and like said earlier SoaD has a lot in common with Nu metal Generally speaking the emphasis in the music is on either communicating feelings of angst and hostility or motivating a crowd to move with the beat Yes SoaD does not have teen angst but it definitely does have emphasis on motivating the crowd to move with the beat I must say both in the music and lyrics On BYOB the chorus is extremely pop like from an alternative rock POV and says Everybody s going to the party have a real good time Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine which is an incitation to dance and move with the beat On Lost in Hollywood one part says All you bitches put your hands in the air which is another incitation to moving with the beat and is sounds like something a rapper would say that s my opinion Nu metal guitarists generally make liberal use of palm muting SoaD uses a lot of palm muting First examples that pop up to my mind are BYOB Radio Video and Old School Hollywood Another common technique with nu metal guitarists is the use of de tuned strings whose lower pitch creates a thicker more resonant sound A technique that SoaD uses BYOB is in Dropped C I believe but anyone with the slightest guitar knowledge would notice that SoaD are tuned down This is typical of nu metal bands in that guitar solos are rare in nu metal songs in general and when they do appear they are often short SoaD have very few guitar solos and if they do they are extremely short or do not emphasize on technicality which in general is what most metal bands do in a guitar solo Nu metal bands often feature aggressive vocals that range from melodic singing akin to pop and rock guttural screaming and shouting from various forms of metal hardcore punk and rapping SoaD uses most of the time melodic singing and shouting and in some occasions uses some rap like vocals most notably in their Chop Suey intro and verses Although it is not properly speaking rap the link must be considered I would still like to remind you that rapping does not necessarily make you a nu metal band and that being a nu metal band does not necessarily means you rap There are nu metal bands who don t rap and they are still nu metal Normally nu metal songs have a song structure of instrumental introduction verse chorus verse chorus bridge sometimes another verse but almost always ending with a chorus This is characteristic of SoaD Most of their songs I m not saying all of them have a very simple verse chorus verse structure as well as the slight variants It is generally louder in the instrumental parts and the choruses than in the verses Listen to Attack on their last album Another thing I d like to mention is that Serj Tankian worked with Limp Bizkit a well known nu metal band Saul Williams a hip hop artist M I A a rapper and The Notorious B I G another rapper hip hop artist The link to hip hop and rapping with System of a Down s lead singer is therefore established I don t have the material that Tankian produced with those artists but seeing how those artists are predominantly hip hop and nu metal in Link Bizkit s case it is probable that the material is similar to hip hop and nu metal in style the introduction verse chorus verse chorus bridge is used by every genre of music rock country punk so that does nt make them nu metal either SoaD is nu metal Cheers Emmaneul Talk I feel that the only reason they were labeled as Nu Metal is because all of the hard metal music that was popping up around that time was following Korn and adding the Hip Hop element Because they happened to play music that was more hard or agressive than a rock band they were considered Nu Metal As for the things that said I can easily say how they are wrong When he gives the reference about BYOB and how that line everybody s going to the party have a real good time dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine That line is metaphorical BYOB stands for bring your own bombs going to the party is metaphorical for going to war blowing up the sunshine in the desert is like dropping bombs in Iraq So those lines do nt have anything to do woth the crowd moving to the beat The detuned guitar does nt make nu metal either metallica did their st anger album in drop c and almost every hard rock metal band today uses drop d or lower the introduction verse chorus verse chorus bridge is used by every genre of music rock country