Nu-Vember: Powerman 5000 - Footsteps and Voices

Band:  Powerman 5000 (PM5K)
Song:  Footsteps and Voices
Album:  New Wave (2017)
Genre:  Nu-Metal, Industrial

So I generally wouldn't sit these guys in the Nu-Metal spectrum, but I feel like this song is close enough for this.  Hype time, this is a fresh track from the rather enjoyable band PM5K.

When these guys put out a new album in 2014 I was pretty sure it'd be their last one.  Not cause it was bad, but it also wasn't anything new.  This album on the other hand is a really solid entry into their catalogue.  I'm a huge fan of the sound they had on Anyone For Doomsday, but after a while though that sounds got a little stale.  This new album sounds a lot more along the lines of straight up Metal tracks, Rock tracks, and all kinds of stuff.  It's a really cool change to a band whose sound was heavily ruled by traditionally industrial noise.

Sid Vicious In A Dress is for sure one of my favorite tracks on the album, but in the spirit of keeping it Nu-Metal I decided to go with the song that actually sounded like that.  Good times y'all, check out the album if you're a fan of PM5K, Rob Zombie, or the new wave of Limp Bizkit where they got all angry.  It's worth a listen.

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Nu-Vember: Islander - New Wave

Band:  Islander
Song:  New Wave
Album:  Violence And Destruction (2014)
Genre:  Nu-Metal

If we're being honest, a lot of what Islander does just reminds me of Deftones and Periphery.  This song for example especially, just the way it flows musically reminds me of general Deftones mellow sound or specifically The Bad Thing by Periphery.

This is a newer band though, which is why I'm including them in the highlight reel that is Nu-Vember.  They're honestly a really solid sounding band, I'm looking forward to seeing what they come out with.  Their newer album is a lot more straight up Metal than this one, so musical evolution is clearly an option for them.

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Nu-Vember: P.O.D. - Set It Off

Band:  P.O.D. (Payable On Death)
Song:  Set It Off
Album:  Satellite (2001)
Genre:  Nu-Metal

Shouldn't be a surprise that I include the band that's probably the most popular Nu-Metal band ever.  I've seen a couple lists now that have placed them at the top of people's like, top 10 lists.  How they beat guys like Korn out I'll have no clue since they're literally what I think of when I hear people talking about Nu-Metal, but whatever.

P.O.D. pulls a special audience though, they manage to snag the Christian crowd along with everybody else.  Not an easy feat.

I've always found their music to be a little flat, but I'm told I just need to get into their first album or two to really get into their sound.  Either way, I have a couple songs of theirs that I like, which include this one.  Go to town all!

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Nu-Vember: Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff

Band:  Limp Bizkit
Song:  Break Stuff
Album:  Significant Other (1999)
Genre:  Nu-Metal
Language:  Strong

So let's be real, as if Nu-Vember wasn't enough to clue you in I have a huge love for Nu-Metal.  I do acknowledge that on the whole the genre is filled with bad bands, but there's one that's worse than some of the others, and I love them the most.

Limp Bizkit.

With their crazy frat bro energy, Limp Bizkit managed to rock the Nu-Metal world in the early 2000s.  A lot of people had bad taste then as seen in this photo, so that really helped Limp Bizkit just hit the stage in a major way.

One thing you can't write off though is that they managed to make some 3 amazingly solid albums to kick off their career.  The others weren't too bad, but the first 3 were better than they have any right to be.  See, Limp Bizkit has some honestly fantastic talent in the group.  The guitarist Wes Borland for example (The dude in the weird outfit) is straight up ingenius with what he comes up with.  The sounds he makes his guitar make are just awesome.

Honestly if Fred hadn't started fighting with other bands they probably would have been doing much better in the main field.  But hey, they (for the most part) make music they enjoy, and that's what counts.  I love it, I jammed to this album for a few months when I finally picked it up.

If you watch this video, you'll see a mess of cameos from various music icons from the 2000s, so that's a fun little "where's Waldo" for ya.

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Nu-Vember: Mushroomhead - 43

Band:  Mushroomhead
Song:  43
Album:  Mushroomhead (1995)
Genre:  Nu-Metal
Language:  Strong

Here's a song from Nu-Metal icons Mushroomhead who are from Cleveland, a little under 2 hours away from me.  Cause of their vicinity, they actually play in Erie a lot, and I've managed to miss them every single freaking time.  It's incredibly frustrating.

That doesn't stop me from loving their music though, and that's what's important.

43 is a song that, if memory serves, is named after a keyboard setting they use to play the song.  It's a lyrically weird song, but that little trivia bit always makes me laugh a little bit.

The whole song is actually really weird, makes you a little uncomfortable really.  The weird little speech in the beginning coupled with that just plain off synth is just amazing.  I'd advise listening through the song just cause it's worth the experience.  It's a song that relies heavily on sound effects to set its tone and as such feels rather unique.

