Is Creed nu-metal? Probably not. But it didn't stop them from putting out what is either a post-grunge album three years too late or a buttrock album about five years too early. Yes, this album somehow came out in 1997 (a fact so improbable Bryan says it came out in the 2000s multiple times during the episode), and it somehow sold six million American copies! That despite being largely devoid of hooks and hits, Scott Stapp doing a poor man's Eddie Vedder for 60 straight minutes, and the production sounding like garbage. But hey, at least Creed were awesome dudes everyone loved! Just kidding. The Spin profile we read in this episode has to be heard to be believed. In the immortal words of Arizona Cardinals' head coach Dennis Green, "they are who we thought they were".

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We've covered four of Korn's "Big Five" album run from 1994-2002, and only one remained, the one that might arguably be their best: "Issues". Jonathan Davis gets sober and decides that Korn should be the new Led Zeppelin, and by that he means release an album every year. That lasted for one album ("Untouchables" would take 3 years and 4 million dollars), and it's this one, where they release "Follow the Leader", tour hardcore for a year, and then immediately his the studio for this one. It results in another slew of insanely good singles, a super tight album we both love, and a press cycle that was almost non-existent, as the press had decided they were done with them. No high profile features, poor album reviews, but one great, great album.

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We think the story goes thusly: Kid Rock has some success in circles he did not expect (like Adult Pop radio) with "Only God Knows Why". He also has a lot of success with more nu-metal offerings like "Bawitdaba" and "Cowboy". He knows he cannot release an entire album of "Only God Knows Why"'s. But you know who can? Enter Uncle Kracker, Kid Rock's unassuming and reluctant DJ who has a decent singing voice and can, in fact, release an entire album of country-adjacent and hip-hop-adjacent songs that all hit exactly one note, but that one note leads to "Follow Me", yet another massive crossover hit. Was this album ahead of its time? Did Uncle Kracker even care to make it? We dig into that and much, much more. Also, Bryan got his eyebrow pierced. Twice.

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We dive into Fear Factory for the first time ever on the pod, and this is a concept album: just ask the band members. Or maybe only ask one of them, because if you compare all of their answers, no one is *really* sure what this album is about. What we DO know is that Police 2000 are involved. An album that flirts with nu-metal but never quite gets there, we both agree that Fear Factory would've been better off doing a full Nu turn, because that's when they're at their best. "Edgecrusher" is an all-time Nu song and every song has moments where the band sounds amazing. In between that, it's Burton C. Bell singing pretty badly, some pretty boring guitar parts, a whack of 6-minute songs, and a WHOLE lot of lore that imagines a dystopian world not unlike every dystopia you've ever heard of before, one where...get this...machine begins to rule man. I know, crazy, right?

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After literal years of trying, one of Bryan's most beloved nu-metal albums, "Strictly Diesel", gets the P.O.D. Kast treatment, and it's probably no surprise that he still loves it...but John loves it too. A true testament of the era, it has all the production quality and heaviness of a late-90s nu-metal album from one of the rare bands that wasn't afraid to say they really liked Korn, Deftones, and Fear Factory, and tried to make an album that borrowed from all of them. We do bemoan the lack of a single on the album in a nu-metal era that demanded singles, and felt like that could've been the one piece the band was missing to truly catapult them to stardom. That and maybe that they admit they were drunk almost all of the time and they certainly were not smart, as Jonny Santos gives us one of the funniest quotes in the show's history. But hey, we love them and we love this album.

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Bryan goes all the way back to 1997 and relives a lot of his friends and himself grappling with the fact that this dance music was hitting very hard but at the end of the day, was still dance music. John, on the other hand, only knew The Prodigy as a band with 100% bangers and a premium place on the absolutely iconic Canadian compilation album, "Big Shiny Tunes 2". It's a lot to unpack for what is ultimately one of the biggest albums we've ever covered that sold multiple millions of copies, went to #1 in an absurd number of countries, and sent two songs to the top of the UK Singles Charts. It was a moment in time, and The Prodigy captured it perfectly, and we try to capture that all here. Plus, we dive in on the 2026 Sonic Temple lineup and poster.

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Last time we covered a Hoobastank album, we learned of the conspiracy theory that they might be the feds. This time, we're wondering if they're Canadian because they seem like very nice, normal, well-adjusted guys, and the lead singer's name is "Doug Robb", which is possibly the most Canadian name of all-time. Regardless, we find ourselves bowing down to the power that is the song "The Reason", one of the all-time great nu-metal-adjacent ballads, and the rest of the album actually isn't half-bad either. We also do our annual peek at the Sick New World lineup which is expanded to two shows this year, and we pay our respects to the departed Sam Rivers.

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Dope has titled this album "Felons and Revolutionaries" because they really want you to be invested in the idea they sold drugs to fund the making of it. And I guess because they think they have revolutionary ideas about politics, most of which boil down to "America is bad" and "society is bad and/or crazy". Whether or not they actually sold drugs is up for debate, but we dig into their debut that borrows a lot from Marilyn Manson and would ride the wave of industrial-tinged nu-metal that bands like Static-X, Powerman 5000 and Fear Factory would also surf on. The album isn't bad but the lyrics certainly are as we try to make sense of where they fit then and where they fit now in the overall history of nu-metal. Plus, John finally sees Korn for the first time as Bryan preps to take his co-host of Guys, Chris, to do the same.

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It's the debut album that leads us to asking the question "are you sure about that?" perhaps more than any other, as we tackle (hed)pe's first record, where they insist they were influenced by G-funk (you sure about that?), use the N-word in their lyrics (you sure about that?), use rampant misogyny in their lyrics to inflame the public because they didn't grow up in the hood (you sure about that?), and Bryan tells us just how often he was having sex to this album back in the day (you sure about that?). That said, we both enjoy this album that finds its way to a nu-metal sound in a way that others don't: by being heavily influenced by skate punk and Sublime. Sure, the lyrics are highly questionable and yes, the production heavily rips off Korn, but it's a true nu-metal artifact in a way that not a lot of albums we cover on this show are. And it's our longest episode ever as we deal with a crazy news month: Aaron Lewis finally learns what "Born in the USA" is about, we do a mini-review of the new Deftones album "Private Music", and a guy jacks off at a Korn show.

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As we know, nu-metal is not exactly a genre filled with smart guys. But as far as dumb guys in the scene go, Jared Leto might take the cake. A man who sure has a lot of ideas about space, life, and the human struggle, this debut album has potentially the most insane lyrics we've ever heard and the interviews back up all the insanity. We aren't sure if Jared Leto has ever had a cohesive thought in his life, but he sure believes he has, and ultimately, that's what counts. The music surprises us by being not that terrible, but that was probably inevitable given it was produced by Bob Ezrin and given a ton of major label backing. But don't worry, the guys in the band actually started this whole thing with slow and steady growth, and it's the only reason they got popular. Their movie star lead singer had no impact on their first tour being in arenas. Nope, not at all. It's an album tailor-made for the show.

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