Nu-Metal Songs With a Softer Side
There’s nothing wrong with nu-metal songs showing off their lighter side, and in honor, Audio Ink Radio presents the greatest nu-metal with a softer side. – Author: Anne Erickson, Image of the Evanescence, “Fallen” reissue album cover via Craft Recordings
Nu-metal certainly isn’t a genre that one associates with love or anything of the softer nature. With names like Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Korn often singing angsty themes against a backdrop of heavy, drop-D tuning, it really doesn’t seem like a genre of music for lovebirds. But, there are a few times in nu-metal lore when these heavy bands showed that they have a heart and released some very heartfelt, sensitive music. There’s nothing wrong with showing one’s softer side, and that’s just what these guys and gals did. In honor of those pristine moments, Audio Ink Radio lays out its tally of some of the greatest nu-metal with a softer side. Some of these are about love, and even if they aren’t about love, they just have a heart-filled sentiment.
Softer Nu-Metal Songs
Hoobastank, “The Reason”
Nu-metal gents Hoobastank released “The Reason” in 2004 as the second single is a song off their album of the same name. Thanks to this single song, Hoobastank went from being an under-the-radar rock band to a top 40 hit-maker. “The Reason” was a soft, loveable ballad that featured a simple melody. It caught on with fans and the mainstream, peaking at No. 2 on the Hot 100, and it helped make Hoobastank one of the real innovators in nu-metal in the 2000s.
Limp Bizkit, “Behind Blue Eyes”
Believe it or not, some music fans discovered the Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes” through the Limp Bizkit cover of the track, released in 2003. It’s hard to hate on Fred Durst after hearing this song, which really shows his more vulnerable side. It was the perfect hymn for the bad boy of the time, asking the world to see beyond that bad boy image. Love or hate Limp Bizkit, it’s a fantastic cover. We don’t know how Rolling Stone readers gave it the title of one of the worst covers.
Linkin Park, “One More Light”
While most of the songs of this tally are from the main nu-metal era in the late-1990s and early-2000s, we had to include the 2017 Linkin Park ballad, “One More Light,” off the album of the same title. It was one of the final songs from Chester Bennington before he sadly took his own life that same year. While some listeners didn’t like the pop nature of this track, it’s an opus and really shows the delicate side of Bennington and the band.
Seether and Amy Lee of Evanescence, “Broken”
Seether vocalist Shaun Morgan and Evanescence singer Amy Lee were dating when they released “Broken” in 2004, and even though the relationship didn’t last, the song sure did. It’s a full-on power ballad for nu-metal fans, complete with emotive vocals, smooth harmonies and dark riffing. The song was actually a new version of the Seether track on their 2002 debut album, and adding Lee to it just took it to a whole new level.
Slipknot, “Snuff”
Slipknot are known for their masks and wild onstage antics, but they really dialed it down for “Snuff,” and the song’s soft nature shows the dynamics of this band. Lead vocalist Corey Taylor sounds eerily beautiful on this song, as he sings “my heart is just too dark to care,” and it foreshadowed much of his work with his melodic rock side project, Stone Sour. The lyrics “I still press your letters to my lips” is so underrated.
For more nu-metal splendor, find Audio Ink Radio’s roster of some underrated nu-metal anthems.
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