Who are the "Nicklebacks" of Metal?

[Fireproof]

Okay - this may be a silly thread. BUT... I workout a lot (5 days/week in the gym) and love listening to hard rock / metal for my workouts. For some reason I've been inspired to find some new metal to listen to, and have been letting Spotify playlists and such recommend and cue things up. My "old school" choices, just FYI, have been Metallica (my very first foray into Metal when Kill 'Em All came out), Megadeth, Slipknot, Showdown, Hellyeah, Disturbed, some Trivium, Volbeat, on occasion, and that kind of stuff.

Beyond that I don't really know "metal" and especially all the genres/sub-genres of metal.

But I've been served up some bands that I'm digging. Latest ones I've come across that I dig the guitar/sound/vocals are Fox Lake, Thrown, Fit for a King, and some others I can't remember now.

But it got me thinking... I KNOW everyone is free to like what they like, LOL. But if I'm going to be diving into some new metal, I'd prefer it be bands that are respected, and not bands that are universally panned or made fun of, LMAO.

Does that even make sense?

Anyway - if you have any guidance on some "must check out" based on what i've said above, or "FP, if you start listening to so-and-so, we'll have to kick you off TGF" - then let me have it.

(And please - no one take this too seriously, but I am looking for suggestions)

 

[saarangnarayan]

I think Nickelback is the Nickelback of Metal, no? Jokes aside, if you enjoy the bands you mentioned, I'd definitely dive into Lamb of God and Mastodon immediately. LoG is that band that makes kinda the same album everytime, but boy, do they make them well. Mastodon is the exact opposite and their sound changes every two albums; sometimes even more. I'd also reccommend August Burns Red if you are into the 2000's metalcore with tons of 0-0-0-0-0-0 but much more complex and prog-y than the crabcore/Warped Tour bands. Avenged Sevenfold is a pretty good contendor as well. Killswitch Engage and Bullet For My Vallentine are also classic 00s metalcore. If you want to go 90s metal, then In Flames, Sepultura, and Fear Factory are my personal favourites. And speaking of Industrial Metal, Rammstein has some killer songs to workout/run to. Someone will inevitably also mention Meshuggah, so do check them out if you haven't already. And then there's the post-Meshuggah 2000-2010s djent bands like Periphery, Tesseract, Veil of Maya... all very, very good, but can be an acquired taste if you're not into (or too into, I guess?) Meshuggah in the first place.

P.S.—Nickelback actually have some pretty decent songs and their mixes sound SOLID.

 

[Fireproof]

Thank you! Great suggestions. I’ve heard of some but not all so definitely gives me some direction. Looking forward to it.

I do have Rammstein on a playlist and did the few songs I’ve heard for sure.

Meshuggah - I remember a friend recommending them but for some reason I don’t think I ever checked them out.

And I’m not much of a Nickelback hater - they’ve just become such a meme I thought I’d toss that in here for fun. Ha.

 

[saarangnarayan]

Meshuggah - I remember a friend recommending them but for some reason I don’t think I ever checked them out.

They can be a bit hard to get into initially if you're not used to (poly)rhythm-based guitar music, but boy, once you get it, you GET it.

Curious to see what you think of the metalcore bands I mentioned, though. I feel like some of them have a similar reputation as the '80s hair metal bands do. I still love me a good breakdown, especially if the drummer has a China in the mix.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

[…] the metalcore bands I mentioned […] have a similar reputation as the '80s hair metal bands do. […]

 

[sleewell]

old hatebreed is great for working out

 

[Jarick]

100% agree with everything @saarangnarayan wrote.

I'd define the "Nickelback" flag as a band that crossed over into pop and then started to write really bland and generic songs. I've been diving into 2000's rock and as part of that was listening to Nickelback, they did have some solid songs early on but over time it's just the same four chord crap. Staind was another band like this, some cool songs on their first couple albums but really bad bland and forgettable over time.

Avenged Sevenfold comes to mind for right or wrong...after Rev died they did one really interesting album with Portnoy and then after that basically copied Metallica's black album (I think right down to the samples they used). Pretty generic at that point.

