10 Best Nu-Metal Albums Of The 90s

The grandaddy. The original. Korn’s self-titled entry is the album that stoked the fire that is the nu-metal movement.

Led by Jonathan Davis’ unique miserable groan, self-loathing attitude, and emotionally driven lyrics, Korn invented a completely new genre with their debut album. The album managing to fuse together aspects from every realm of the metal scene on top of introducing heavy industrial themes, hip-hop elements and the totally out of place yet beloved bagpipe solo. The album is scarred with disturbingly distorted bass, uber-aggressive licks and a drum beat that could shatter bones. This approach ended up produced THE most monumental nu-metal album of the 90s.

The album signified Korn’s entry into the unknown - patient-zero. It’s hard to imagine how just one album could start a musical revolution, but all it took was one misunderstood band to stand up and take on the rest of the music industry.

Korn by Korn will always be seen as ground zero for nu-metal - the anarchic sound of generation X. Little did anyone at the time realise just how figuratively Davis was speaking when uttering ‘that’ infamous line from Blind; “are you ready?!”.