Best albums of the "big four" of nu-metal (Trigger warning for discussion of violence in songs)
Metallica is the largest of what is known in metal communities as the "Big Four" of thrash metal, which consists of Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, and Anthrax. Thrash is one of many subgenres of metal, which ranges from funk to black metal. However, my favorite is one that originated in the 90's and has made a resurgence since then despite its mixed content: nu-metal.
Nu-metal is a subgenre that can be simply explained as metal music that combines heavy riffs with rap-styled lyrics and punk influences. The genre's early years are influenced by sounds like Pantera's groove-metal and Rage Against The Machine's combining of punk and rap.
However, it's agreed upon that the first definitive "nu-metal" album is Korn's first album, self-titled and released in 1994. Although Korn is credited for creating the first nu-metal album, there is no "Big Four" of nu-metal. Many different bands arose during the late 90's and early 2000's, some bands better than others. But I chose what I consider to be the "Big Four" of nu-metal, and picked their best albums.
1. Follow The Leader - Korn
Something that I've noticed from listening avidly to Korn over the years is that they have amazing tracks and singles off of every album, but also boring or badly-produced songs that drag down what would be an otherwise amazing album severely. This fatal flaw of theirs made choosing whatever album is their definitive best very hard. Eventually, I landed on Follow The Leader after considering their self-titled album and listening to half of Life Is Peachy. The first half of this album is what really makes it stand out as a whole, with their most popular (and arguably best) song on the album, "Freak On a Leash", being second.
The standout aspects of this album include the deeply personal problems that Johnathan Davis sings about on tracks like "Pretty" and "Dead Bodies Everywhere", the groove-influenced and deep-tuned bass on tracks like "Got The Life", and the heavy-hitting riffs on tracks like "Reclaim My Place".
Many songs on the album reference a feeling of something being "torn from" or being ruined inside the lead singer, Johnathan Davis, including the line "angels stabbing me inside" from "It's On" and "something now rips my heart" from "Pretty". This indicates that he feels as if something has been ruined by both the abuse he endured as a kid, which is referenced on multiple songs, and by being in the music industry full of constraint and creative suppression, which is what "Freak On a Leash" is about. The world's horrifying aspects have ripped his heart from him and made him a completely different person. Some lyrics can just be edgy for the sake of being edgy, but others feel deeply personal and communicate almost a disgusting feeling like in "Freak On a Leash".
The most personal and specific song is "Pretty", where Johnathan Davis sings about working at a morgue as an autopsy assistant at seventeen. During his time there, the corpse of an 11-month-old infant who had been raped and murdered by her father was brought in. Davis developed PTSD from seeing something so upsetting, and during an interview, said he "still has nightmares about it to this day". This song personifies the awful consequences of abuse, both witnessing it and being subject to it.
"Pretty" is an example of how the band can sing about abuse, but the album isn't all exactly well thought out. Songs like "All In The Family", a song where Johnathan Davis and Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit got drunk and tried to rap, don't connect to the abuse themes at all. On "My Gift To You", the song opens with a bagpipe solo, which makes the song feel very out of place. That is the main problem with Follow The Leader that drags down the album experience, having a disconnected and often boring second half with lyrics that can sometimes feel like they drag down the better songs.
However, despite the more goofy and poorly-produced songs, I don't want to discredit Korn's good songs both on any other albums or on this one. Korn sings about dark subjects both inspired by the lead singer's trauma and larger conflicts, especially with depression and abuse. Songs like those are extremely important, especially for people going through those things, and their goofy or poorly-produced songs don't in any way discredit the vulnerable, dark songs that they can produce.
Unfortunately, as much as I would love to talk about their best songs across every album, this is a synopsis of the album as a whole. Follow The Leader gets a 6.5/10.
Track Ranking for Follow The Leader:
Around The Fur's standout features are the raw emotions of sadness and anger on songs like "Mascara" and "Headup", the heavy fast-paced riffs on songs like "Lotion", and the lead singer Chino Moreno's incredible voice on songs like "My Own Summer".
Themes of abuse, or general anger and violence, are common throughout the record. None of the lyrics illustrate a clear story, sometimes making Chino the abuser, and sometimes making him the abused. The album is not really meant to have a specific story, but rather a group of meanings and emotions that are carried out throughout the songs, as is common for nu-metal albums.
"Mascara" is most blatantly about abuse, referencing a romantic relationship that is toxic and violent. Lines like "there's still blood in your hair, and I've got a bruise of the year" show that the violence is not one-sided and they are both trapped in this relationship. A pause is taken near the end of the song where all instrumentals and drums cut out. Chino Moreno sings "It's too bad... you're married to me", which kicks a strained riff and heavy drums back in, almost like a reveal that they're permanently trapped.
Not all of the songs are about abuse, even the darkest songs. For example, "Headup" is easily the angriest song on the album, but doesn't actually have anything to do with abuse. It was an expression of Chino Moreno's feelings about his friend, Dana Wells, dying in a car crash. "Soulfly" is repeated after each line in the chorus because Max Cavalera, singer of Soulfly and stepfather to Dana, does backup vocals on the track.
It's a surprise that Chino Moreno hasn't lost his voice yet, with how he can switch from a melancholic and smooth voice to brutal screaming in a second. The almost horrified-sounding high screaming he does is in sharp contrast to other metal vocalists, who usually try to stay in as deep a vocal range as possible. This brutal shrieking matches how the album is designed not around one theme, but a range of negative emotions.
