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Roots of nu metalYour guide to the bands that helped shape the sound of nu metal.

KoRnNew chat with Jonathan Davis, plus an in-depth archive feature.

nu metal momentsSlipknot on TFI, Linkin Park with Jay-Z and more.

PaPa RoachAll the best action from P-Roach’s nu metal legacy.

fReaKsNu metal’s most outlandish looks uncovered!

limP bizKitFred Durst as you’ve never heard him before in this all-new chat.

hiP hoP invasionHow the world of rap changed metal culture forever.

DeftonesThe inside story of one of metal’s most inventive bands.

iconic viDeosBullets! Ping pong! Ladybirds!

DistuRbeDThe early days of David Draiman’s industrial-tinged warriors.

essentialsThe fundamentals of nu metal revealed.

sliPKnotThe early days of the Des Moines noise terrorists revived.

Ross RobinsonNu metal’s most influential producer shares his darkest secrets.

incubusA celebration of the genre’s funkiest advocates.

family valuesInside the tour that changed it all with curator Jonathan Davis.

linKin PaRKChester and Mike leak the untold story of Hybrid Theory.

nu metal’s woRst banDsThere’s no place to hide for the dregs of nu metal!

coal chambeRDez’s spookycore crew get the full retrospective treatment.

unsung heRoesWe throw the spotlight on nu metal’s overlooked luminaries.

system of a DownRevisit the story of one of heavy music’s most unique bands.

toP 40A countdown of nu metal’s greatest tracks of all time.

bRave nu woRlDThe bands resurrecting nu metal for the next generation.

metalhammer.co.uk 7

14 metalhammer.co.uk

Keep all ‘helmet in the bush’ joKes to yourself

metalhammer.co.uk 15

he Costes Hotel, situated

bang in the centre of one

of Paris’s more upmarket

districts, is, if not the

height of luxury, then

at least of a sufficient

altitude to induce pretty

severe vertigo. A once-

over of the clientele lunching out in the terrace

restaurant reveals an impeccably turned out

David Ginola, doubtless gathering his thoughts

for his next piercing insight as part of the BBC’s

World Cup pundit panel, the ever-suave Johnny

Depp and an assorted collection of Armani’d up

nouveau riche.

In their midst sits a tallish fella with hair like

matted straw, decked head to toe in casual

sports gear, hunched low over a plate of

mozzarella and tomatoes, enthusing in a slightly

whiny American accent about the quality of

French food. His companion, slightly tanned

and sporting chunkier, neater dreads, but

looking no more healthy than the first, grunts in

acknowledgement, while toying with his multi-

storey club sandwich. As the French chattering

classes get at one with their déjeuner, you can’t

help but wonder what they make of Korn’s

Jonathan Davis and James ‘Munky’ Shaffer,

enjoying one of the many fringe benefits of

being multi-platinum-selling rock stars.

Hammer is in Paris to chat to Korn about their

impending new album Follow The Leader, by

their own admission the most important of their

career to date, but there’s one small problem:

we haven’t heard it yet. Or at least, not all of it.

However, if the five tracks we have been privy

to are anything to go by, then Follow The Leader

will be a stormer, the true follow-up to the jaw-

dropping headfuck that was their eponymous

debut – as opposed to the disappointing

second album Life Is Peachy. This, Korn fans,

is the real deal.

“This could be the one, this could be it for us,”

speculates Jonathan Davis over a wake-up call

Jack Daniels and Coke. “This is the album that

makes of breaks your career. If the third album

does well then you’re set for life.

“I’m stressed out at the fact that it’s that

good,” adds the frontman, and it’s a good thing

too, because once the dust on Life Is Peachy

had settled, the considered opinion was that

it was, well, arse. [It really wasn’t – Ed.] After the

ground-breaking debut, to be presented with

such a similar, and thus ultimately redundant,

record was a massive disappointment, which

the critics ultimately turned on. Fortunately,

Korn know this too.

“Well, yeah, we knew, it was obvious. We know

that album sucked,” admits Jonathan, before

going on to qualify this statement with: “Well it

didn’t suck, there’s good songs on there, but we

know we rushed it. We were really upset with the

last album. It was awesome, but it could’ve been

better. We settled.

