5 Nu Metal Albums You Should Own

And here we are fellow Otaku & Metalheads. The end of the Summer of Nu.

I had a bit of fun with this musical festival. Like Hair Metal, it was nice to look at a metal subgenre that was ejected from the spotlight when it’s time was done. Much like that previously mentioned style, there are still people who look back on Nu Metal with a weird kind of nostalgia, and there are still a small few bands that keep the torch aloft to this very day. So to conclude this month, as I always do I’ll show off the 5 albums from the subgenre I look at that you genuinely need in your musical library. So here are the 5 Nu Metal albums you should own.....enjoy!

1) Faith No More - The Real Thing (Song)

An absolutely groovy record, Faith No More’s first outing with Mike Patton was an absolute classic! The copious amount of experimentation that everybody was doing led to a very unique album, and one in which still holds up after 30+ years. Even with the longer tracks, of which I complained about in my review back in June (Read here), still manage to be unique, and would help the newly emerging Nu Metal scene emerge from the shadows of the 1980s a few short years after that decade ended. It might be a little archaic by the standards of what little remains of Nu Metal nowadays, but one can’t deny it’s energy.

2) Pantera - Cowboys From Hell (Song)

Despite my gripe with Pantera basically disowning their Hair Metal roots and embracing a more “Dude Bro” attitude, I can no longer deny the catchiness & iconic status of Cowboys From Hell. From the riffs, to the vocal work, the band really embraced a new style that would help usher in Nu Metal just a few short years after CFH came out. I don’t think I’ll ever come back to this record all that often again, but maybe if the mood is right.....a couple songs off this classic might flow through my headphones once again.

3) Kontrust - Time To Tango (Song)

I talked about Kontrust’s 2nd release a week ago, and as such I won’t be repeating all that much here. I will say that compared to most of the bands on this list, and in the wider world by extent, it’s their decision to bring in other musical styles (Metallic or otherwise) that gives them such a colorful personality, it’s kind of hard to believe that Kontrust is a Nu Metal band at their core. That’s all I got to say!

4) Coal Chamber - Coal Chamber (Song)

Right at the start of August, I talked about the intensity & groove that was Coal Chamber’s self-titled debut. It still isn’t that much different from bands like Korn & Deftones, yet the emphasis on amping up the energy of the music, not to mention the previously mentioned thick grooves, still manage to give the record it’s own identity. It never lets up across it’s entire run time, and it also has it’s own beats & rhythms that are distinctively Coal Chamber. While I would say that this release isn’t the most essential when it comes to exploring Nu Metal, at the same time it’s still something to seek out for your library if you’re looking for more of a turn your brain off kind of album.

5) Korn - Korn (Song)

This album. This one right here. This is the precise record that gave birth to the Nu Metal movement of the 90s. Like I said last month, you can easily tell what decade it comes from, but simultaneously has aged like a metallic fine wine in the nearly 30 years since it came out. From the way the instrumentation was played, to how Jonathan Davis’s way of singing, the band’s self-titled debut gave birth to the Hair Metal equivalent of the 1990s. Even all of these decades later, the record still has a high level of quality, and it still rightly praised by Korn fans after all of this time. If for some reason you haven’t sat down to listen to this release, then I highly recommend you do so. You won’t regret it.

And those were the 5 Nu Metal albums that should be in your library. Even though the subgenre fell mostly out of favor once it hit the year 2000, it somehow managed to survive in a few adherents, as well as a few more fans even in 2023. So with that, the Summer Of Nu comes to an end, and I hope you all had a fun time. Meanwhile, September is just a few weeks away, so get ready for this blog’s 9th birthday. See you soon.

Album Review: Kontrust's Time To Tango

So fellow Otaku & Metalheads, here we are. The last review of the Summer of Nu.

It’s definitely been an interesting summer looking at this mostly discarded metal subgenre. While some of the stereotypes are somewhat deserved, at the same time the uniqueness of the approach taken by Nu Metal balances those stereotypes. Not only that, but it still has some adherents nearly 30 years after it came onto this world. Not just in the United States, but it also managed to land a presence over in Europe if you can believe it. My final review covers such a band, and not only are they Nu Metal disciples, but managed to mix in a few other genres as well, and the end result is oddly unique. So without further delay, here’s my review of Kontrust’s 2nd album, Time To Tango. Let’s begin.

