Beethoven.

I think Sepultura also helped kick start nu-metal with Roots. In fact, I always felt THAT was the first real nu-"metal" album (Korn wasn't really metal when they debuted, and didn't really become popular until Life Is Peachy was released). Chaos AD was also pretty influencial to the nu-metal movement.

actually, if you listen to Metallica's Thing that should not be you can notice, though it's not in anyway nu-metal, a guitar sound Sepultura first then a lot of nu-metal bands used... should we consider this an influence ? :roll:

Interesting point. Sepultura practically had a "joint ventureship" with Metallica back in the 80's/early-90's. Ironically, when Newsted left, Sepultura wrote a statement saying, "Who cares? Metallica sucks now and they'll suck even worse with Newsted gone" (like Sepultura's really the one to talk!). What's kind of odd is that the whole "tribal metal" thing was oft imitated by bands like Godsmack and Slipknot, even though it was probably intended to be a simple novelty.

Burzum

From what I've seen, ppl (for example those nu-metal kiddies) like to be associated with the word 'metal'. but theyre scared to listen to, or can't take, metal. this carves out a niche for nu-metal bands, who have the word 'metal' in their genre name but churn out nothing but rubbish.

I agree... it seems like nu-metal is fitting the niche where kids want to listen to angsty, angry music that is "heavy", but they don't want to (or are afraid to) go all the way and listen to real metal. To use a black-metal analagy... it's like why Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth are popular. They are "black-metal" in the sense that they wear corpse paint and play heavy, fast music, but they are also toned down to cut out most of the satanism, and the real extreme hatred and intensity of true black metal... they are "safe" black metal. In the same sense, nu-metal is "safe" metal. It's angry, and a little bit heavy, but not as intense as true metal.