10 Best Nu-Metal Albums Of The 90s
6. Kid Rock - Devil Without A Cause (1998)
Straddling the line between metal, country and rap, Kid Rock moved away from his pure hip-hop roots to inject a dose of heavy metal into his work. Devil Without A Cause saw Kid’s transition into the nu-metal kingdom without losing the Detroit trailer-park white-trash attitude - imagine Eminem with an Ibanez.
This attitude helped sell the ever popular metal-cowboy front to new found popularity, finding huge success with hits like Bawitdaba and I Am The Bullgod. The song Cowboy can even be credited as the birth of country rap, but that’s a different story.
The nu-metal stop on Kid Rock’s inevitable move to pure country couldn’t be stopped but the nu-metal Devil Without A Cause couldn’t have come at a better time near the peak of the genre. Like many other bands that used nu-metal as a stepping stone, it may not have defined Kid Rock’s eventual outcome, but it went a long way in the evolution process.
The country-rap-metal hybrid separates itself from the rest of the genre with a genuinely unique sound that hasn’t been replicated. Devil Without A Cause shows the reach nu-metal allowed artists to grab in a creative capacity and gave us one of the most unique nu-metal albums ever recorded.