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Nu-Vember: Motograter - Collapse

Band:  Motograter
Song:  Collapse
Album:  Motograter (2003)
Genre:  Nu-Metal
Language:  Strong

Well first off I just learned that Motograter just put out a new album.  I'll save you a listen, if you liked this style you probably won't like that stuff.  Not as a continuation of this sound at least, which is to be expected after a 14 year gap in new material I suppose.  It's just kinda flat though, and they don't even really that  obnoxious instrument of theirs, the Motograter, as much as I loved in this one.

Like, a Motograter is 2 or 3 gigantic steel cables strung out on a semblance of a fret board that makes a nasty distorted bass sound.  It's fantastic really, I love it.  It's grungy grind isn't as present in the newer tunes though, and that saddens me.  Shame on you Motograter.

But their OG album is pretty bomb.  Outside of those weird transition tracks that is.

The album has a raw energy to it that I've come to associate with the band, and this one especially just rips and tears though the whole song in a way that I just love.  I miss this era of Ivan's vocal work, though I suppose it's got to stop since you can basically hear his voice breaking all over the place over the album.  Solid stuff though, hope ya like it.

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Nu-Vember: Spineshank - Synthetic

Band:  Spineshank
Song:  Synthetic
Album:  The Height Of Callousness (2000)
Genre:  Nu-Metal

Really though, if you're a fan of Nu-Metal you can't afford to sleep on Spineshank.

Look at them, the album was released in the height of Nu-Metal fame, the video is the most Nu-Metal video that ever existed, and the music is a wonderful example of very classic Nu-Metal sounds.

I found these guys in Spotify's related artist section for like, Limp Bizkit or Korn, and it was a solid decision to listen.  They just kinda groove through their songs in a really kinda tense way that just makes it all work for me.  Something that bugs me is when Nu-Metal acts try to use too much screaming.  For the genre, I really feel like it usually needs to be used as an accent rather than the main voice of the music, and these guys blend it together really well.  They kinda sing a little too much for me on some songs too, but I suppose that' just me not wanting to be happy about something, ya know?

Good times though, so check the song.

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Nu-Vember: Thousand Foot Krutch - War Of Change

Band:  Thousand Foot Krutch
Song:  War Of Change
Album:  The End Is Where We Begin (2012)
Genre:  Nu-Metal

And as we end the last series, here we kick off another great series, Nu-Vember!

Nu-Metal is one of my favorite genres of music, so I feel like dedicating an entire month to it like I do with MayGruderGrind is about the least I can do, ya know?

Now while I wouldn't call TFK one of my favorite Nu-Metal bands, I can't deny that they have some solid groove.  Especially since they're a Christian act, there's even fewer Christian Nu-Metal acts.  P.O.D. is actually the only one that comes right to mind.

But yeah, these are all back to shorter bite sized posts again, so let's get to the music.

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Coal Chamber - Another Nail In The Coffin

Band:  Coal Chamber
Genre:  Nu-Metal

I don't suppose I can do a Nu-Metal feature without mentioning one of the biggest comebacks in the genre till Korn took that spot this year.

Coal Chamber was never really a big deal.  The existed on the stage of Ozzfest and some other stuff like that, but aside from covering a Peter Gabriel song they never really rose to very high levels of fame in the same way that bands like Korn, and Slipknot did.  I discovered them via a joke made in a YouTube video and I really wasn't impressed at first.  They had a really psycho vibe that it took me a little bit to get into but once I did I kinda liked what I was hearing.

They broke up in 2003 and honestly I wouldn't have been surprised if that was the end of them but lo and behold one day I was looking at their music and there was a new album at the top of the queue.  Turns out this new album is actually rather fantastic and was a really strong return for them musically.  I look forward to hearing what they end up doing in the future.

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Static-X - Skinnyman

Band:  Static-X
Genre:  Nu-Metal
Language:  Strong

Obligatory R.I.P. Wayne Static.

So I've rather enjoyed Nu-Vember so far.  It's been a pile of songs I've in general just enjoyed, I just wish I had planned it a little better in advance so I could have spread it out a little more and included different artists.  Ah well, maybe next year.  I don't mean to imply that this year's Nu-Vember is over, I just am lamenting my lack of proper post spacing.  Got next year's days scoped out though, so we should be good.

Static-X though.  Man, these guys just seem to steal half their sound from other bands sometimes.  You can usually pick out elements in their music that sound very similar to other artists which I feel is truly the essence of what the genre was.  It was loud, aggressive, and followed a generally similar theme.  I'm a huge fan honestly because of the raw untamed energy behind the work of Static-X, but I an see why it could bug people.

This one has some pretty cool shifts in it though, right along with the classic Wayne Static high vocal fast paced aggressive rapping.  Hope you enjoy it!

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Otep - Blood Pigs

Band:  Otep
Genre:  Nu-Metal
Language:  Strong

Last year sometimes there was this dude we hired.  He doesn't listen to music like this anymore, but when he found out the type of music I liked he recommended a whole mountain of stuff to me, Otep included.

Until yesterday I really had only listen to Blood Pigs, but I have since found that not only does Otep have a lot of songs I rather enjoy, but they also have a really solid cover of the song Royals by Lorde.

