Part XI
Ever since the second half of the Nineties, heavy metal seems to constantly be on the verge of coming back, which reinstates the fact that the heavy metal/punk scene seems to fit quite comfortably into the historic theory of cycles. Initially, the reunion and comeback tours of acts such as Kiss, Black Sabbath, Riot, Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, Poison, and several other bands were responsible for leading to such a belief, but it only took a couple of years before it became apparent that most of these events were nothing but mere business, turmoil-ridden compromises, or flashes in the pan without true staying power. On the other hand, however, Europe has been leading a full-blown explosion of heavy metal for years now, and the United States has meanwhile opened itself slowly to some styles, although it is still far from being the metal hotbed it was in the Eighties.
Particularly surprising is the partial resurgence of heavy metal in the United States, as the bands that have been part of it are probably the heaviest and most shocking to ever reach wide media rotation, although certainly not the heaviest or most shocking ever in the whole spectrum of metal. One of the new tendencies began as rap metal, or rapcore; a combination that was experimented with by older groups such as Anthrax, the Bad Brains, and Aerosmith; and played constantly by more obscure outfits like Clawfinger and Hard Corps, but that lately has been taking a harder turn. Somewhat pioneered by the controversial Ice-T-led Body Count along with the popular and politically active Rage Against the Machine during the early Nineties, the movement would nevertheless truly hit it big when it turned into what is now called nu-metal. Pioneered without a doubt by Korn and Deftones, and ridiculed by some who consider it not to be metal, the style owns many of its characteristics to Faith No More and that band's song "Jizzlobber." Jerky drumming, slap bass, downtuned guitars with dirty distortion, and "tortured" vocals that borrow much from rap have indeed become a commercially successful mixture as of late, and other bands such as Limp Bizkit and Coal Chamber have been quick to exploit it. The scene, however, has recently been under severe attack from non-mainstream metal sources, with bands like Linkin' Park standing accused of being the nu-metal equivalent of bands such as Silverchair and Nelson, and others like Papa Roach shamelessly ripping off Iron Maiden!
