10 Greatest Nü-Metal Performances of All Time

There’s no shortage of epic nü-metal concerts on YouTube, but these are the very best. We’re talking peak Slipknot, peak Linkin Park, peak Korn and more!

From European festivals in late ’90s to killer live-streams from the 2020s, these rank as the greatest nü-metal performances of all time.

This was Slipknot at 100-percent power. The band’s classic lineup absolutely devastated the 2009 Download Festival, headlining it for the first time following a monumental decade for the Iowa Nine. You won’t find a more brutal vocal performance from Corey Taylor, or a better setlist post-AHIG. 

Maybe not the best pure performance from System of a Down, but definitely the most fun. Just days before Toxicity hit shelves, SOAD arrived in Holland on an insanely hot day to prove that they were the future of nü-metal. The next hour was both a perfect set and a comedy of errors. Daron Malakian beginning the show with “We’re on drugs,” randomly screaming between songs, his guitar short circuiting on multiple occasions… it all makes for the essential SOAD experience. 

The nü-metal vibes are immaculate in this 1998 Deftones performance. Chino Moreno embodied greatness on this day, delivering ear-piercing screams on tracks like “Root” and “Engine No. 9.” Neither Deftones nor the German crowd gave a shit that it started pouring rain mid-way through the set, they just partied even harder. Not a single dull moment.

It’s not everyday you get to witness a band’s rebirth, but that’s what happened at Lollapalooza 2021 in Chicago. A grey-haired Fred Durst arrived onstage with dad vibes in tact, proving that even nü-metal musicians can age gracefully and evolve with the times. This was exactly what the world needed in the late COVID days… to break stuff like it was 1999. 

Goosebumps… every, single, time. Korn opening their Woodstock ’99 set with “Blind” may be the most energy ever unleashed upon an audience. Despite what Woodstock ’99 would devolve into, Korn’s set remains a bright spot from the millennium’s end. David Silveria is so locked in throughout this entire gig… just admire the dude’s drumming while you watch this concert. 

How Chester Bennington’s vocal cords withstood his razor-sharp screaming remains a mystery to this day. At Rock am Ring 2004, Linkin Park were at their absolute apex, delivering the best of Hybrid Theory and Meteora to a hyped crowd. This performance of “Papercut” may be the band’s best ever, same goes for the Dust Brothers collab “With You.” Red-shirted Chester was truly a mythical performer. 

There are few better ways to spend 15 minutes. Mudvayne were so insanely good live during their 2001 Ozzfest run… absolutely air-tight and 10x more vicious than on tape. These live versions of “Death Blooms” and “Dig” are unmatched. You’d swear Chad Gray was about to have an aneurysm by how fucking hard he was screaming. 

Let’s get a modern band into this list. Tallah’s 2020 album, Matriphagy, is as pure and deranged as any nü-metal album from the ‘90s, only with a vocalist who can pull off more voices than Robin Williams. Mix this with the magic of hate5six and you’ve got a god-tier performance that just happened to be shot in a former prison. Pure fucking fire.

Maximum the Hormone is such a FORCE live. This is one of those videos you watch and immediately rue the day you didn’t buy a ticket to Japan. Phenomenal performance, absolutely insane crowd… everything that makes this band special is captured perfectly. What’s up people?!

Raw fucking power. Thanks to the Live and Loud production team for going all-out on Sevendust’s debut video album. They went right into the pit, floated above the crowd and got the most epic camera angles possible of each musician. The production and editing does everything humanly possible to match the energy of Sevendust’s live show… it’s really a slept-on masterpiece.