hip hop bunny hop

Oh please, Nu Metal and Alternative Metal are one in the same. Where these subgenres differ, in substance, are in areas that are minor and inconsequential. To insist they're somehow different does nothing but obfuscate the situation, not clarify.

System of a Down is Nu Metal. That they make use of some minor aesthetics from outside the genre does not change this fact.

Anyways, folks, if you're forgetting why Nu-Metal is a dirty word, it's because it was hardly "metal". What Nu Metal acts did was take the loud-soft dynamic from Alternative music and applique groove metal aesthetics to it. It was a boring genre, that made use of worn out structures that were being employed by other radio friendly genres. This is why Roadrunner's line up could extend from Nickelback to Slipknot and maintain continuity.

Unknown Soldier

Really!!! I think there is a difference between these subgenres. Admittedly, they are both characterized by heavy riffing and syncopation but thats not enough to call them the same. The difference is, that alt.metal bands such as Tool and SOAD have far more progressive elements (especially Tool) and wider influences than the NU-Metal acts ever had.

Alt.metal is based on prog.rock, art rock influences from hip hop, funk and experimental music to name a few. Whereas Nu-Metal takes a far more basic pathway:

Thrash- Groove - Nu Metal (with hip hop influences etc)

As I said on a previous post, there is still a fine line as a lot of these acts would have been influenced by the same bands anyway.

Janszoon

I think a big difference between alt metal and nu-metal is also timeframe. Nu-metal is something that came about after grunge whereas alt metal happened during roughly the same time period as grunge.

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Unknown Soldier

Agree with the timeframe. I think alt metal had its roots around the same time as grunge started and groups like Living Colour, Faith No More and Primus, were all groups with a funk based sound that straddled the line between rock and metal to be highly influential on alt.metal

The genre was carried on by groups like Helmet and Rage Against the Machine who had a strong influence on NU-Metal.

Based on this NU-Metal is really a sub genre of alt.metal, but the reason that alt.metal is different, is because groups like Tool and the much wider musical influences of some alt.metal bands are far removed from NU metal sound wise.


I think a group like the Deftones. are probably the nearest NU-Metal and alt.metal ever got to being the same, as they have enough in their sound top satisfy both genres.

hip hop bunny hop

Why are Tool "alternative metal"? Wouldn't it make more sense to simply describe them as progressive metal light?

Really, it makes more sense to me to go about making distinctions between subgenres when there are a significant number of bands for whom said distinctions can be applied to with minimum contradiction. Consider; if we agree with Janszoon that "alternative metal" developed concurrently with Grunge, and if we agree that Nu-Metal makes heavy use of the loud soft dynamic which was popularized by bands from this era.... wouldn't it be right and fitting to put it these (metal) bands in the same genre?

I mean, "black metal" wasn't viewed as a particular genre until the first wave had come and gone, yet we still apply that term to Bathory, as it is the most correct definition of their sound, unless one has the luxury of being in the company of those with an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre.

IWP

I consider alternative metal as music that's similar to alternative rock and post-grunge with the dark vibe and/or angst-ridden lyrics, but with a much heavier edge to it.

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chipper

of all these bands, Linkin Park is the one that continuously matures. they were probably nu metal when they started but they have grown up so fast and progressed a great deal that it is almost impossible to cage them in one genre.

the layers of their sound, complexity of their musicality is the second to none

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Engine

Linkin Park is one of the shittiest bands that I've ever heard. Ever. It's honestly difficult for me to believe that any human likes their sound. The complex layers of my tinnitus sound a lot better to me.

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This.

SOAD obviously are awesome. Duga, I am just as embarrassed by the crap bands I used to listen to. I was a huge Korn fan.

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djchameleon

Linkin' Park likes to experiment a bit but if they stay on this path from their last two albums...I could see them turning into an adult contemporary band like Maroon 5 or something along those lines.

lol harsh

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