These negative emotions that are so prevalent throughout the album are expressed very well by the guitar. Stephen Carpenter, who is the guitarist of the band, uses heavy and chunky riffs that almost sound like things breaking. Despite the simplicity of some rhythms, it makes every song sound much more depressing, or angry, and adds a layer of complexity.
Some songs can be slightly boring, and the simplicity of the riffs can end up working against it if there's not much to back it up. However, mostly, the album is consistent unlike Follow The Leader. I give Around The Fur a 9/10.
The standout parts of this album are its strange and unnatural feeling on songs like "Know" and "Peephole", the riffs complementing singer Serj Tankian's voice on songs like "Spiders", and its commentary on multiple issues like in "Suite-Pee".
As is commonplace for many nu-metal albums, some of the songs on System Of A Down involves themes and imagery of drug abuse. The most well-known example in this is "Sugar", the most popular song on the album, with the title being a reference to cocaine.
This title and the violent lyrics about having "killed everyone" relates to the artificial sweetener called aspartame, a substitute for sugar. Large amounts of aspartame can induce violent thoughts and hallucinations. Serj sings about "playing Russian Roulette every day, a man's sport, with a bullet called life", referencing how potent drugs can kill you and the homicidal thoughts people can have from overdosing on aspartame.
Drug abuse is not the only topic covered on this record. Similar to Around The Fur and Follow The Leader, there are multiple connected topics sung about. System Of A Down is famously anti-propaganda and displays values reminiscent of the punk scene. Their music rejects the government and dictatorship in favor of individualism. From lines like "Free thinkers are dangerous!" said in a mocking tone on "Mind", to "P.L.U.C.K" critiquing genocide, their values are proudly displayed in a nuanced way. A representation of this is the album cover itself, a grainy hand with dark shadows taken from a poster called "Five Fingers Have the Hand". This anti-facist poster was created in 1928 against communist Germany.
A theme throughout is critiquing the way society causes individuals to follow organizations blindly and sacrifice their lives for the government. A religious aspect of this is shown in "Suite-Pee". "Suite-Pee" critiques the blind following of religious organizations, who promise to devote their lives to something if it means they can be saved. This is not a bashing of anybody's belief in religion, but rather, a bashing of corrupt organizations that make people believe they are only servants to them.
Serj Tankian can switch from melodical singing to screaming just as Chino Moreno can, but his vocals sound entirely different. Serj Tankian has a unique voice, with his singing being more high-pitched and controlled, but his screams being Armenian-accented terror. This makes his voice instantly recognizable, and downright iconic.
From the unique and skilled range of Serj Tankian to the strange rhythm of the songs, System Of a Down gets a 9/10.
People are often to quickly categorize Linkin Park as a band with no substance, but their lyrics cover a range of darker themes influenced by the main singer's struggle with substance abuse, depression, and anxiety. Hybrid Theory, their first album, is a prime example of the emotional core of the band.
The most common theme throughout Hybrid Theory is one that the opener, "Papercut", introduces, anxiety. The backup singer/rapper, Mike Shinoda, sings about paranoia being all he has left, and that there is "a face that watches" his every move. The chorus, sung by Chester Bennington, references this part of the verse, saying, "It's like the face is right beneath my skin". The singers are tortured by looming stress, and they "don't know how the pressure was fed". There are multiple references to hallucinations "It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within", as a representation of the fear consuming the band. The album references multiple parts of anxiety, including paranoia, pressure, and fear of time passing on songs like "Crawling", "In The End", and "Forgotten".
Chester Bennington was known for his brutal screams, specifically his seventeen-second-long fry scream in "Given Up" off Minutes to Midnight. Although he never screams for seventeen seconds on Hybrid Theory, his fry-type vocals are a standout. His voice takes cues from emo singers and other nu-metal singers like Chino Moreno, making his voice in itself a staple of the band's sound.
Mike Shinoda, the backing vocalist, brings in rap influences that defined early ages in nu-metal. He often sings the verses on different songs, with Chester singing the chorus. The contrast of Mike's quick-paced verses with Chester's more traditional voice makes each track far more interesting, especially in combination with the instrumentals.
The scratchy guitar riffs and the drumming often mixes with other instrumentals they add in like vinyl-scratching, electronic mixing, a piano intro on "In The End", and even alarms that sound like things breaking on "By Myself". This makes the album's blend of influences a listening experience.
Linkin Park is the most popular band on this list, but their first album shows why exactly they got so popular. I give Hybrid Theory a 9.5/10.
Track Ranking for Hybrid Theory:
(note: I'm excluding "Cure For the Itch" from this ranking, since it is an interlude.)
1. Papercut
2. With You
3. By Myself
4. Crawling
5. One Step Closer
6. Points Of Authority
7. In The End
8. Runaway
9. A Place For My Head
10. Forgotten
11. Pushing Me Away
Hi Adrian, Metal is not my typical genre when it comes to music. However, after reading your album reviews I might check some out like Addison. I really like how you ranked the music in the album and gave up short introduction on the history of nu-metal.
ReplyDeleteHey adrian! I knew that metal was harsh but dang these themes are extreme. Metal isn't really my style but it was interesting reading your analysis of all of these albums!
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