B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Ballot) | The Nu Metal Rate | Winner Revealed

BWAAAAAAGGGHHH

Chino's voice is ear sex with just the right amount of distortion-pedal sound on it here, and the clean guitar riff has an incredible tone that I don't think anyone but Stephen Carpenter can quite nail. The "aaaAAAAaaaa" bits are instantly enthralling, and the lyrics involving actual words are just the right mixture of haunting and cryptic. The guitar parts in the chorus have this gorgeous shoegaze-ish sound that always made Deftones stick out, and the misty atmospheric synth sounds are a thing of beauty. This is the kind of thing is something only Deftones can pull off: the atmospheric nocturnal pull of trip-hop, the expertly-judged brooding of post-punk and goth rock, the vast textures of shoegaze, and the roiling emotional bloodletting of post-hardcore all on a weighty metal foundation (with some djent coming in over time too). They really are one of a kind. And still cranking out great albums to this day - all due respect to the other bands here, but I don't think any of them could credibly claim that they made their second-best album in 2012.

AND FUCKING LAST RESORT IS STILL IN?!

(Oh yeah, "Points of Authority" was pretty unfair too. Mike's intro rap is iconic: Lord knows he's not exactly Nas when it comes to dropping verses, but something about him just works with Chester's voice. Some more great electronics and scratch work there as well, Joe Hahn was always the band's biggest asset.)

 

I reckon we’ll be losing From The Inside next, but I have absolutely zero foundation to base that guess off. Call it Christmas intuition (it’s regular intuition, but more festive!)

 

Bah-humbug, I'm in a non-holiday spirit mood today, so let's get this done and dusted.

Nope, but it's another one of my 10's from the album.




#22







































Linkin Park | Lying From You | 7.606 (+0.047 average / 0.75 points)

Highest: 10x2 (@Ana Raquel, @DJHazey) 9.5x1 (@If You Go)

Lowest: 6x2 (@CorgiCorgiCorgi, @Sprockrooster) 6.5x3 (@Ironheade, @berserkboi, @unnameable)

Album: Meteora - 2003

Charting: 58

After the release of their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was the best-selling album of 2001. The band didn't waste any time getting started on its follow-up, Meteora. Many of the songs from the album were conceived on the back of a tour bus during Ozzfest 2001, including this track. The band wrote in the album's booklet: "Mike and Joe's studio equipment was installed in the back of a tour bus during the summer of 2001, and they put it to good use. Mike came up with the intro sample and chorus music for the song during an overnight bus drive during Ozzfest (Trying to record guitar in a moving bus can be very sloppy). But months later, in the studio at NRG, everything got cleaned up, replayed, and put together right."

Linkin Park rapper Mike Shinoda explained the song's meaning to ShoutWeb in 2003: "'Lying From You' is about pushing someone away. The title means, making up lies to make another person angry so that they don't want to be around you; which is something that some people do subconsciously in a relationship. That's not what my part of the song is about but I know that in a broader sense, when people start feeling negative feelings toward somebody else, just naturally they start doing things to make that person not want to be around them. It's a subliminal reaction. That works with friends. That works with relationships - either way, people do that."

This was released as a radio single in 2004 and peaked at #1 on the Alternative Airplay chart.

The band collaborated with Jay-Z on the mash-up album Collision Course in 2004. This tune was combined with Jay-Z's "Dirt Off Your Shoulder".

I always mentally categorize this song with "With You" from Hybrid Theory because they have similarly catchy and emotional choruses from Chester. The melody for both songs is my catnip and amazing for sing-alongs. The best part is the "I'd rather be all alone..." which is the exact peak of what I'm describing.

Commentary

@berserkboi - 6.5 - Calling back to their earlier stuff!

Exactly.

@unnameable – 6.5 – a bit Linkin Park by numbers.

Well at this stage in their career, that was still very strong.

@DominoDancing - 7.5 - The main guitar riff is cool, the rest of the song is just okay.

@livefrommelbs - 8 - This was never a fave of mine, but I'm enjoying it today all the same. Have an 8.