“Life Is Peachy is all at one tempo, it’s all the

same,” Jonathan continues. “On Follow The

Leader, we’ve got a lot of weird things going

on, a lot of variety.”

Ahead of the release of Follow The Leader, Hammer caught up with Jonathan and Munky to talk about cracking the mainstream

and putting bananas inside members of Marilyn Manson.

WORDS: DAn SiLveR PHOTOS: MiCK HUTSOn

“i’m schizo, i have two

personalities. i never have

any guilt that i have a wife and

kid at home. i party”

Jonathan Davis

38 metalhammer.co.uk

LIMP BIZKIT: SIGNIFICANT OTHER ERA BIZKIT FEATURING WES’S FORAY INTO THE BIZARRE AND THAT RED CAP

The band that captured the minds of the mainstream and best defined nu metal.

Three Dollar Bill, Y’all – onwards, it was clear

that Bizkit were lovers of rap and rock in equal

measures. This was not the hokey Run-DMC

and Aerosmith novelty we were used to seeing.

This was a genuine hybrid. As if any more

proof were needed, the band’s second album,

Significant Other, featured guest appearances

from both Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots

and Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan. There really

were absolutely no boundaries. And while the

band faced criticism in the aftermath of mass

violence during their set at Woodstock ’99, it

wouldn’t stop them creating songs that were

musical dynamite to mosh pits everywhere.

The year after the ruckus at Woodstock,

Bizkit unleashed Chocolate Starfish And The

Hot Dog Flavored Water. A bona fide behemoth

of a record, it was an unstoppable hit-fest

which saw the band flung into the mainstream

public consciousness, with songs like Rollin’

and My Way proving to be crossover smashes.

Durst’s knack of mixing up yell-yourself-hoarse

choruses with crunching breakdowns

was one that was hard for people

of all walks of life to resist – even

if some more ‘tr00’ metal fans

stuck their noses up at the

band’s genre-bending ways.

It didn’t matter by then, of course.

Limp Bizkit were a staple of the

mainstream, their frontman even

getting namechecked by the likes

of Eminem in songs about sexual

encounters with pop starlets.

Most importantly of all, though,

Bizkit were a genuinely great

band, whose power, punch and

give-a-fuck attitude helped not

only to define nu metal, but also

converted a whole generation

of kids into rock fans.

WORDS: TOM DOYLE

A DAY TO REMEMBER “There’s something about Limp

Bizkit, the music they wrote and

their overall vibe that’s made to

control a crowd of any size. I don’t

even think it’s intentional – they do

their show without having to do any

stunts or anything crazy. It’s one

of the most inspiring things. We

watched them every night we played

with them on festivals. They played

right after us at Download and

to watch 80,000 people go that

nuts… Fred doesn’t even have to

go crazy. There’s just a vibe and

an aura to Limp Bizkit that makes

people go crazy. The hardest of

hardcore bands can’t get the vibe

to that many people to go that nuts.

Surely everyone loved Limp Bizkit

at some point in their lives. They

didn’t? They’re lying to themselves.”

I Like

LimpBizkit

metalhammer.co.uk 39

f nu metal was ruled

by charismatic,

ostentatious frontmen,

it’s no surprise that the

band people associate

with the genre above

all others had the most

outlandish frontman

going. Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst was nothing

short of a phenomenon. A foul-mouthed whirling

dervish who was two parts bravado and one

part deep self-loathing, it was his ubiquity and

infamy that helped catapult Limp Bizkit into

pop culture’s glaring limelight. Everything about

Durst was instantly recognisable. Your father,

your mother, your sister, your brother – all of

them knew what a backwards red cap meant in

2001. He was a cartoon, larger than life, a new

generation of rock star. He was brilliant.

Ironically, Durst wasn’t even the most

cartoonish-looking member of his band. That

accolade went to Wes Borland, the guitarist

whose churning riffs were the engine room

of Bizkit’s brand of balls-out hedonism and

all-encompassing anger. Together with the

impeccable rhythm section of Sam Rivers

and John Otto, and with the help of DJ Lethal

bringing it on, Limp Bizkit were the

band who, more than any other

of the nu metal generation, fully

and most obviously embraced

the influence of hip hop. Sure,

there were plenty of other acts

bringing in rap influences, but it

was the Jacksonville quintet who

were donning the big shorts,

rocking Adidas shell tops and

emblazoning their album

covers in graffiti fonts.