This is a rather fun strain of Nu-Metal since it doesn't have the classic rap element.  It's still got the chugging guitars and such, but vocally it's a slightly different take.  It's something that I haven't really gotten into excessively much yet, but now that I've made the effort to show you Otep I'll have to listen to them more.

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Soulfly - Eye For An Eye

Band:  Soulfly
Genre:  Nu-Metal
Language:  Strong

I was originally going to write about a different band today, but I ended up getting in a car accident and ran out of time to actually listen to them enough to justify posting them today.  Here's Soulfly instead.

Soulfly is Brazilian Nu-Metal with an intense political twist to it.  Max Cavalera is kinda like that honestly.

The music is reasonably solid though and has elements of a latin thing going on kinda like Ill Nino.  I really enjoy when people mix styles that "don't belong together" because that's where Rap Metal and Symphonic Metal came from.  It's always a good time.

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Papa Roach - Getting Away With Murder

Band:  Papa Roach
Genre:  Nu-Metal

Oh heck yeah, listen to that Nu-Metal bass tone.  That really trashy junk noise thing, it's great.  Like for real, I actually love it a lot.

But this is one of the other strains of Nu-Metal that are out there.  sure you can have your Korn strain or the Ill Nino strain as your classic tone, but Papa Roach represents the Spineshank variety.  Not so much of the rapping angle, but still the aggressive guitar work that Nu-Metal is known for.  A lot of these styled bands ended up changing their sound around to a more straightforward hard rock deal or just passing on.  Nothing really makes these guys sound super unique, they just have the songs you know.  Slipknot, Korn, Limp Bizkit, the all have a sound that makes them sound really individual.  Papa Roach?  You have Last Resort and that's about all the most people will pick out of their song lineup.

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Album Review: Korn - The Serenity Of Suffering

Band:  KoЯn
Genre:  Nu-Metal
Album:  The Serenity Of Suffering
Rank:  9 out of 10

Yo yo yo, album review!

So Korn dropped their new album on October 21st.  I was stupid busy at the time and was teasing the idea of Nu-Vember so I thought I'd wait till now.  Well here we go, Album time.

Let's kick it in the style of the 2015 A to Z Challenge and pick strengths and weaknesses.

Strong songs?  Yo, we can't ignore Rotting In Vain if we're talking strong.  It was the first single they released and it was basically everything that Korn fans wanted to see.  There was a mountain of the old sound to it and then right as you didn't think it could get any better you get slapped in the face with the crazed beatboxing segment a la Twist but like, way better.  None of my friends knew what to do when this song hit, it was the old school Korn sound with modern mixing making it sound good.

I feel like there's only one song on the album that I just don't care for as much is the song with Corey Taylor of Slipknot.  It's not bad, but I feel like it was hands down the weakest single that was released and just didn't life up to what I had assumed Corey would deliver on.  It wasn't a bad song, I just thought it could be better.

Some other songs to make a point to check out though would be The Hating (very classic Issues vibe to it almost), Next In Line (got some good old DJ noises here), When You're Not There (just generally solid), and Black Is The Soul.  All of these are probably my favorites on the album, but it's all crazy solid.

The best thing?  They delivered on their promise, no Dubstep sounds.  I loved The Path Of Totality, but it wasn't as good a Korn album as it was a remix album for songs didn't have original versions if that makes sense.

This album is exactly what Korn needed to get back up there.  Paradigm Shift was good, but it had a lot of flops on it like Hater, Never Never, Paranoid & Aroused, and some others.  This album has their old edge while getting a modern twist to it of actually having well mixed music behind the vocals.

If we can get a resurgence of classic Nu-Metal sounds like this I will be one happy camper.

Since Rotting In Vain is my favorite track on the album I'm gonna have it be the one that get's featured as a placeholder on the playlist.

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Ill Niño - I Am Loco

Band:  Ill Niño
Genre:  Nu-Metal
Language:  Strong

So I know I just trashed on fad music yesterday, but let's kick into my personal favorite era of Fad music, Nu-Metal.

Yeah yeah, I don't have much room to talk since I said Nirvana needs to step back from it's high pedestal of god tier music, but I have reason here.  Nu-Metal was the fad everybody hated.  Heck, even some of the people in the scene hated it.  That being said I love it, and here's why.

Firstly you've got the rapid-fire lyrics.  I love fast paced intense music as a general rule and Nu-Metal delivers on that a decent amount of the time.

Secondly there's the simplicity of it.  I could play this music and I really love that.  Heck, I could write this music which makes it even more basic.  It's easy and accessible.

Thirdly it's got the endless hammer of guitar and drums while maintaining the narrative that Rap music is known for.  Maybe not a great narrative, but the vocals are the main driving force in this music.

Honestly it's like Pop music in that regard.  Hyper angry/violent Pop music, but Pop nonetheless.  The simplicity and such just makes it really fun to listen to.

Well this is a little rambley cause it's 3 AM, but who cares.  I hereby dub this month Nu-Vember and it's gonna be a blase.

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