New nu metal, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 Then
Nu metal 1994
Seven-string guitars tuned very low, hip-hop groove, a DJ or sampler and lyrics about personal trauma. The decade's best-selling and most disputed genre.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Put on
Korn - Korn. The first track opens with bagpipes, which nobody ever remembers.
Korn, Korn (1994) - 3 What you asked about
New nu metal 2018
The generation raised on Korn and Slipknot brings back low tunings and electronic textures with today's production.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Put on
Loathe - I Let It in and It Took Everything. Deftones and shoegaze, done very well.
Loathe, I Let It in and It Took Everything (2020) - 4 Where to go next
Black 'n' roll 1997
Black metal with a rock and roll groove. Darkthrone turned this way on their own after 2006.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Kvelertak - Kvelertak. Produced by Kurt Ballou, and you can hear it instantly.
Kvelertak, Kvelertak (2010)
Assembled from the tree: every genre New nu metal descends from, in order. New nu metal has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.