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Former Megadeth<\/a> bassist David Ellefson<\/a> recently named his picks for the “Big 4” of nu-metal and\u00a0recalled his first impressions of the burgeoning subgenre on an episode of\u00a0The David Ellefson Show<\/a><\/em>, which you can hear in full below.<\/p>\n “Nu-metal isn’t so much a genre. It was an era, right?” Ellefson asked co-host and former Primer 55 bassist Joshua Toomey. After Toomey pointed out that bands like Static-X<\/a> and Limp Bizkit<\/a> were both\u00a0lumped under the nu-metal umbrella despite sounding vastly different, Ellefson reminisced on his time touring with some of the up-and-coming bands while he was in Megadeth.<\/p>\n “I remember taking Static-X out. I really liked them,” he said. “I thought they had a cool sound. I love the industrial thing that they had. Of course, I love Ministry<\/a>.”<\/p>\n READ MORE: The ‘Big 4’ Bands of 27 Rock + Metal Subgenres<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n As a longtime member of one of thrash metal’s Big 4 bands \u2014 along with Metallica<\/a>, Slayer<\/a> and Anthrax<\/a> \u2014 Ellefson is uniquely equipped to categorize bands of other genres accordingly. So who are his picks for nu-metal?<\/p>\n “Our genre,\u00a0the Big\u00a04 …\u00a0I guess nu-metal is probably the other one that you could claim the founding\u00a0fathers,” he said. “So again, I would say: Korn<\/a>, Limp\u00a0Bizkit<\/a>,\u00a0Linkin\u00a0Park<\/a> and Slipknot<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Although Ellefson has come to appreciate all of those bands, he wasn’t immediately sold on\u00a0each one.<\/p>\n Speaking about Korn, who opened for Megadeth in 1995, Ellefson said: “I remember getting that CD and going, ‘OK, this sounds very weird.’ And I remember it was a weird transition, because I don’t even remember what the other CDs were, but none of them were of a genre that we would pick [to tour with us], so to speak. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh yeah, this is a great rock band.’ They were all kind of a new flavor.”<\/p>\n When Linkin Park burst onto the scene a few years later,\u00a0Ellefson\u00a0was\u00a0also skeptical.\u00a0“Linkin Park was a band that I understood why people liked them, but it wasn’t my thing,” he said. “I love them now, with the new singer, I think it’s super cool. I’m looking forward to seeing them.”<\/p>\n There was one band, though, that impressed Ellefson from the jump.\u00a0“And of course, Slipknot, when they came out, they were pretty roaring out of the gate,” he said. “You know, really the leaders of the masked band movement. And I know there were other\u00a0masked bands around \u2014 Mushroomhead \u2014 but Slipknot certainly took that.”<\/p>\n See how Ellefson’s picks for the Big 4 of nu-metal square against Loudwire’s by reading our list of Every ‘Big 4’ Nu-Metal Album, Ranked Worst to Best<\/a>.<\/p>\n These are the top 50 nu-metal albums of all time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nDavid Ellefson’s ‘Big 4’ of Nu-Metal<\/h3>\n
Ellefson’s Thoughts on the Big 4 Nu-Metal Bands<\/h3>\n
Hear David Ellefson’s ‘Big 4’ of Nu-Metal and Thoughts on the Genre<\/h3>\n
Top 50 Nu-Metal Albums of All-Time<\/h2>\n