Nu Metal

Biography

Nu metal, otherwise known as aggro metal or nü metal, is a fusion genre that began in the 1990s which has primary influences from grunge and heavy metal bands and hip-hop music. It's distortion is thick, grungy and very heavy, the rhythm is hip hop stylized and it's volume is just as loud as heavy metal.

The music genre features often guitar riffs usually played in funk metal or groove metal rhythm with some hip hop influenced rhythms and usually guitar riffs are played by down-tuned guitars with occasional off-pitched tri-tones and palm muting. The bass lines are usually deep, complex and sometimes groovy or funky and are influenced a lot by blues, jazz and hip hop. The drums are very heavy and strong and come from the drums from heavy metal and the vocals tend to be either singed most commonly and some bands might sometimes rap and some might once in a while growl or scream. The music began in the fall of 1993 with Korn's Neidmeyer's Mind demo and released a self-titled album in 1994 which pioneered Nu metal. Some nu metal bands also might have influences from grunge, alternative rock, industrial, funk, groove, soul, blues, jazz, garage rock and goth rock. The music also usually lacks guitar solos but also might have guitar strummed-choruses in some bands or angered vocals. Common lyrics are issues, anger, violence, street stuff, revenge, social anger, personal alienation, views, etc.

Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.