Topic: I honestly think that Limp Bizkit are good fun

[Bazooka]

Boiler is brilliant, I'd like to imagine being 76(no younger, no older) and rocking out to it, its a brilliant music video, even without the music.

[the]

     

^{"Cos right now I'm dangerous, Lion-O"}

[Noodle Lizard]

I got the Chocolate Starfish album (along with Iowa and The Marshall Mathers LP) when I was 9 or 10 and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.  I didn't realize you could combine swearing and music.

I tried to listen to them again six or seven years later when I got more into "metal" (some folk in the metal scene still sing their praises) and practically cringed myself inside out, although they have the very occasional decent riff.

EDIT:  Just listened to the opening track again to see what I think now.  Yeah, it's really poor, but this comment made me chuckle:

"Whatever happened to the days when teenagers would listen to bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn, Deftones, Slipknot and all those other bands? Even though I probably was a baby when those bands blew up back in the late 90's and early 2000's but to me that era was one of the best times in music!"

Desolation.

[Twed]

Oh Jesus Christ, I just remembered that around 2000/2001 I started a nu-metal website called... "nu-m".

[madhair60]

Oh Jesus Christ, I just remembered that around 2000/2001 I started a nu-metal website called... "nu-m".

Based

[drummersaredeaf]

Boiler is brilliant, I'd like to imagine being 76(no younger, no older) and rocking out to it, its a brilliant music video, even without the music.

I saw LB at a festival in 2009 and there was a fantastically bizarre experience with an old man.

We were lurking quite a long way back, being more interested in the bands that played either side of them. There were a pair of young kids stood near us (perhaps 9 and 12) and an old bloke - grey, and covered in leather dripped a bit of cider onto the arm of the young lad. The older lad was quite put out by this, and turned round to remonstrate with the old geezer. The youth repeatedly said "You did this" to him, and he was either too pissed, too deaf, or unaware of what had gone on to effectively participate in the conversation.

Instead, the old guy roared in the kid's face, and proceeded to dance around him in a metal style. I have tried to find gifs to mostly accurately illustrate his movements, and this is honestly about 90% of the way there:



The older kid just stood there repeating "You did this" while he circled him arms aloft roaring and stamping.

I think of this exchange often - What was motivating all parties in this exchange? Kids too young to know that manners tend to get left at the gate at these events; an old boy either trying to intimidate children, trying to force them to enjoy rap metal as he prescribes it, or this being his default response to any sort of human interaction at a rock show; and finally me - stood there bemused with a furrowed brow, utterly fascinated by this exchange, wondering if I should have had a quiet word with any of the parties involved.

Anyway, LB - surprisingly entertaining live, but I feel my life would be no worse off had they never existed. Other than having witnessed the above of course.

[Dr Sanchez]

I was doing my GCSEs around the time Limp Bizkit were big. Everyone in school was going mental about them and giggling about how their album title contained a euphemism for an arsehole.

Little did they know that I was the true rebel as I had Santana's Supernatural album in my walkman.

Crazy times.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Anyway, LB - surprisingly entertaining live, but I feel my life would be no worse off had they never existed. Other than having witnessed the above of course.

A band that if they never existed the music world would be exactly the same as it is now.

[the ouch cube]

I'd be perfectly willing to excuse Durst as a harmless doofus but Rapestock '99 casts a long shadow.

They are kind of fun I guess, but all that proves is that 'fun' is a vaguely poisoned chalice that you probably oughtn't to be using as a yardstick

[Catalogue Trousers]

CRAWLIN' IN ME SKINNNNNNNNN

[Hey, Punk!]

Sorry but they are good fun

In the same way that disgusting people can have authentic spiritual experiences in the presence of outstanding works of art, such as Reinhard Heydrich's performances of Beethoven's late string quartets in his home with his friends. Good people can have authentic spiritual experiences in the presence of disgusting art.

