It’s been building, quietly building but now there’s no denying it’s almost a full-scale takeover. Nu-metal isn’t just back. It’s got the keys and is in the driver’s seat. Bring The Noise UK are sitting backstage at Download and amongst the blur of chaos and energy, even here you can see nu-metal’s influence.
Around the fields of Donington, huge numbers of fans are marching between stages wearing the black shirted uniforms of heavy music’s past and present: Korn hoodies, Linkin Park shirts, Limp Bizkit red caps and this is just the tip of the metal iceberg.
Nu-metal isn’t nostalgia anymore, and few bands embody that resurrection quite like Snot. For vocalist Andy Knapp, the revival of the nu-metal scene is a joy as he looks around with the grin of someone still pinching himself.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s amazing to see everyone over here.”
Donington Park has always had a special relationship with heavy music, and now Snot find themselves welcomed back into a landscape that’s rediscovered the sound they helped define. Festival life, he says, offers a completely different buzz to headline shows.
“They’re quite fun. The festivals, you know, obviously there are way bigger crowds, but I feel like the energy is the same at both.”
The reemergence of a genre considered uncool or obsolete just a few years ago is impossible to ignore. Walk around Download this year and the evidence is everywhere. Nu-metal has gone from guilty pleasure to centre stage. Limp Bizkit continue to draw enormous crowds, Linkin Park remain one of the weekend’s biggest attractions, while a whole generation of younger fans have embraced the genre with the same enthusiasm as those who lived through its first explosion.
For Knapp, who grew up on the music himself, it’s a dream he never expected to witness. “Yeah, definitely. This whole resurgence of that genre has really taken off again. I feel like a kid again. I’m 50 years old now and this is the music that I grew up on, and the music that made me fall in love with wanting to play music. And this is just crazy that it’s back. It’s so strong.”
It’s difficult to argue. The revival stretches far beyond the obvious names. Back in America, bands once thought consigned to history are filling venues again.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s amazing. And even back home, a lot of bands, Primer 55, Spineshank, Cold, they’re all out playing again. I remember going and seeing those bands at the Whisky. It’s just really cool to see everybody getting that resurgence and that kind of second life. It’s pretty cool.”
That’s perhaps the biggest surprise of all. A few years ago, most people would have laughed at the suggestion that nu-metal would once again dominate festival line-ups. Musical fashions are supposed to move on. Genres fade away while sometimes scenes become memories. But not this one, not now.
Ask Knapp whether he ever imagined this moment arriving and the answer comes without hesitation.
“Oh, man. I mean, I’m the biggest Snot fan in the world, in my opinion, but no, I never thought I’d be in these shoes right now. I’m truly blessed and the opportunity is overwhelming. I’m pretty new to all this, so it’s a lot of new faces for me and it’s a lot of getting introduced to, like, who’s that, who’s that? Okay, it’s good to see you. So it’s all new to me, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun.”
That’s another hallmark of festival season. Between interviews and performances comes the chance to reconnect or, in Knapp’s case, make entirely new connections. He reveals to Bring The Noise UK he planned to spend what’s left of Download watching bands himself.
“Absolutely, I hope so. I would love to see Guns N’ Roses. I mean, come on. I’m an 80s kid as well. I’m looking forward to that. And I want to say I love Architects. Yeah, that’s going to be a tough clash as both on at the same time. That’s going to be tough. But that’s what’s cool with getting to do this with Snot, is we’ve been doing so many festivals that, like, if I don’t get to see them this festival, I’ll get to see them the next festival. So it’s pretty cool.”
That momentum isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
“Next three months? So we’re going to finish this tour in Europe and then I think we got some more stuff in the States. We’re going to do another Sick New World in Texas.
“And right now we’re just focusing on new music. We’ve been in the studio with Chris Collier. And as soon as I get home, I’m going back out to Vegas to track a couple more songs. And we’re just chipping away at the record and seeing what we like, seeing what we don’t like, trying to put this thing together and put together a new Snot record that we hope that the fans will dig, you know?”
With nu-metal enjoying a commercial and cultural revival, there could easily be a temptation to chase trends or recreate a sound designed purely to satisfy nostalgia.
Knapp has no interest in that.
“I wouldn’t say that too much. No, I wouldn’t say that at all. I’m sticking to what I know how to do. Stick to what we do best. Yeah, whatever comes out is going to be genuine and true. And I’m not going to try to fake the funk and be something that I’m not.”
Perhaps that’s the real secret behind nu-metal’s unexpected renaissance. The bands that survived never tried to become something else. They simply waited for the rest of the world to catch up again. The sound that defined the turn of the millennium never really disappeared. It just got louder.
Interview by: Eric Mackinnon