Songs

A couple more favorites from Meteora that didn't make the rate because they weren't singles.

Next: A Nu Metal Sampler song that has been called for at least once since we began.​

 

An actual look at the song list might have reminded me that this was here, and therefore likely to be going.

 

The thing with Meteora is that it really is, to me, Hybrid Theory 2: This Time It's Personal. There are differences - a bit more sample-based and more orchestral instrumentation - but aside from "Breaking the Habit" and "Nobody's Listening", it's basically just more of the same, to the point that I think a lot of the tracks are direct parallels.

Thus, "Lying from You" = "With You" pt. 2. It has a pretty strong and emotional hook, but the rest of the song plods a bit. Probably the weakest Meteora track here.

 

It's actually the song that has been asked for the most that just misses the Top 20.




#21



























































































Crazy Town | Butterfly | 7.672 (+0.066 average / +1.05 points)

Highest: 11x1 (@Sprockrooster) 10x3 (@Untouchable Ace, @berserkboi, @soratami)

Lowest: 1x1 (@DominoDancing) 3.5x1 (@Ironheade)

Album: The Gift of Game - 1999

Charting: 1 3

The album had been out for a year and a half before this became a hit. It was the third single from Crazy Town. They first released harder songs "Toxic" and "Darkside," which flopped. Crazy Town toured with Buckcherry, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Methods Of Mayhem for two years before the breakout hit.
​

Crazy Town lead singer Shifty Shellshock (Seth Binzer) wrote this song about the girl he was seeing at the time. The two were living together at the time, and she collected butterflies. As Shellshock tells it, he was lying on the bed, thinking about what to call his song, when he spotted a butterfly on the ceiling. That gave him the title, and he later came up with the line, "You're my butterfly, sugar baby." He brought the idea to the band, and they loved the idea; they recorded the demo that very evening. ​

This samples "Pretty Little Ditty" from The Red Hot Chili Peppers album Mother's Milk. After writing the lyrics, Shellshock asked his producer to give it a mellow feel similar to "Under the Bridge" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The video was directed by a team that worked on the movies The Matrix and What Dreams May Come. It is based on the images from What Dreams May Come. Shifty Shellshock's then-girlfriend Cynthia is in the music video.

It was named the 34th "Most Awesomely Bad Song Ever" by VH1.

It was also rated number 3 on Billboard's chart for one-hit wonders of the 2000s, compiled in 2009.

I tend to remember that the 'meme' at the time was that the song was actually about Shifty's love for marijuana and other drugs and not about a girlfriend at all. The sample and romantic qualities of "Butterfly" make it quite the departure from the rest of their material, which is much harder. I tend to think other songs have aged better for them, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't get my life while rating it...probably from nostalgia more than anything else. The best line is "whatever tickles your fancy, girl it's me and you like a Sid and Nancy" as well as "So butterfly here is a song and it's sealed with a kiss and a thank you miss". Shifty's rapping is very enjoyable to sing along to as many lines just flow together perfectly. Also, I used to sing this to a different girlfriend at the time (different from the Deftones fan one) and let's just say it worked like a charm as far as scoring brownie points with the ladies.

Commentary

@DominoDancing - 1 - Trash, trash, trash. Any hint of musicality one might have detected in this is down to the RHCP interpolation. Crazy Town had nothing to offer.

I'd actually like to hear it with a more aggressive instrumental. To me the lyrics are the best part anyway.

@Maki - 4.5 - Hazey, I think there's a rap song in a nu metal rate.

Rap is a very important element/influence to a lot of nu metal.

@Twitch Mo - 7.5 - Despite its rating of 7.5 this will always be classic for me so many things were going on in my life this song pulls my mind in so many directions.

