Welcome to the second installment of my very bad idea.
I have rolled another two Nu Metal bands to evaluate, and I am more sure than ever that I will definitely not finish this project. Nonetheless, I soldier on.
Clawfinger
From what Wikipedia tells me, Clawfinger is a group of Swedes who decided to play against type and opt for Nu Metal instead of, like, melodic Viking death metal or something. I wonder how that’s currently working out for them.
I actually kind of remember this band, but I don’t remember them being so… well, you’ll see.
The highest-ranking Clawfinger song on Spotify is called “Biggest & The Best”. It is a really sterling example of of white guy rap rock, in that it could be served as evidence in a government hearing about a ban on white guys being allowed to rap. The laziest rhymes I have ever heard, all delivered like “My name is Joe and I’m here to say, I love to rap in a crazy way”. Some light sampling found here and some boilerplate dissonant guitar chugs. The chorus has something approaching a hook, and you’ll never guess what they use as a rhyme pairing with “the biggest & the best” in the chorus hook.
“Do What I Say” fares a little better, featuring a bending, grinding riff and some interesting off-kilter chugging, along with a pretty creepy child vocalist who does a much better job of things than this band’s actual vocalist. There are actually some cool moments on this song.
The third track on Clawfinger’s top-five is probably only worth mentioning in that I cannot begin to express how far they miss the mark with their intended message and because the song is literally named a slur that I can’t post here. Let’s just say that this is a group of white swedes explaining to black rappers that they shouldn’t be using a certain word, by using said word about 80 times in a row. While rapping in the way your high school math teacher would while teaching you rappin’ fractions. You can’t do that, guys. Wow.
“Out To Get Me” is pretty forgettable, but has the vocalist doing his best Jonathan Davis for the vocal hook in the chorus, which I suppose is an improvement on the rapping.
Nu Metal sounds pretty dated in general, but there’s something about the way this band serves up its “hip hop” element that makes it sound even older than most other bands. It is bad. It sounds like that part in that Blondie song where Debbie Harry raps, and I think that they even use a lot of the same rhymes that she used. These guys are Swedish, so maybe the language barrier is some excuse… but it doesn’t make it any more listenable.
Best Song: “Do What I Say” by a country mile. Everything else: complete trash.
Trust Company
This is some Nu Metal-ass Nu Metal. The drop-D riffing is elementary enough for a 13 year old to figure out in their bedroom and the wispy vocals are just sensitive-sounding enough to capture that “guys, I’m angry but I’m sad but I’M SO MAD” energy that self-obsessed youths adore. I don’t remember these guys at all, but this sounds like something that would have been huge in the wake of Linkin Park putting their nails in the coffin of Nu Metal ever being actually interesting and cool ever again (shots fired, Josh).
“Downfall” is peak mediocre Nu Metal single. “Falling Apart” is practically the same song again. But with a phaser pedal. Oh, these boys are hurting so bad. Who hurt these boys?
What I think this band is a good example of is where Nu Metal started to merge with some emo/screamo sounds that were becoming popular in the early 2000s to create a very teenager-friendly package. If you strip away the heavy riffs that almost sound pasted into these songs, you’re almost left with, like… Savage Garden. Or something.
I… am not going to write about all of these songs, because these are all kind of the same song. That being said, I have to say that this is definitely late-stage Nu Metal and it has definitely been produced with a great deal of thought and money.
It is shitty Linkin Park, basically. And I already hate those guys, so… this is the shitty version of that thing I hate.
Best Song: Let’s just say “Downfall” because it has so many views and listens?
The Ranking
Even though I hate their music, I think that Trust Company are actually better than Godhead on a purely Nu Metal level, and also better than Wicked Wisdom. I am tempted to rank Clawfinger higher than Trust Company based on the strength of “Do What I Say”, but then I remember the slur song and figure that they don’t deserve to feel encouraged, so I will rank them above Godhead but below Wicked Wisdom.
- Trust Company
- Wicked Wisdom
- Clawfinger
- Godhead
Trust Company is the greatest Nu Metal band of all time!
Click here to read the first installment of this ranking series!
The Fraudsters' Almanac 