New Wave of American Heavy Metal - History

History

The New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement has its origins in a group of post-grunge acts from the 1990s that brought heavy metal "back to its core brutality and drawing not from the traditional blues formula but from NYHC, thrash metal and punk." According to Garry Sharpe-Young, the groundbreaking bands that started the movement are Pantera, Biohazard, Slipknot, and Machine Head. wrote in his book Metal: A Definitive Guide that the NWOAHM saw a distinct uprising in the early 2000s following the over-saturation of nu-metal in the mainstream. He writes "a fresh audience was ushered in, who wanted the same degree of aggression but laced with more finesse. ... Breakdowns had been replaced by well-engineered riffs; where once there was an annoying turntable scratch, the space was filled by the long-overdue return of the guitar solo." Joel McIver in his book The Next Generation of Rock & Punk claims Korn to be the first band labeled as nu-metal, starting the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.

Producers behind the 2005 documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey write of the NWOAHM: "In essence, NWOAHM can embody the seething aggression of the 'hardcore' hormone, but play a type of acrobatic, precise, technical thrash/death metal synthesis regularly touched by the melody of traditional metal, but often just briefly. Vocally, these bands huddle around Pantera-derived roar, leaning toward a death metal bark, but often with 'clean' or 'sung' vocals as ear candy, sometimes from a member of the band who is not the front man." The producers also reference Unearth, Shadows Fall, and Lamb of God as "leaders of the pack". In the book New Wave of American Heavy Metal, when listing the wave's most popular contributors, Garry Sharpe-Young "included some of the older bands that show the real roots of metalcore, like Agnostic Front and the whole NYHC, plus the groups that broke the metal scene into new territory after grunge — Pantera, Biohazard, and Machine Head. From there it gets really diverse, crossing the spectrum from melodic death metal to progressive metal and everything in between." Sharpe-Young lists the broad range of styles in the movement as ranging from the Christian metalcore scene, the 70's progressive rock of Coheed and Cambria, melodic death metal, and the screamo and "sub-Gothique" emocore of Alkaline Trio and My Chemical Romance. Beyond this, the movement encompasses a number of different styles including metalcore, groove metal, alternative metal, and hardcore punk.