I'm very aware of the life events he is likely referring to and I will respect his privacy on them of course, but I wasn't aware of the song helping him push through them. I do remember when we really got into this album and it was when we were playing video games in his upstairs bedroom (before he moved it to basement). It was actually on this really old PC he had re-built and he had a program that allowed him to use it as a telephone. His brother Joe was on the phone with one of his first girlfriends. (Joe was always this big ladie's man, or so he thought) yet we couldn't stop laughing because we could listen in on the call through the PC and all we heard was "so, the weather was nice today" and no much more than that and dead air. Then Twitch Mo decided to start pushing random numbers on the keyboard. Next the thing we know Joe comes running up the stairs with literally every house-phone in his arms yelling "I've got all the phones, who is doing it!?!?! WHO!!?!1!" Oh my God, rolling on the floor laughing man.

@Ana Raquel - 8.5 - This one sounds a bit out of place sound-wise compared to the others but at the same time it doesn't? her mind etc.

It is true, but my reasoning was if songs like "Drive" and "Breaking the Habit" are getting in with a far-reaching fringe nu metal sound, then this has to considering how big of a hit it was, maybe the biggest in the rate.
​

@livefrommelbs - 9.25 - A classic! I feel like everyone loved this song when it came out? Takes me back to 6th grade, when baggy jeans and chunky skate shoes were all the rage.

I never got into the baggie jeans thing. I HATE when my pants drag under my sneakers and always have. My brother loved them though and always had to have the latest JNCOs, Pelle Pelles, or Paco's.

@unnameable – 9.5 – riding that rap-metal trend as far as it would go

@berserkboi - 10 - If it weren’t for Linkin Park - I would still have participated to support this song! Kinda was into this man growing up too ddd

Well that's the first I've heard that. Always good to hear people with off the beaten path taste. Some of the celebrities I call cute have other guys saying "WTF?".

Sprockrooster - 11 - The eternal summerbop and also massive man-crush I had into one. It is a true metamorphosis for my musical style. Hardrock made gay in a way.
​

Okay nevermind, apparently Shifty "Switchblade" was quite sex symbol!​

Songs

Here's probably the hardest two songs from the album. If you're looking for a wild ride click play on these bops.

Next: Another 'Sampler' song.​

 

Top 20

Linkin Park | Papercut
Linkin Park | One Step Closer
Linkin Park | Crawling
Linkin Park | Runaway
Linkin Park | In the End
Linkin Park | My<Dsmbr
Linkin Park | Somewhere I Belong
Linkin Park | Faint
Linkin Park | Breaking the Habit
Linkin Park | From the Inside
Linkin Park | Numb
System of a Down | Chop Suey!
System of a Down | Aerials
System of a Down | Hypnotize
Alien Ant Farm | Movies
Incubus | Drive
Korn | Freak on a Leash
Papa Roach | Last Resort
Rammstein | Du Hast
Rob Zombie | Dragula​

 

Well, "Butterfly" is... uh... lame. (That "Sid and Nancy" line is sooooo corny.) Its good qualities are mostly due to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I did rate it a little higher than I did in the 2000's #1's rate, so I guess that's something?

Alien Ant Farm are the dark horse I wasn't expecting, it looks like! Anyway, I'd be happy to see the back of "Last Resort". Could probably also afford to trim the Linkin Park field a bit... since the two songs I'd actually like to leave probably won't, I'll go with "Runaway".

 

I'm just happy Korn managed to get one song into the Top 20. Considering they are the fore-fathers of nu metal, that feels right.

 

Shifty is the Nu-Metal David Charvet confirmed!! Dd

 

These two eliminations..........

I only have one low score left (I wonder what it is) but I don't think it's gonna leave soon... get rid of my two Linkin Park 7s then?

 

This just makes me think Brooke Burke, so thank you for that.

 

I just realized I still have a 2.5 left in that Top 20, and I really have no idea how that song stuck around for so long...

 

Well that lasted long...