It's not proper metal, but the metalcore stuff from the mid/late 2000's morphed into horrible cookie cutter crap IMO. Every single band looked and sounded the same. The songs are all screaming over single note riffs and double bass on the verse and then cuts to half time in the chorus with a poppy sing along vocal and then a "break down". Every band had skinny white dudes with black hair and tattoos everywhere (which eventually morphed into beer bellies, beards, and shaved heads when the hairline faded).

One former metalcore band that you either love or hate, one of my favorite bands of all time if you want something that can go from groovy to proggy to poppy to heavy as hell is Dance Gavin Dance.





Their new single is one of the weirdest mashups I've ever head, featuring George Clinton of all people. Like it goes from groovy poppy R&B to 70's funk to mumble rap to metal. I don't have any words.

 

[Stone]

100% agree with everything @saarangnarayan wrote.
Same here

Love me some KSE

 

[Stone]

Dunno if you Know Opeth? Killer Prog Metal

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Dunno if you Know Opeth? Killer Prog Metal

Ghost Reveries & Watershed are the albums I‘d recommend. They really perfected their style on these, before they turned into Krautrock (not meant in a negative way, I actually really enjoy some of that stuff).

 

[JiveTurkey]

Opeth is awesome. I love the proggy Krautrock stuff too One of my favorite things is the windy, melodic prog groove bits then Akerfeldt goes full rabid bear vocal


As far as workout music goes, not that I ever worked out ; I am betting @sleewell Hatebreed suggestion along with Rammstein is probably the best you could do metal-wise for this endeavor \m/

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Another band I would recommend is Gojira, especially the Magma album. It may be their most ‘commercial’ album, but I think the band's rhythm-based style is ideal for physical exercises, yet they are much more sophisticated than many others. Music for both the body and the mind.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Opeth is awesome. I love the proggy Krautrock stuff too One of my favorite things is the windy, melodic prog groove bits then Akerfeldt goes full rabid bear vocal [...]

#perfection

 

[JiveTurkey]

#perfection

 

[Fireproof]

Nice!! I’m excited I have a lot of new stuff to check out. Of course, today is my REST DAY! haha. Will give me time to sample some things and build a playlist.

Those are great suggestions. It’s funny - I’ve heard of a lot of those bands like LOG, Opeth, KSE, Hatebreed, etc. But just never was motivated to check them out for whatever reason. Was more into classic rock and hard rock. And in my earlier attempts, I think i was turned off by the vocals. I just didn’t get it. Now it doesn’t bother me and I like them.

Will be cool to have some new music to get into.

Speaking of “new” - not that I don’t have a lot to catch up on with the above recommendations - but are there any NEW bands on the seen like in the recent 5 years that are worth checking out?

 

[dbagchee]

Add Soilwork to the mix.

 

[yek]

I think of (later) Metallica as the Nickelback of metal.

On that topic:

 

[MTB1973]

In Flames.

 

[DrewJD82]

New bands I’ve been diggin- (technically not new, but now getting more recognition than they previously did)







As for the ‘Nickelback’ of metal thing, I might rub some the wrong way with this one, but it’s Sleep Token for me. The whole Taylor Swift aspect of their popularity in the last year has just made me nauseated hearing them and the songs seem so fucking on-the-nose ‘of course you like it, they took the flavor of the month metal; djent, and mixed it with the always-popular R&B’ I dug a couple songs when they first came out but almost immediately got turned off from it when I started seeing all the “Why is Sleep Token so popular?” articles popping up on social media…..the very shit they use to drive up clicks when people inevitably say “Ok, I need to see why everyone is talking about these guys….” and then they use those Plays metrics to prove how popular a band is, whether or not people stuck around to keep listening after checking them out.

 

[dbagchee]

Sleep Token for me is an example of taking some good schtik/creative idea and then going in the wrong direction. I’m also not big on the mask/mystery fad (see also Ghost). Slipknot already did it.