The Top 40 Nu-Metal Albums - 40 to 31

Ironically “nu-metal” was never new. It picked up where the alternative metal bands of the previous years left off and took it in a darker, more grooving direction. Most of these bands listened to Metallica and Depeche Mode in equal measure. Many came from the hard-core scene but drugs and mommy issues got the best of them. Thus they crawled out from under trailer parks in Huntington Beach in fish-net shirts and oversized black jeans. Anthrax had already been rapping since 1987, so the hip hop influence was nothing new. The nu-metal scene took the brooding of grunge and turned the anger inward, until it exploded in a breakdown with the rage of a school shooting. 

 I am shedding the sense of nostalgia you might carry for certain albums from this era and presenting the forty best that stood the test of time, while not leaning too heavily on any one band, in fact there is only one band that I feel made a large enough contribution to perhaps the genre’s entire existence to merit more than one entry, These are not the album with singles that got the most plays from Carson Daily or sold the most units back in the day when bands sold albums, but the ones with the best songs. Popularity means nothing, as sheep will just follow the leader. I am also not just limiting it to the mid to late 90s. There are plenty of nu-metal albums released recently that got right what bands before them did not catch onto, as well as a few that preceded the label of nu-metal. 

 Don’t be quick to break out the cardboard just yet, as album that relied solely on rapping are in the minority, as they all ended up sounding like what the Beastie Boys did on “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun”, and if your entire career can not exceed the dynamic range of a single Beastie Boys album, then chances are you are not the best of any genre. I also am standing fast by the metal part, this meant excluding a few great albums by bands who were more post-hardcore or even just intense rock albums that were not metal. So don’t expect to see the Beastie Boys on here either, if you can’t understand they don’t belong on a metal list, then it’s time to drown yourself in the next convenient body of water you can find. With that let’s dig into our Top 40 nu-metal albums.

40-Hed Pe - "S/t" -1997

This dub inflected band from Huntington beach , brought a collision of sounds which incorporated the chaos of Bad Brains , with a more confrontation hip hop hooks.  Once you get past some of the craziness coming at you in this sonic riot the refrains are catchy enough to bring you back for more

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39- Jimmy's Chicken Shack- "Pushing the Salmonella Envelope" 1997

If stoner nu-metal was going to be a sub-genre, then this band would have been the poster boys. Some of their grooves held a more angular Primus like bounce. Their bing single "High" drove the album sales, but they were far from one hit wonders, as the deeper cuts were very well written and hold up today. 

 

 38-Alien Weaponry - "Tangaroa"  - 2021

New Zealand's answer Gojira, brings in a touch of  Sepultura , and a penchant for grooving riff, that at times bring Pantera to find. They are more melodic and left of center to be thrash, as their songs have more of the 90s bounce to them. Their rubbery bass lines further cement their place here. 

                       

37-Lollipop Lust Kill- "My So Called Knife"  2002

Powered by a great baritone croon, when not barking out anguished lyrics, this band took a creepy horror motif and made it more believable through the dark and heavy onslaught they hit you with on this album. Nu-metal gave birth to grown men finding cathartic release in complaining about their mommy issues, these guys took it further and allowed those issues to give them a more aggressive serial killer worshipping slant.

   

36-Human Waste Project -"E-lux"  1997

Another Huntington Beach band who emerged from 1997. This under rated band was set aside from the pack by the charismatic voice of front woman Aimee Echo, who went on to form the Start. She took the sugary punk coo made popular at the time by Gwen Stefani, and made it more aggressive. Her band shifts under her melodies with stunning ease.

   

34-Finger Eleven - "Tip" - 1997

This Canadian band became more well known thanks to albums that would followed, but let us not forget album sales do not equate better. These songs have a more powerful emotional urgency to them. They never carried this balance of brooding and punching grooves as well after this .

                              

33-Flaw- "Through the Eyes" -2001

By the time this album came out in 2001 nu-metal was starting to see signs of decline. Sure it might be easy to write these guys off as a Dollar Store version of Disturbed , but Chris Volz had an impressive and expressive voice, that played to the strength of the songs.

   

32 - New Years Day - "Unbreakable"- 2019 

Like most musical trends to keep the sound alive it must change. This California band is at the top of the food chain when it comes to the current wave of Female fronted American metal bands. Their fourth album finds the formula dialed in perfectly with pop sensibilities of radio vixens, while wielding a sledgehammer.

    

31- Filter - "Short Bus" 1995

Sure Richard Patrick was the touring guitarist for Nine Inch Nails, but that did not make his band industrial. The took a great deal of the spit and vinegar that genre offered and gave it enough heroin and pills to feel more like a grunge band at times.  He was a few years ahead of curve, but right on time.