#20




Korn | Freak on a Leash | 7.713 (+0.041 average / 0.65 points)

Highest: 11x1 (@Twitch Mo) 10.5x1 (@DJHazey)

Lowest: 3.5x1 (@berserkboi) 4.4x1 (@Untouchable Ace)

Album: Follow the Leader - 1998

Charting: 24 106

The band wrote the lyrics about the music industry, which he compares to an owner walking a dog. While he's this freak being paraded around, corporate America is making all the money... and it's taking a part of him. Korn shares the songwriting credits, so the entire band is listed as composers. Guitarists Brian "Head" Welch explained that the song came together quickly. "Korn's biggest singles came pretty fast like that," he said in an 2013 interview. "We were just jamming and it kind of fell together."

Davis speaks further about the meaning behind the song: "That's my song that rails out against the music industry. It's about how I feel like I'm a fuckin' prostitute. Like I'm this freak paraded around, but I got corporate America fuckin' making all the money while it's taking a part of me. It's like they stole something from me–they stole my innocence and I'm not calm anymore. I worry constantly. I'm not just talkin' about the record business. Everything's involved. I've lost something. I'm not all there anymore. I love what I do, but I wish I could have it all back. It's like the 'Peter Pan syndrome.' I wish I could still fly."

The original composition had a "noisy guitar break in the middle," but, after the group found out that radio stations are not fond of "noisy guitar breaks," they voted 4–1 to remove the break, with Davis being the lone holdout.

Korn won their only Grammy for this song. It was for the Best Short Form Music Video of 1999.

The video, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, won two MTV Video Music Awards, one for Best Rock Video and another for Best Editing. It features a bullet speedily traveling through scenes of children playing and in school, among other things. It was based on an old public service announcement about gun control.

The cartoon in the beginning of the video was drawn by Todd McFarlane, who also made the video for "Do The Evolution" by Pearl Jam.

In 2007, Korn recorded a live acoustic version of this song with Amy Lee.

Although this is the second song on the CD, on some versions it is listed as track 14. On these copies, the first 12 tracks are made up of a few seconds of silence each.

This is the version I had and thought it was the only one. Also after the final track 25, there's like 15 minutes of dead silence before a secret song plays.

The song made VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s" list at number 69, and VH1's "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs" at number 48.

In 2017, Spin ranked it as number 1 on their list of the 30 greatest nu metal songs of all time.

I guess you could compare it to how OK Go had that one song in the indie rock rate that we discussed as being more memorable for the video and maybe the first example of a music video going viral. It's hard to make the case that "Follow the Leader" did the same thing because all TRL videos were going viral. This was one of the only nu metal videos 'retired' by MTV's Total Request Live though. That was an achievement because it had to make the countdown a certain number of days before they did that. Did I also give my 10.5 to stand in unity with my friend Twitch Mo? Maybe so. If I had a lie detector test, would I say I even prefer "Falling Away From Me"? Maybe so as well. That being said, it's an easy 10 and Korn is one of my all-time favorite bands/artists. "Freak on a Leash" is a cornerstone song for the genre, the Jonathan Davis 'freak out' moment of a middle eight is one of the most iconic moments in all of music, and I felt like this had a better chance for Korn to go far. I'll take a Top 20 placement as a small victory.

Commentary

@berserkboi - 3.5 - Never really loved this past the Music Video

Maybe I should've had a "you can rate based on any version of the song or solely on the video".

@unnameable – 7 – this song makes me think Korn weren’t as heavy as I remembered

#popmetal

@Maki - 7 - Somehow wasn't familiar with this one and I kinda expected more? I do enjoy when it picks up during the final minute.

"Go!" *disgusting guitar shredding*

@livefrommelbs - 7 - I've never been a massive Korn fan, so I was excited to give their tracks another go-round. But... still not a fan, really. 7 seems fair. I always remember being fascinated by the Follow The Leader album cover art though.

@DominoDancing - 9 - Korn were always a lot so it's no surprise that it took them just about one more album after this to turn into total self caricature, but this is them at a peak, musically. This is actually kinda fun and manages to avoid the monotone grim-darkness of a lot of their work.

This was their sell-out era I'd argue, but it was just so good we never noticed. Untouchables is their peak artistically, or their debut. Just my two cents though.

Twitch Mo - 11 - This was a tough one as there are a few songs on this list that I would want to put at the top, but looking back at it this song is the Pivoting point of my Music Genre preference.