Background
And it’s here where I have trouble. When I do my reviews, Wikipedia is my source for information 90 to 95 percent of the time, but there’s barely anything on that website I can use, and most other sources are either foreign or on a platform I don’t use (ex Instagram). What little I can find over on Wikipedia was that the band formed in 2001 in Austria, and was composed of band members Gregor Kutschera, Roman Gaisböck, Robert Ehgartner, Manuel Haglmüller, Agata Jarosz, and Stefan Lichtenberger. In 2005 they released their first album Welcome Home, and in 2006 they won the Austrian Newcomer Award, made their first music video for the song "Phono Sapiens" and played at the freeride and snowcross competition Vertical Extreme. Their second album, Time To Tango, came out on June the 19th, 2009, in Austria. "The Smash Song" was the first single of the album, and their song "Bomba" landed them a spot in the Dutch charts & was the number one downloaded rock song on the Dutch iTunes Store.

Basic Description
European Nu Metal.

For starters, let me just say that Kontrust’s musical base is typical American Nu Metal. Many of the beats & rhythms could possibly be in other bands. Like Coal Chamber however, it’s what the band does that manages to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. In Kontrust’s case, it’s the musical diversity that they embrace that makes them so different. The band not only relies on Nu Metal, but they also work in Dance Pop, Folk Metal, and in the process became a Crossover band. The Nu & Folk Metal fans liked them, and the Dance Pop people liked them! By embracing other musical styles throughout their career, Kontrust stood out from the rest of the Nu Metal crowd, and have a following to this day because of that.

Best Track
Even years before I sat down & properly listened to Time To Tango, I was a big fan of Bomba when I found it completely by accident. Goofy music video aside, you can find practically every music genre the band was using in this track: there’s the Nu Metal for sure, but you also got Folk Metal instrumentation, and Dance Pop beats & rhythms. Other tunes on this album certainly lean a little more in one stylistic direction, but Bomba definitely has all of them front and center. I would have liked it if the track was the opener, but regardless it’s of excellent quality, as well as being musically varied. A hit if you ask me!

Bomba

Worst Track
As good as Time To Tango is on the whole, there are still some “songs” that non the less feel like timewasters. I use quotations, because 3 tracks in particular barely register as such. Mainstream Bypass, Lato (The worst culprit), and Känämänännä all lie within the 1 minute mark. Again, Lato is the worst culprit in this regard, as it plays for a mere 27 seconds. Känämänännä is exactly a minute long, and Mainstream Bypass plays for a minute & 49 seconds. These “tracks” are just timewasters when they show up, so skip em when they do!

Other
If you’re curious about listening to this album, click on the link below:

Time To Tango

Overall Impression & Rating
Time To Tango is just a fun ride. From beginning to end, Kontrust crafter a wonderful & unique album that contrasts the band with the rest of the Nu Metal brotherhood. Even with the small timewasters, the record is still a blast from beginning to end, and it’s energy never dissipates. I was surprised by this & the other musical styles the group incorporated, but at the end I didn’t care. If there was a Nu Metal album from outside of the United States that was a must to listen to.....it’s this one.

Time To Tango gets a 9 out of 10.

And that was my look at Time To Tango. A glimpse into how other parts of the world viewed Nu Metal, and a unique musical experience in it’s own right. So with Kontrust finally putting out a new album in a few months after nearly a decade since the last one, I hope that older records like Time To Tango get some recognition once again. And that concludes the Summer Of Nu, but I’m not ending the Summer of Nu on this review. Join me next week for a list on the Nu Metal albums you should have in your library. See you then!

Album Review: Coal Chamber's Coal Chamber

The Summer of Nu is winding down fellow Otaku & Metalheads.

In June, we looked at 2 albums out of many that would help create the basis upon one of the biggest musical genres of the 90s would be born, and in July we looked at the band that for all intent and purposes gave birth to Nu Metal. To end the month, and this spiritual successor to my look at the 1990s from last year, I wanted to take a look at bands in the subgenre that didn’t have as much spotlight shone their way. Groups that, while certainly good in their own right, maybe didn’t have as much presence as more established groups. That’s a little ironic for this first review, as the band in question definitely did have the spotlight on them for a little bit, and said light went away almost as quickly.....or did it? In any case, here’s my review of the self-titled debut of Coal Chamber. Let’s begin!

Background
In the early 1990s, Dez Fafara and Meegs Rascón in Los Angeles would form a band called She’s In Pain, based off of a love for Goth icons Sisters Of Mercy. After putting an add in the newspaper, they managed to acquire bassist Rayna Foss and drummer Jon Tor, who would be replaced not long after by drummer Mike Cox. According to Foss, at the time the band was called “Coal”, while Rascón wanted to call it "Chamber". Eventually, everybody decided to put both words together, and things were complete.

