The dawn of nu-metal gifted the MTV Generation one of its most visually wowing eras — one which we’re still turning back to on our daily YouTube binges.
Steered by colorful visuals and even more colorful characters, the late Nineties and early Aughts filled our screens with vids full of freakish swagger, even more freakish facepaint and the occasional crazy horror scene.
But which nu-metal vid reigns above all? We asked Revolver readers which classic clips they’re still tuning into all these years later, and they ranked their faves accordingly.
Papa Roach – “Last Resort”
“Last Resort,” Papa Roach’s legendary debut single, was one of the first fan picks to run up the numbers in this week’s poll.
Austere in presentation but huge on energy, the band component to the clip has Jacoby Shaddix and Co. rocking the fan base while parading an illuminated stage. A reality-exaggerating fish-eye lens gives everything an uncanny feel.
The heart of the piece, however, is how the video for Papa Roach’s suicide awareness single contrasts moments of teen isolation with the communal revelry felt at a concert. The song still brings us all together.
Mudvayne – “Dig”
“Dig” was a uniquely, vibrantly freaky vid the second it dropped back in 2000, and its legend has only grown in the years since — as both a watershed nu-metal video and a must-meme staple of internet culture.
Indeed, the wild-eyed, br-br-denging performance from devil-horned bassist Ryan Martinie is one of the genre’s most enduring images, but that’s not to say that the rest of Mudvayne don’t cut an impression themselves. A gang of psychopathic clowns and riff-flinging Darth Mauls freaking out to a bone-snapping, string-slapping groove — each second of this is coded deep in our DNA.
Limp Bizkit – “Break Stuff”
Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff” video is a significant milestone for the band. Following the breakaway success of Significant Other in the summer of ’99, it was clear that the nu-daddies had become one of the biggest bands in the land. Their fourth and final video behind the album cements how far they had come as pop-culture icons.
Though there’s an army of red-ball-capped Durst-alikes banging about throughout the vid, take stock of the music celebs dancing and miming along to the tune, too: Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Korn’s Jonathan Davis and more. It’s a compound co-sign that proved that the Bizkit had broken through, big time.
Deftones – “My Own Summer (Shove It)”
One classic vid our readers still think has plenty of teeth is the shark-infested clip for Deftones’ first Around the Fur single, “My Own Summer (Shove It).”
Filmed by Dean Karr at Los Angeles, California’s Lake Piru, it finds the alt-metal champs memorably rocking the song atop a group of floating cages — their co-stars include a mechanical shark and a pig wearing goggles and a crown.
There’s blood in the water from the jump, which is only natural considering the meaty nature of that iconic opening Stephen Carpenter riff.
Korn – “Freak on a Leash”
No. 1 with a bullet.
Korn has crafted a number of memorable music videos over the years, but the one that lodged itself deepest inside our collective consciousness is the Grammy-and-MTV-award-winning clip for this Follow the Leader favorite.
Featuring animated scenes from Spawn creator and video director Todd McFarlane, the fast-moving travelogue of an errant piece of ammunition ricocheting through multiple planes of reality possesses an explosively manic energy — especially about the time Davis starts scat-rapping to the bullet from inside a Korn poster.