From their debut record –

the Ross Robinson-produced

72 metalhammer.co.uk

metalhammer.co.uk 73

They quickly became too heavy for nu metal but Slipknot arrived in a hail of DJ scratches, rap influence and extreme reckless abandon.

hile the nu

metal era was

undeniably

responsible for

unprecedented

levels of

polarisation

among the metal

faithful, one band gleefully made a mockery

of the notion that this new approach to heavy

music represented some kind of betrayal of

cherished atavistic values. Careering into view

in the same year that Limp Bizkit made their first

credible bid for mainstream glory with Significant

Other, the first Slipknot album was nothing

short of bewildering. A remorselessly brutal

and uncompromising onslaught of foul, chaotic

riffing and throat-wrenching vocal hostility, it

showcased a band unafraid of embracing many

of nu metal’s key traits.

From the frenzied turntable wizardry of DJ

Sid Wilson and the colon-flagellating rumble of

Paul Gray’s bass lines to the staccato verbosity

of Corey Taylor’s quasi-rap vocal delivery and

the superficial impression that they had at

least two more members than any band could

ever realistically require, Slipknot were plainly

a product of the post-Korn age.

But underneath that pointedly contemporary

exterior, a malignant undercurrent of

underground extremity and diehard metallic

devotion ensured that no matter how frequently

exasperated purists decried Slipknot’s rise to

prominence, the notion that the Iowan nonet were

anything other than an authentic heavy metal

band was never more than wholly preposterous.

In truth, Slipknot unintentionally sounded nu

metal’s death knell. These nine masked men from

the middle of fucking nowhere plainly owed a debt

to their Adidas-adorned forebears, but within the

first few seconds of [sic], the opening track from the

band’s eponymous debut, it was abundantly clear

that the nu rulebook was being comprehensively

trashed and rebuilt as something much more

dangerous, daring and downright destructive.

The clattering breakbeats and disorientating

noise that fizzed and snarled at the heart of a song

like Eyeless –arguably nu metal’s most exciting four

minutes – belonged firmly to modern times, but the

core of Slipknot’s sound had far more in common

with the blistering, ultra-ugly slice of brutal death

metal than with Coal Chamber or Orgy. For every

astute squall of almost radio-friendly bluster like

Wait And Bleed or Spit It Out, Slipknot had several

much less user-friendly outbursts, ranging from

bellicose tirades like Surfacing and No Life through

to amorphous, sludgy dirges like Prosthetics and

harrowing eight-minute closer Scissors.

Those who dug deeper discovered the feral

attack of bonus cuts Get This and Eeyore, even

further removed from nu-metal’s polished façade.

Slipknot arrived fully formed, angry as fuck and

ready for war, as they kicked the door open for

Lamb Of God, Killswitch Engage, Trivium and

countless others for whom old-school metal values

were no longer derided relics of a bygone age.

When nu metal stumbled into obsolescence

a couple of years later, Iowa’s finest just kept

getting stronger, casually defying the odds to

become one of the biggest rock bands on the

planet. More than a decade on and they’re

still there: unique, inspired and unstoppable.

WORDS: DOm LaWSOn PHOTO: mICK HUTSOn

PaRKWaY DRIVE “I first heard (sic) on a body-

boarding video and it’s still one of

those tracks that I get stoked on

and you always want it to be in the

live set. I wasn’t really into nu metal

at all but Slipknot were different

to all of the other bands. It feels

weird to say it when you look at

the suits and masks but it felt a bit

less goofy. It was raw and loads of

different elements went into it. It

didn’t sound contrived and even

among all of the insane heaviness,

there’s still melody in there. It’s not

controlled heaviness either. There’s

people just smashing kegs and

there’s all of these crazy sounds

and samples scratched up and it’s

just layer upon layer of craziness.

To me, Slipknot were the sound of

controlled chaos even when they

were a nu metal band.”

