now go away
I don't need to fantasize
You are my pets all the time
I don't mind if you go blind
You get what you get
Until you're through with my life

now compare the quality of lyrics in the songs. the second song seems uninspired, and lacking.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:21 pm

Well, the lyrical quality is largely to this urban, lower-level-focused influence. Someone who doesn't like metal would call Metallica, or most other classic metal bands' lyric 'pretentious' or 'blown out of proportion'.

In a sense, I'm playing devil's advocate here.

By the way, would you consider RATM nu-metal? They seem to fit my understanding of nu-metal, and I at least have some sympathies for them. Wonder if than and a slight sense of amusement at System makes me a nu-metal semi-fan?

RobLoge85 · Post by **RobLoge85** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:23 pm

Yeah I noticed the the lyrics, the first set is better than the 2nd set, Godsmack blows anyway no matter where they fit in, the singer sucks ass and the music isnt all that original. Metallica is good from what I've heard but that St. Anger song was crap.

kthulhu · Post by **kthulhu** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:38 pm

Good point, farlo. "Whatever" is a good example of unfounded "angstony" (a term I just thought up - angst and agony). The big problem is that a lot of hard rock lacks theme and meaning. Look at "Master Of Puppets". That album covers:

1. Rage disorder and abuse (Battery)
2. Addiction (Master Of Puppets)
3. H.P. Lovecraft (The Thing That Should Not Be)
4. Life in mental hospitals (Welcome Home/Sanitarium)
5. The military and the soldier on the battlefield (Disposable Heroes)
6. Televangelists and religious criticism (Leper Messiah)
7. Orion (instrumental, and a kickass one, too)
8. Rebellion (Damage, Inc.)

True, the uncultured swine could consider it to be pretentious, but meh

.

Otohiko wrote:By the way, would you consider RATM nu-metal? They seem to fit my understanding of nu-metal, and I at least have some sympathies for them. Wonder if than and a slight sense of amusement at System makes me a nu-metal semi-fan?

I wouldn't consider Rage to be nu-metal, or even metal in general. Hard rock: yes. Metal: no. I also wouldn't consider SOAD to be strictly nu-metal. They're halfway between legitimacy and nu-metal gimmickry, in my opinion.

RobLoge85 wrote:Yeah I noticed the the lyrics, the first set is better than the 2nd set, Godsmack blows anyway no matter where they fit in, the singer sucks ass and the music isnt all that original. Metallica is good from what I've heard but that St. Anger song was crap.

Metallica's last GOOD album was the Black Album (some might dispute that, but c'mon - "Enter Sandman", people!). Anything past that is, well, Metallica past their prime.

rubyeye · Post by **rubyeye** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 9:57 pm

Description
This genre could win any nomination for 'the most hated sub-genre within the metal scene'. Old school metalheads and 'true' metalheads don't even consider it to be metal at all. Nu metal was born together with Korn in the mid 90's and to this day has become the most popular metal style. Nu metal is the mix of aggressive and simplistic heavy guitar riffs, rap, pop, industrial, hardcore, alternative and god-knows-what-else. Nu metal is 100% american 'invention' - at least I don't know any nu metal bands coming from any other countries than the United States...

Sub-genres
Rap metal, metalcore

Combinations
Industrial nu metal

Bands
Korn, Slipknot, Deftones, System of a Down, Godsmack
more...
________________

This was taken from MetalStorm website. They have a section describing all the different kinds of metal if you are interested.

Farlo · Post by **Farlo** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 11:08 pm

unfortunately you can blame anthrax for rap-metal

RobLoge85 · Post by **RobLoge85** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 11:53 pm

So??? That doesn't mean that Anthrax is a bad band IMO. That song isn't too bad anyways. Even if they didn't do that song with Public Enemy, rap metal would've probably cameabout anyway and would've been far worse than the song that Anthrax did with Public Enemy.... just look at P.O.D and Limp Bizkit(not necessarily metal but its still garbage)

Note: I only know of one song that Anthrax did with a rap group let me know of others if there are anymore.

Farlo · Post by **Farlo** » Wed Aug 27, 2003 12:32 am

i like anthrax, im just saying that they are responsible for rap-metal.

nailz · Post by **nailz** » Wed Aug 27, 2003 10:08 pm

rubyeye is my god. He basically summed up what i was trying to say about the guitars.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Thu Aug 28, 2003 2:03 pm

Christ boy, stop pushing on the guitar thing! It's not unique to nu-metal nor is, by itself, an identifying feature of the style.

Virtually all metal, with some odd exceptions, is riff-based. Power metal is riff-based. A lot of prog-metal is riff-based.

It's not the uber-complexity of the riff, it's how you use it. You could even say that if you dispense with simple, functional riffs, you end up getting into a lot of odd noodling, which isn't always a good thing.

That said, a lot of nu-metal riffs aren't so 'nu' at all.