Music Remember the techno metal boom of the late 90's?

[Fizzzzle]

This is one of those things that has always baffled me. Static X, Rob Zombie, Orgy, Powerman 5000, that one time Rammstein became insanely popular in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of this music was like chart-topping, on MTV level bullshit. The fact that it was as popular as it was is baffling to me. You had Rammstein on TRL for fucks' sake.

[Keyser_Soze]

Thought this thread was going to be about actual techno metal not industrial metal / nu-metal / not even metal

 

like this

 

 

 

And yes I remember those bands because I still enjoy a great majority. Rammstein released an album two years ago. Static-X are one of my favorite bands. RIP and they also released an album last year sans Wayne, it was ok.

 

18 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

You had Rammstein on TRL for fucks' sake.

 

You also had Limp Bizkit on TRL for fucks' sake. Your point being?

[Fizzzzle]

1 minute ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Thought this thread was going to be about actual techno metal not industrial metal / nu-metal / not even metal

 

like this

 

 

 

And yes I remember those bands because I still enjoy a great majority. Rammstein released an album two years ago. Static-X are one of my favorite bands. RIP and they also released an album last year sans Wayne, it was ok.

 

 

You also had Limp Bizkit on TRL for fucks' sake. Your point being?

My point being that there was this random point in time where this kind of music was amongst the most popular in the planet. And that is bizarre to me. Can you imagine a band like Orgy being a top Spotify streaming band today? I can't.

 

I'm not going to get into it with you about what does or does not qualify as "metal," because that's a stupid conversation revolved around gatekeeping and crotchety old bullshit that no one gives a shit about. I just think the fact that there was this brief point in time where industrial techno metal (or "rock," sorry) became one of the most popular genres in music is very fascinating. It's such an obscure sound that, for a moment, held the spotlight of the world. Like Rammstein had been around for forever by that point, but somehow "Du Hast" comes out at the right time when everyone in America is about euro trash or something and BOOM, then 18 months later everyone forgot about them again.

 

And, for that matter, Limp Bizkit and Korn being on some modern equivalent of TRL would also be weird. Korn more so. Basically the point is these music genres that are, today, INCREDIBLY niche were like having Orgy chart with Katy Perry.

[SimpleG]

I guess it’s a bit weird but it just seems like a culmination of nu metal for the masses. It really was the “chocolate pudding “of metal , easy to digest, safe, and non filling. Catchy hooks, clean singing, a step above hard rock but not so far that people will look at you like you just murdered someone at a DND gathering.

i fucking hate 99.9 of nu metal but it brought a lot fans to other metal genres .

[Keyser_Soze]

I think your timeline may be off a bit. Rammstein had not been around "for forever" by that point. They only had one album out before Sehnsucht. Your assertion that Du Hast took a while to catch on here (over a year) is about correct. But that was about the time that "industrial metal" was kind of taking shape with, them and NIN being popular and such.

 

Now, Rob Zombie, had been around forever (White Zombie), and he kind of did his own thing. I don't consider it techno metal, it had a lot of samples in it but ultimately it was straight up rock / metal.

 

Static-X was heavily influenced by industrial bands like Godflesh, and sort of went with their "Evil Disco" thing but ultimately like most bands at the time leaned towards nu-metal when it became popular.

 

PM5K was just riding on the coattails of Rob Zombie (Since he was his brother) and had to go for that hit song, kind of like a lot of bands at that time did.

 

Just kind of like what simpleG said, catchy music that appealed to the masses, which isn't baffling to me.

 

Static-X is kind of the odd man out here though. They really had no radio exposure or TV exposure. I actually found out about them from the Rob Zombie fan club (if you had the CD) and they sent me a postcard with Wisconsin Death Trip on it. I would say they didn't actually get popular until their second album in 2001 (like I said when Nu-Metal was in full swing) and it was certainly a change in direction and totally inferior to their first album. But for a lot of people it's their favorite. 🤷‍♀️

[Fizzzzle]

6 minutes ago, SimpleG said:

I guess it’s a bit weird but it just seems like a culmination of nu metal for the masses. It really was the “chocolate pudding “of metal , easy to digest, safe, and non filling. Catchy hooks, clean singing, a step above hard rock but not so far that people will look at you like you just murdered someone at a DND gathering.

i fucking hate 99.9 of nu metal but it brought a lot fans to other metal genres .

There certainly is something to say about "beginners" rock/metal/punk bands. Like how many people got introduced to those genres by bands like System of a Down or Korn or whatever. Or how many people got introduced to punk by No Doubt or Blink 182.

 

In this particular case, industrial techno shit seems like such an outlier compared to what else has been popular before or since. Like, sure, Ministry wasn't breaking charts or anything like that, but all of the sudden there was this brief wave of techno rock bands landing on billboard charts that hasn't happened before or since. It was a random blip where, for a brief few months, Rammstein was charting as high as Nsync. Orgy was on TRL alongside Usher. In hindsight, it's so bizarre.

[Fizzzzle]

Like, yes, of course it was catchy, that's why it caught on. We just seem so far removed from a time when a song like Du Hast would be something that you hear playing at a bar or something.

 

And it's not like rock music died out in pop culture after the techno rock fad died. Hybrid Theory came out after all of the other ones I've mentioned, as well as Chocolate Starfish and other stuff like Make Yourself by Incubus. Nu metal was not done. It just gradually took on a more poppy tone, whereas the techno bands I've mentioned had like an EDM dance vibe going, which again is weeeeiiird that it got so popular.

[Keyser_Soze]

Orgy became popular because they did a cover of a popular song. Kind of like Alien Ant Farm became popular for covering Smooth Criminal. The real question is, how did Deadsy become popular?

[Fizzzzle]

4 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Orgy became popular because they did a cover of a popular song. Kind of like Alien Ant Farm became popular for covering Smooth Criminal. The real question is, how did Deadsy become popular?

Orgy did have one other big hit

 

 

 

This song is straight up nu metal, though.

[Bloodporne]

This was the absolute worst trend in Metal, if you can call it that, thanks for reminding me. #2 worst trend for me was Casio keyboard + top hat type Black Metal around that time.

[Fizzzzle]

16 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

This was the absolute worst trend in Metal, if you can call it that, thanks for reminding me. #2 worst trend for me was Casio keyboard + top hat type Black Metal around that time.

To this day, I still can't decide if I like it or not. I can't say I've ever listened to it regularly. I just think of it from a perspective of like if I told my little brother, who wasn't alive when this trend happened, "hey so techno dance metal was a big thing for a while" he'd probably be like "what the fuck was wrong with you people?"

[IdeaOfEvil]

Orgy's spin-off band just released a new track the other day

 

 

[Bloodporne]

20 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

To this day, I still can't decide if I like it or not. I can't say I've ever listened to it regularly. I just think of it from a perspective of like if I told my little brother, who wasn't alive when this trend happened, "hey so techno dance metal was a big thing for a while" he'd probably be like "what the fuck was wrong with you people?"

Ironically I'm a huge fan of all sorts of branches of electronic music but unless it's like Godflesh Streetcleaner or something, they need to stay far away from each other...it never ends well.

[Keyser_Soze]

Remember The Apex Theory?

This was the first drummer of SOAD

 

 

[Phaseknox]

I remember the time well as I was in my mid to late 20s, and was a music critic primarily for “alternative” music. It wasn’t called techno metal, it was considered more industrial rock. The trend seem to really start with Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson becoming somewhat popular, and more rock bands incorporating electro/industrial elements into their sound started gaining popularity such as Filter, Godhead, Gravity Kills, Orgy, Powerman 5000, Stabbing Westward, Uranium 235, Videodrone, etc.

 

There were other industrial bands incorporating rock and metal into their sound at the time such as Acumen Nation, Chemlab, Christ Analogue, Circle of Dust, The Clay People, Die Krupps, Drown, Klank, KMFDM, Razed in Black, Sister Machine Gun, etc., but they didn’t quite have the same marketable mainstream appeal to them so they didn’t make it as big.

 

At the time I thought that the popularity of some of these bands would bring more attention to the industrial music scene, but it didn’t. Rock with electro/industrial elements was a fairly short lived trend in mainstream music during the mid to late 90s, and never went anywhere beyond that. The industrial music scene continued strong in the underground after the trend, and is still around today most popular in Europe.

[Fizzzzle]

3 hours ago, Phaseknox said:

I remember the time well as I was in my mid to late 20s, and was a music critic primarily for “alternative” music. It wasn’t called techno metal, it was considered more industrial rock. The trend seem to really start with Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson becoming somewhat popular, and more rock bands incorporating electro/industrial elements into their sound started gaining popularity such as Filter, Godhead, Gravity Kills, Orgy, Powerman 5000, Uranium 235, Videodrone, etc.

 

There were other industrial bands incorporating rock and metal into their sound at the time such as Acumen Nation, Chemlab, Christ Analogue, Circle of Dust, Clay People, Die Krupps, Drown, Klank, KMFDM, Razed in Black, Sister Machine Gun, etc., but they didn’t quite have the same marketable mainstream appeal to them so they didn’t make it as big.

 

At the time I thought that the popularity of some of these bands would bring more attention to the industrial music scene, but it didn’t. Rock with electro/industrial elements was a fairly short lived trend in mainstream music during the mid to late 90s, and never went anywhere beyond that. The industrial music scene continued strong in the underground after the trend, and is still around today most popular in Europe.

Interesting. I never got big into the scene or anything, so I only remember what's popular. It seemed to be the more fast paced dance heavy beats rather than the slow cadence of something like NIN (who were also popular, but weren't like headlining TRL)

 

My point is, at one point on MTV, it would be like "and for our next song we have NSync with "bye bye bye" ... And for our next song Orgy with their cover of "Blue Monday". And that was normal. For a brief period of time. That is so fucking bizarre. Industrial rock has never been broadly popular at any point in time, outside of that moment

[SimpleG]

10 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

Casio keyboard + top hat type Black Metal

I wont lie, I would listen to this over power metal. Power metal  makes me want to vomit. I would listen to 12 hours of some shit bag mumblecore sound cloud folk rap then one power metal song.

[Bloodporne]

16 minutes ago, SimpleG said:

I wont lie, I would listen to this over power metal. Power metal  makes me want to vomit. I would listen to 12 hours of some shit bag mumblecore sound cloud folk rap then one power metal song.

I'm with you 100%. I hate Power Metal so much haha. Also being German I take full responsibility for this vile genre's popularity.

[SuperSpreader]

So many haters 

[heydude93]

This album

 

 

[SoberChef]

As someone who grew up at this time, being in his mid-late teens in the latter part of the 90's, a huge part of me felt like by the time this was mainstream alongside the likes of boy bands v.2.0 (post NKOTB), Brittany & Christina, the litany of Cash Money artists, all the Puff Daddy productions ... the "nu-metal" scene was what it was in spite of all the rest of what was being put out & pushed down the throats of the masses. I couldn't help but get swept up into it to a point & am to this day a long time fan of Korn, Rammstein, SOAD, and a few others. Also, just listening to a few tracks & albums here & there just brings me back to a much easier time in life, as well as a far simpler version of it in far too many ways. 

 

Because of that bias, I won't lambast anybody who either doesn't quite get it or just outright despises the bulk of what was out at that time, as it has been well over 20 years (FML THAT HURTS ME TO SAY) since that whole wave hit. Call it nostalgia perhaps, or rose tinted glasses even. That said, I'm sure in 20 years, a lot of people will have similar takes on SO many popular music that is out today. 

[Fizzzzle]

45 minutes ago, SoberChef said:

As someone who grew up at this time, being in his mid-late teens in the latter part of the 90's, a huge part of me felt like by the time this was mainstream alongside the likes of boy bands v.2.0 (post NKOTB), Brittany & Christina, the litany of Cash Money artists, all the Puff Daddy productions ... the "nu-metal" scene was what it was in spite of all the rest of what was being put out & pushed down the throats of the masses. I couldn't help but get swept up into it to a point & am to this day a long time fan of Korn, Rammstein, SOAD, and a few others. Also, just listening to a few tracks & albums here & there just brings me back to a much easier time in life, as well as a far simpler version of it in far too many ways. 

 

Because of that bias, I won't lambast anybody who either doesn't quite get it or just outright despises the bulk of what was out at that time, as it has been well over 20 years (FML THAT HURTS ME TO SAY) since that whole wave hit. Call it nostalgia perhaps, or rose tinted glasses even. That said, I'm sure in 20 years, a lot of people will have similar takes on SO many popular music that is out today. 

Everything comes around. If you listen to meteora era Linkin Park and then listen to new Architects/Bring me the horizon/Spiritbox, it's basically like meteora in drop tuning. Same with freak on a leash. It would fit perfectly with the current wave of pop metal. The breakdown in freak on a leash is exactly something that architects would do that.

[Bloodporne]

I started listening to Metal as a kid in Germany so we were like 10 years behind and the subculture aspects of music are way more defined and strict in Europe. Or were maybe. I grew up on bargain bin albums because they were cheap so it was mainly weird European 80s Thrash and then stuff like Celtic Frost and Sodom. Totally different universe of Metal so I never could wrap my head around Nu Metal or any of this stuff. 

[Keyser_Soze]

4 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

I started listening to Metal as a kid in Germany so we were like 10 years behind and the subculture aspects of music are way more defined and strict in Europe. Or were maybe. I grew up on bargain bin albums because they were cheap so it was mainly weird European 80s Thrash and then stuff like Celtic Frost and Sodom. Totally different universe of Metal so I never could wrap my head around Nu Metal or any of this stuff. 

 

 

[Bloodporne]

23 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

 

This was actually a really nasty album but my big one was Persecution Mania. That was my version of Reign In Blood, totally blew me away. My other German favorite was Destruction's Infernal Overkill, endless great riffs.  

[Keyser_Soze]

22 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

This was actually a really nasty album but my big one was Persecution Mania. That was my version of Reign In Blood, totally blew me away. My other German favorite was Destruction's Infernal Overkill, endless great riffs.  

 

Yeah I just happened to listen to this one because it was part of that 1992 thread.

 

They actually released an album last year too and I thought it was good.

[Bloodporne]

12 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Yeah I just happened to listen to this one because it was part of that 1992 thread.

 

They actually released an album last year too and I thought it was good.

Sodom are like Motorhead, they just keep going and going until the main guy dies I assume. They have a million albums by now and I own like three or four. 

[Keyser_Soze]

21 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

Sodom are like Motorhead, they just keep going and going until the main guy dies I assume. They have a million albums by now and I own like three or four. 

 

Angelripper is 58 so as long as he doesn't OD I guess he could probably go on for a while.

[Bloodporne]

24 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Angelripper is 58 so as long as he doesn't OD I guess he could probably go on for a while.

That dude is as old school German working class as it gets, I think he legit just drinks beer like a fish and that's it. Some of my family is from the same part of Germany as him and when I watched a Sodom docu on YouTube, it was like hearing and seeing my uncle talk. I think Angelripper worked in the coal mines until after Agent Orange when he went full-time on Sodom.