The time is nigh, my friends. VH1 declared ’90s nostalgia relevant way before its time, but now it’s almost 2010… and ’90s nu-metal nostalgia is starting to creep into mainstream culture on a more organic level. Aside from shitstains like Hollywood Undead seemingly arriving via time-warp and stalwarts like (hed)p.e. completely neglecting the passage of an entire decade (punk, dude!), the generally on-point Sergeant D of Metal Inquisition posted a retroview of Crazytown’s entire discography over the holidays. This is the man who consistently pays non-ironic tributes to Nitro, and anyone who loves Nitro non-ironically is A-ok in our book.

But yo son, for realz: Crazytown?

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Yesterday an advanced copy of the album by a certain nu metal band that shall go unnamed arrived at the MetalSucks Mansion. “Why the fuck would they send us this?” Vince wondered aloud, noting that we have never, ever, ever had anything nice to say about this particular group.

“Dude,” I countered, “At least we write about them. That’s more than I can say for most sites.”

Which got me to thinking: is there no one carrying the nu metal torch?

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From the Wikipedia entry on nu-metal:

The term was first used for a review of a 1997 Coal Chamber Concert in Italy. Categorization of specific artists as “nu metal” is difficult, an issue made more prevalent in the online community by traditional metal fans who take offense to the term. Nu metal began as a mix of different genres, so the definition is not solid. Linkin Park’s Meteora, for example, is listed as “alternative” on AOL Music Now, and three different genres (“rock”, “metal”, and “alternative”) on Metacritic. Because their style was not clearly defined, nu metal bands were often considered within multiple other genres. For example, Korn and Deftones cross into alternative metal, Limp Bizkit and P.O.D. cross into rapcore, Disturbed crosses over into hard rock, and Linkin Park and cross into alternative rock.

While Korn was one of the bands that founded the nu metal genre, they do not want to be placed in this category. In interviews, the band claims that they “… hate the nu-metal term,” arguing that it “… doesn’t mean anything.”

AOL Music Now and Metacritic, those bastions of sub-genre truth, coming to the rescue again. Thanks God! And shit, it’s nice to know Mr. Davis, Munky and co. don’t think the term nu-metal “means anything,” but that doesn’t change the fact that Korn still sucks.

-VN