Despite benefiting in a big way from the resurgence of nu-metal bands recently, Mudvayne’s Chad Gray is not having it with the new bands who are emerging in the scene as well.
In a new interview with The Underground Australia (helpfully transcribed by Blabbermouth.net), Chad Gray criticized newer metal bands for apparently sounding the same to him – despite the fact that with 20 minutes of cursory research just looking on Spotify, one could easily find a dozen metal bands that sound pretty distinct from one another:
“Dude, maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I don’t give a fuck. Because I’m me and I’ve got stuff to say, and I’m gonna say it. Music now to me, God bless them, new bands, but they sound the same. All new music reminds me of the same fucking thing. There’s nothing separating it, one band from another. It’s, like, one band kinda does something, a hundred bands follow that band, then another band does something, then a hundred bands follow that band and sound just like that fucking band.
“I was on Ozzfest 2001. So you had SLIPKNOT, [MARILYN] MANSON, PAPA ROACH, DISTURBED, MUDVAYNE, DROWNING POOL… Every fucking band, every band I just named, none of them sound the same,” he continued. “None of them. And I think that’s why it was such a special time in music, because everybody was bringing what they were bringing to the table. You had SYSTEM OF A DOWN and shit-tons of bands, man. And all very original and all doing their own thing. We were part of that. We were more progressive than a lot of our counterparts from that era. So we were doing our own thing. Just a lot of really good fucking music and a lot of people really digging into what they were. Nobody was fucking following somebody else. We just didn’t see a lot of that. A couple bands here and there, maybe, you know what I mean? But for the most part, bands were doing their own thing and really pushing the boundaries, really challenging the listener. And that’s what music’s all about, right? It’s individuality.
“I am Chad Gray and what I do is me,” he added. “But the things that make me Chad Gray are James Hetfield, Layne Staley, Phil Anselmo, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I could fucking go down the list and name you probably 50 different singers that I — Chris Cornell —that I used to sing every fucking thing that they ever put out in their songs and on their albums. And I’ve taken all that influence that inspired me so much to want to do what I do and I’ve processed that inside of myself. And now all those people that I’m talking about, they come out as Chad Gray from me. You know what I mean? I feel like that’s what everybody was doing. I mean, the only way you can have it be music, be that pure and true is if people are drawing from their influence. All these influences create who they are and what they contribute to the musical equation. I did what I did and I contributed what I contributed, but I couldn’t have contributed what I contributed without the people that influenced me. And I couldn’t have contributed what I contributed if I didn’t learn and sing along with every single one of those fucking people that I mentioned. So I think there was a lot of that going on. I think there was a lot of people that weren’t looking like… What bands do when they look at this new band and everybody follows that new band, it’s not even an influence really because they’re current. My influences, even when I came out in 2001, with [MUDVAYNE’s debut album] ‘L.D. 50’, my influences were from 1981, 1983 — like 20 years, almost 20 years prior of me dropping my first album. I wasn’t ripping off a band from 1999 and releasing my album in 2001. My influences were long — my influences were 18, 19, 20 years. The people that inspired me — James Hetfield with his ‘yellody’, the way that James — he basically yelled in key, which I do a lot in my music. And my scream. I definitely think of all the screamer people — Philip Anselmo. It’s my scream now, but it started being his scream. I just took it and twisted it and made it something else.”
It’s actually a bit shocking to hear him say this, for two reasons actually. One, the fact is that as nu-metal started to fade from relevance around 2003 or so, so many of those bands were cannibalizing each other in a race to mimic what was popular at the time. Two, many of Chad’s peers have strongly embraced the newer bands on the circuit. For instance, Chevelle had Liverpool’s Loathe tag along on a tour last year, Papa Roach and Shinedown brought Spiritbox as openers for a major tour, and even Deftones have brought out bands like Code Orange and Periphery as tour support – where they later gained much more attention with their own music.
Why Chad Gray feels this way is unclear. But what is pretty clear, with a little research and musical knowledge anyway, is that not all newer metal bands sound the same. Sure, if you find a metalcore or post-hardcore playlist on Spotify, you might find 10 bands with some similarities – possibly situations where they’re difficult to tell apart right away. It’s also possible (maybe even probable) that Chad Gray is referring to what’s known as Octanecore – basically radio-friendly metalcore/post-hardcore with varying degrees of pop elements as well. Other genres, especially modern metalcore and even deathcore, have some overlapping traits and themes. Sometimes these bands also appear somewhat indistinguishable. However, these are subgenres of metal at the end of the day, so if one is simply looking for new metal bands to listen to, there’s plenty of options that don’t sound exactly the same.
One example we’ve presented here, though do keep in mind a small sample size, is the Alternative Metal playlist on Spotify. Judging by the first ten songs on the playlist, it’s basically impossible to find a common thread between all 10 bands. For instance, the atmospheric post-rock of Caspian has zero similarity to Counterparts’ blazing melodic hardcore/metalcore triumph “Whispers Of Your Death”, while the Deftones-esque “White Noise” (courtesy of Blanket) and metalcore blast of Architects’ “Seeing Red” also don’t have many stylistic themes tied together. It should be noted that on this playlist (the first ten songs of it, anyway) Counterparts, Architects, Ithaca, Bring Me The Horizon, and Employed To Serve do have some traits tying them together – namely that they are often going to be labeled metalcore. However, just based on the first ten songs of a major metal Spotify playlist, it’s pretty clear that not all of today’s metal bands do sound the same – despite what Chad Gray may have said.