I knew from day one this would be his 11, so his debate was always "would something come close to overtaking it?"

Songs

One of my favorites from Follow the Leader is this collaboration with Ice Cube. It's right up there with Limp Bizkit's song with Method Man "N 2 Gether Now"

The 7:12 epic to end the album known as "My Gift to You". It starts with an amazing bagpipe solo leading into a dark-themed adventure with melodies for days. It's a very personal song to Jonathan because he wrote it for his first wife Renee Perez. They had a very twisted relationship where they would leave each other love-notes with stuff like "25 ways I'd love to kill you" but not in a hateful way if that makes any sense. (I know Jonathan has always been fascinated with death and at one point in his life was an avid collector of serial killer artifacts) This a song where Jonathan fantasizes about choking Renee to death during an intimate moment because he loves her so much he wants to help her leave this world altogether. Apparently, that's just what she wanted him to write.

Next: Hybrid Theory​

 

Good guess.



#19






Linkin Park | Runaway | 7.897 (+0.184 average / +2.95 points)

Highest: 9.5x1 (@livefrommelbs) 9.25x1 (@If You Go)

Lowest: 6x1 (@Sprockrooster) 6.5x1 (@DominoDancing)

Album: Hybrid Theory - 2000

Charting: -- (just rock/alternative lists)

The song was written by the band and Mark Wakefield, the band's original lead vocalist.

It originated from it's predecessor, Stick and Move in 1996, off their original Xero mix tape.

The band wrote One Step Closer while trying to write this song.

It is one of the few songs on Hybrid Theory to contain unusually little rapping by Mike, much like Crawling.

The remix on Reanimation is titled "[email protected]".

This is one of the songs that is listed as promotional single on wikipedia, but other sites are also saying it wasn't released as any kind of a single. I'll be honest and say I settled on 14 songs for Linkin Park after getting any single or promotional single listed on wikipedia, but this does sound like a filler track for the rate in retrospect. I only gave it a 7 myself. It used to get tons of play back then of course, but it's not nearly as good as their best from Hybrid Theory. Chester's chorus doesn't have enough bite to it, if you ask me. There's not enough from Mike to mix things up and we're left with something that is very Linkin Park By Numbers. However, this is the biggest difference between scores that we've had for quite some time, so Korn never had a chance to go from #20 to #19. The non-10 high score shows nobody really LOVED it, yet this isn't the last time we'll see a non-10 high score. Another example of people voting in this rate and liking all Linkin Park songs well enough and the Sample tunes would almost always get at least one major hater score.

Commentary

@DominoDancing - 6.5 - Melodically this is pretty cool...while it is melodic. The screamy bits are produced kinda lame, with a very safe 'let's lower the vocals volume' approach.

It's very much all of those things, really.

@Maki - 7.5 - There's something slightly annoying about the chorus of this song, though the production definitely manages to make up for that.

The "Iwannarunaway" middle eight Chester-scream part is the only true highlight for me.
​

@unnameable – 8 – more exquisite expressions of guilt.​

@Twitch Mo - 8 - DJHazey and I referred to this song as the bubble song because of the sounds at the beginning of the song.

Haha, I actually barely remember that but it's definitely true.

@berserkboi - 9 - Beautifully conflicted!

Songs

Next: SOAD​

 

#22 Linkin Park // Lying From You 7
#21 Crazy Town // Butterfly 9.5

Song forever linked to the intro scene from the romcom Something's Gotta Give:

#20 Korn // Freak on a Leash 10
#19 Linkin Park // Runaway 6

 

Damn, how those scores would've changed everything!

 

'Butterfly' was totally the basic bop of the rate, wasn't it?

 

Hey guys, taking a three-day weekend for New Year's. I will be back Monday for #18 and so forth. I will try to get a double-elimination day or two sometime next week!

Happy New Year's to all, may 2022 be a million times better for everyone!

 

Enjoy your long weekend, looking forward to the next eliminations in the new year!