[Clownbaby]

They're the entertaining kind of shit

[alan nagsworth]

My housemate/best friend - whose listening habits outside of abstract techno, 140 and trance consists of occasional smatterings of The Smiths, Devin Townsend, Type O Negative and whatever sludge/doom/death metal I'm listening to that'll make him walk into my room and nod approvingly - absolutely loves Limp Bizkit. We went to a nu metal tribute act night and he knew every word and was going fucking buck wild when Stiff Bizkit played. Got selfies with the band and everything. It was one of those experiences where you previously couldn't see the appeal of a thing but someone else's wholesome love of it ends up winning you over.

I have a real soft spot for a handful of nu metal, though. Slipknot's first proper album (the self-titled one, not the absolutely piss-awful Mr. Bungle rip-off one) is almost too good for the subgenre, a total rip roaring fucking banger. (Hed) p.e.'s first album is really good too. And you can say what you like about Jonathan Davis' piddly teen angst, because Korn have some RIFFS mate. Those first four tracks on Follow The Leader. Belters.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Deftones were the only proper decent band in that subgenre

[alan nagsworth]

No offence aimed at you, good doctor, but Deftones aren't nu metal and it hacks me off no end every time they get lumped into it. They're a band that undeniably spawned from the same generation and rough template but even on their first album they're clearly more influenced by hardcore punk and synth pop like Depeche Mode, and their sound very quickly evolved into a heavier adaptation of the latter's sound from White Pony onwards.

[Dr Syntax Head]

No offence taken. I agree that it was wrong that they were classed as nu metal they were by far superior in every way.

[alan nagsworth]

It's odd but I often have a hard time even accepting them as a metal band. They're far more ethereal and graceful than that, and even though they are undeniably of the metal oeuvre, it feels like a bit of an injustice labelling them as such. If "art-metal" were a thing, that'd be where I'd stick them.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Minerva still gives me the chills every time I hear it.

[drummersaredeaf]

Deftones were fairly against that label at the time as I recall. I think you'd struggle to call any of their output nu metal apart from bits of the first album, and even then it's a stretch.

Korn were alright for a few albums though, yeah. They were at least doing something original. And while I thought Slipknot were ok at best, it was fun seeing elements of fairly extreme metal infiltrate the mainstream for a time.

[Dr Syntax Head]

With the deftones I think it was more the image (the skater thing) and the downtuned guitars. If you didn't spend time actually listening to those bands and were just into the scene to be cool (I knew a lot of those types when I was in bands back then) you could see why they would be lumped in with nu metal. I think it was when White Pony came out and was too challenging for yer Durst fans that they were no longer seen as nu metal (even if they were never really nu metal).

[magval]

I could talk for hours about what nu-metal actually means. I hate talking about music genre classification normally, as it's just a clever way for rich dudes to sell something from Band B that sounds like Band A to fans of Band A.

Also, music nerds get really passionate about it. Gloating about the most obscure genre names. Second New Wave Of American British Heavy Black Metalcore. Fuck off. Class music is class music.

BUT.

Nu-metal is a really interesting one, as it basically covers that point in the 1990s where metal exploded in a load of different directions at once. The most basic definition of nu-metal (to me) is basically a combination of rap, electronics and metal. The broadest definition would also include Roots by Sepultura, Coal Chamber, maybe some Fear Factory. Faith No More. Limp Bizkit and Korn. But none of that sounds anything like any of the rest of it.

What people call thrash metal, death metal, black metal, in their broadest terms they have certain defining sonic characteristics.

But what people call nu-metal, and dismiss nu-metal for being, is nebulous.

There's an element of snobbery to it, and young fans have inherited prejudices about it from the generation beforehand. It's much cooler to love Slayer than it is to love Korn, but fuck it, there's plenty about Korn to love.

Nu-metal just never had the stick-around credibility of the metal classics. There are albums that have come out since that would constitute required listening for new metallers - Leviathan, for example - but I don't think there's anything from that period, from that GENRE, that people would insist is essential in the same way they would say you HAVE to listen to Vol. 4, you HAVE to listen to Master of Puppets. Am I forgetting something? Probably?

But I like an awful lot of it and without any reservation or caveat at all.

[Twed]

Lovely, thanks magval. I have been on all sides of this. I spent most of my time on the snobbery side of things, and I like to think I'm mature enough now to appreciate the genre (defined by its immaturity, hooray!).