I Like

Slipknot

96 metalhammer.co.uk

THE DEFINITIVE LINKIN PARK SHOT TO PROMOTE HYBRID THEORY

Nu metal’s most commercially successful band turned the world of metal on its head and remain

one of the biggest acts in the world today.

inkin Park have

made the biggest-

selling debut album

of the 21st century.

Breathe that fact in

for a second. Bigger

than Adele, bigger

than Lady Gaga,

bigger than absolutely everyone. When Hybrid

Theory hit, it was like a tidal wave sweeping

through the world of metal, rock and beyond.

As inescapable as it was powerful, it quickly

became the benchmark by which all other

contenders were judged. They had taken the nu

metal formula and distilled it to utter perfection.

From the spidering opening riff of Papercut,

with its swooping DJ embellishments, to the

futuristic pulse of closer Pushing Me Away,

Hybrid Theory is an album that doles out

massive hooks like Zakk Wylde dishes out

pinch harmonics.

Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda were

a formidable duo up front: the latter offered the

twisting rhymes that propelled the band’s verses

along with fist-pumping gusto, but it was the

former who was the true weapon. Bennington’s

coarse singing timbre lit up Linkin Park’s songs

with a unique, unmistakable panache that set

them apart from the crowd. Powerful enough

to blow the windows out of a skyscraper, his

roar could also be dialled down into a subtle and

emotive focal point which afforded the band a

diversity of sound that eluded a lot of their peers.

Hybrid Theory won countless awards and

more importantly still stands as a monument to

metal at the turn of the millennium.

Following such an all-conquering behemoth

should have been a struggle yet with Meteora,

Linkin Park delivered an album which satisfied

the vast majority of appetites. The singles Faint,

Somewhere I Belong and Numb in particular

picked up from where Hybrid Theory left off,

slickly produced off-ya-feet gold that could

raise the pulse of even the most hardened

cynic. The album was another commercial

smash. Some 16 million copies sold and

the most successful record to ever hit US

alternative radio? Not a bad day’s work.

Unfortunately, from that point

onwards the band began to be

overtaken by challengers who years

earlier would only have been snapping at

their heels. For all their ability, Bennington and

Shinoda lacked the personality of Fred Durst

and collectively they seemed unable to move with

the times in the manner that Papa Roach and

Deftones did. The result was that their futuristic

shtick, which chimed so well as we entered a new

century, suddenly felt very dated only a few years

down the line, even if they were still capable of the

odd moment of brilliance (What I’ve Done, Burn It

Down, Bleed It Out), and some of the tunes from

their heyday had a little life breathed back into

them courtesy of their collaboration with Jay-Z.

Linkin Park are, in commercial terms at

least, the most successful band of the nu

metal crop, but it’s hard not to see them as

something of a relic in 2013 – an artefact so

definitive of a time and place that they have

never been able to truly escape it. Nevertheless,

as nu metal goes, it doesn’t get much bigger

that the boys from Agoura Hills.

WORDS: TOm DOyle

ISSUeS “I grew up on country music and then

I discovered N*Sync, R Kelly and

Usher and hearing Linkin Park was,

to me, like a metal band but one that

I could relate to. It wasn’t this huge

jump into super heavy music, Linkin

Park was a natural step into what I

would listen to next. It could appeal to

someone like me that liked what they

heard and discovered heavier guitars

but could still enjoy the melodies.

I got into them when Breaking The

Habit hit radio but after that me

and all my friends got into Hybrid

Theory and it was a huge part of my

childhood and made us skaters and

rockers. Chester’s voice and melodies

really stood out. I liked the pop side

of hip hop and so the rapping made it

cool but Chester had this voice that

didn’t have a lot of vibrato to it and he

could put emotion into their music

with his voice and that was something

that made me really love what Linkin

Park were doing.”

I Like

LinkinPark

metalhammer.co.uk 97

STEP INSIDE THE LOCO WORLD OF NU METALA 132-PAgE CELEbRATION OF ALL THINgS NU METAL!

CLASSIC FEATURES, 12 POSTERS, STICkERS AND ALL NEW INTERvIEWS WITH Fred,

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