In late 1994, Fear Factory co-founder Dino Cazares was championing a demo tape by Coal Chamber, which was causing a huge local stir with gigs at The Roxy Theatre and Whisky a Go Go. This eventually lead Roadrunner Records to offer the band a contract, and they immediately accepted. Sometime later, Fafara would drop out of Coal Chamber suddenly due to disagreements with his wife about the band. By spring of 1995 he would re-unite with the group, but ultimately the marriage was done. Ironically, this gave him & the rest of the group a revitalized sense of energy, and by the end of 1995 they managed to regain their deal with Roadrunner, and on the 11th of February in 1997, their self-titled debut was released.

Coal Chamber would go on to gain some acclaim upon release. It would sell 100,000 copies in 1997, with 3,000 being sold a week toward the end of the year. Chronicles of Chaos writer Adrian Bromley compared the self titled album to Korn and Deftones, stating that he had “a hard time telling these bands apart”, but noted their strong sense of groove at the same. In his review for the 2005 CD/DVD reissue, Allmusic reviewer Johnny Loftus labelled "Loco", "Sway" and "Oddity" as "classics of a late-'90s L.A. metal scene that included Korn, Deftones, Fear Factory, and System of a Down". Further in the review he’d go on to say that “Coal Chamber couldn't keep it up for a whole album -- Jay Gordon and Jay Baumgardner's enveloping production couldn't hide the limitations in Dez Fafara's lyrics, or the unimaginative two-note guitar riffs. But it's still an interesting listen, especially in relation to what they did differently from their peers. Fafara often sounded like a mascara-eating hybrid of Perry Farrell, Peter Murphy, and Phil Anselmo, and the band's bludgeoning, 'when in doubt, amplify it' approach was kind of endearing”.

The self-titled debut would also receive some modern praise as well. It would be in Metal Hammer magazine’s 20 best metal albums of 1997 list, in 2021 it would be put on Revolver Magazine’s 20 Essential Nu-Metal Albums, and just last year in 2022 it would be placed at number 15 on Kerrang!'s "The 21 Greatest Nu-Metal Albums of All Time" list.

Basic Description
Intense Groove.

I’ll be repeating this statement a little later, but Coal Chamber’s debut release doesn’t differentiate itself from many of it’s Nu Metal brethren. Many of the beats are the same, many of the rhythms are the same, and so on. So, if the album isn’t all that different from others like it, what sets it apart? Well, like I said above, it’s the intensity and the groove that set’s Coal Chamber apart from most other groups in their style. The band really does amp up their music, and it can get you pumped up pretty quick. Then there’s the groove side of the music, and all I can say is that it’s nothing short of gorgeous. The guitar & bass slide in silky smooth, and the drumming comes along for the ride without any issue. It’s definitely some to listen to, so give it a go!

Best Track
Loco is absolutely the best thing on here! As the album’s opener, it shows off the record’s identity in spades, and then some. Every bit of instrumentation is on point: from the drums, to the guitar, and to the bass, the energy is intense, and the grooves from it all are so thick, you could cut them off like a piece of cheese. Dez Fafara’s vocal are pretty special as well, as somehow it just syncs up to the instrumentation when it comes to speed practically without fault. Again, this track is just perfect as the opener to this record!

Loco

Worst Track
As much fun as this self-titled is to listen to, it also doesn’t do all that much different when you compare it to what other Nu Metal bands were doing at the time. Outside of the greater focus on groove & the more intense energy of the songs, a lot of the various beats & rhythms sound and feel similar to what bands like Korn and System Of A Down were doing in 1997. Fortunately for Coal Chamber, they would definitely diversify their sound on the subsequent 2 records, and even in 2015......but that’ll be for another day.

Other
If you’re curious about listening to this album, click on the link below:

Coal Chamber

Overall Impression & Rating
Coal Chamber was a lot of fun to listen to. Yes, it doesn’t differentiate from it’s Nu Metal brothers all that much, yet it’s emphasis on groove & intense energy still manages to give it an identity all of it’s own. Even nearly 30 years since it came out, the record still has a sizable following behind it, and I’m now one of it’s devout followers. I may not always want to listen to it, but whenever I hear one of it’s songs in my head, I won’t refuse it at all!

Coal Chamber gets a 9 out of 10 out of sheer enjoyment, but a 7 out of 10 in terms of practicality.

And that was a look at Coal Chamber’s self-titled debut. It definitely wasn’t the most amazing debut, but it was a fun one all the same. Well, we got the final review of the Summer of Nu in a week or two, and it’ll be on a band from the other side of the world’s interpretation of Nu Metal. See you then!