Is there any other genre of music that puts its fans into such a definite age bracket? If nu-metal had much of an effect on your life when it was current, you are almost certainly 30-45.

Can we use this thread to post genuine nu-metal bangers?

Fear Factory - Linchpin absolutely holds up. It's industrial distilled. The song is an actual machine. And then that 80s bridge! The best nu-metal songs had 80s bridges.

(actually, maybe that's just the chorus in this song. It keeps coming back)

[magval]

I think Fear Factory is probably the band who have had the most significant influence on what's popular in metal-for-young-people today, and have had the least amount of recognition for it - the syncopation thing, where the strum of the guitar (the picking) is co-ordinated with the drummer's feet. It's everywhere in a great many of popular metal genres (I think 'metalcore' is what I'm blushingly groping for here) but before Demanufacture, it was arguably nowhere.

You can find it in Linchpin in small doses, most notably underneath the "can't take me apart" before that GREAT chorus. Next thing you knew Killswitch Engage were doing it, Machine Head picked it up after they abandoned nu-metal and returned to credibility (in the hollowest way imaginable), and now you can't move for it.

Here's "Here To Stay" by Korn. Brilliantly heavy riff, fun change of key, ludicrously expensive and lavish production, stompy drum beat, and that fantastic GONNABREAKITDOWNNNGONNABREAKITDOWNN... bit near the end. I hate a lot of things about Korn, and none of them is in this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr3x7tS__dE

[Twed]

I always really liked Justin. It's got a groove to it, and the lyrics come from a good place and are hilariously on the nose ("You're gonna die, wanna meet me why?")

[drummersaredeaf]

I agree entirely about the wide ranging definition. Certainly Kerrang! was calling all sorts nu metal in the mid 90s when Indie was king and grunge was pretty much done. Fear Factory being something entirely of its own, Machine Head and Sepultura being what you might call groove metal, Korn using guitars to ape hip hop synths...

But I think there is something unique about aspects of nu metal which justifies and invites the term to be used as a pejorative - lots of hard bands turned nu metal in the late 90s and were weaker for it. MH released an ok album full of rap followed by an utter abortion. I personally think Linchpin and Digimortal are pale imitations of what passed before, and are a result of trying to incorporate some of that sound.

There are bands that put worse albums out in that era, there were the one hit wonders that were ripping it off (who made that Halo song? Or Bodies?), there were 'fun' bands, and there were also quite a few that were innovative and interesting, though fairly disparate as has already been highlighted.

I think the overwhelming legacy of this period from a metal perspective is the downtuning of guitars. C# was low at the start of the era. By the end A was pretty normal. And while there isn't really a Vol 4 or MOP,  there is songs like Bodies and Halo that still stink up the rock clubs in the same way Cherry Pie does.

[drummersaredeaf]

I just went to the wiki article to look for a list of bands and spotted something that reinforces one of my points - Slayer released a fairly awful nu metal influenced album in the late 90s that I revisited recently. Some of the tracks sound like they could have been on SOAD's first album.

Also, Linkin Park are fucking awful. Arguably the worst band from that era. Like if Simon Cowell had assembled a nu metal supergroup. At least LB have that aspect of silliness that is enjoyable.

[Sebastian Cobb]

No, Nickelback were the benchmark of terrible manufactured nu-metal. As evidenced by this scientific proof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHPj5YokEOY

[Twed]

Yeah, I have nothing good to say about Linkin Park. Like a nu-metal boy band, but without a good songwriting team behind them.

No, Nickelback were the benchmark of terrible manufactured nu-metal. As evidenced by this scientific proof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHPj5YokEOY

I don't think I would ever lump them in with nu-metal. They're just music for people with trucks.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Fucking hell Linkin Park were terrible. I actually liked a Nickelback song when I saw it on TV, it was called leaders of men or something but it was at a time I was still primarily listening to grunge so it fit my taste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swxw2wuN_2k Yeah on listening now it's pretty bad.


Another terrible band from around this time but I really liked this song cos it sounded a bit like a (bargain basement) tool, undertow era. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMWTuz_PfuY

[madhair60]

Linking Park are fucking great. SHUT UP WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU