This week the music world paid their tributes to the late Chester Bennington, as it marked the 4-year anniversary since his death. It goes without saying that he and the rest of Linkin Park had a massive influence over some of the top bands in the heavy music scene today (here’s an interview with Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon on the impact Chester had on him). Although the remaining members are still together and currently working on new music, it will undoubtedly be missing a key component.
One of the most distinctive elements of Linkin Park’s music, at least in the early days, was their mix of hip hop and rap with heavy, throat-ripping vocals. Recently, there seems to be an uptick in bands that are reinventing that energy. Is this a direct result of the void that was created after Chester passed? Are music fans HUNGRY for that sound again? Some of it tends to spin-off a little into Trap Metal (which I also think is rad, see artists like Jasiah and Scarlxrd), but what I’m talking about here is a straight revival of the 90’s nu-metal that we all secretly jam to while watching Finn McKenty videos.
Here are 5 bands I think are the future of the sound.
Dropout Kings - “Virus”
If you don’t get Linkin Park vibes from this song after the first 5 seconds then your ears are broken. Don’t get it twisted though, they are in no way a knock-off of LP, they bring the an undeniably fresh spin on the genre while basically being a gateway drug to the revival.
Blind Channel - “Dark Side”
I came across this band on Octane and initially thought “that hook is so cheesy…let me listen to it 100 more times though.” Let’s be real, some of what made nu-metal great was the cheese factor and this band pulls it out while making it fun and catchy as hellll.
Afterlife - “Part of Me”
The vocalist Tyler followed me on Instagram and commented on my stuff. I thought he was just a nice dude (which he is), I had no idea he was the frontman for this Hopeless Records band. He never even pitched me his stuff, ha. I guess he had a pretty rough childhood and this song is about that (a classic nu-metal topic).
RedHook - “Cure 4 Psycho”
This is a band I’ve been watching for years now out of Australia. They always have such an interesting blend of alt-rock and I don’t know if they fit perfectly in the nu-metal description, but I think this song is damn close. Also, not for nothing, but vocalist Emmy Mack has some incredible star-quality.
Dead Eyes - “Break in the Current”
A bit of a more experimental, Slaves/Jonny Craig approach to nu-metal with this one, but again, all the elements are there.
Hear them all and more on this playlist