The New Wave Of American Heavy Metal is still among the subgenres of metal that didn’t lose its popularity and glory today. Though it is now associated with bands such as Lamb Of God, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, and Avenged Sevenfold, as it turns out, it first started out as a joke. According to the Chimaira guitarist Matt DeVries, it’s based on the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, mostly associated with Iron Maiden.
The band even went on to make merch similar to that of Iron Maiden’s with the title ‘New Wave Of American Heavy Metal. In an interview with Metal Hammer, DeVries explained:
“We invented this genre! A long time ago, as a joke, we did t-shirts with our name in the style of the Iron Maiden logo, and the legend ‘New Wave Of American Heavy Metal’ on the back. It was inspired by the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. It was meant to be fun. Now everyone regards it as something serious. Do we have anything to prove? Only to ourselves.”
The Glory Days Of NWOAHM
The NWOAHM movement originated in the United States during the early to mid-1990s and experienced significant growth, particularly in the early to mid-2000s. While some bands associated with the movement had been established as early as the late 1980s, they did not gain influence or widespread popularity until the subsequent decade.
Originating from the post-grunge acts that brought heavy metal ‘back to its core brutality’ along with drawing inspiration from punk, the first band that was acknowledged as the founders of the genre was Korn. Of course, it was later understood that Chimaera was the founder.
Well, was there camaraderie or rivalry among the bands? Chimaira singer Mark Hunter answered:
“Both. When I speak with [Lamb Of God guitarist] Mark Morton, we reminisce on how much we wanted to completely annihilate each other. It drove us to perform better.”
Though the bands were not completely rivals, there were a few Hunter felt like they were rivals. He continued:
“I felt that with Ill Niño. I remember thinking, ‘Son of a b*tch! Not another band that tries hard and looks good!’ Ha ha! We were on Roadrunner at the same time and we could definitely see them getting preferential treatment. From a business perspective, Roadrunner were making the correct decision: Ill Niño had radio songs and they could do things with them above and beyond the metal scene. But, at the time, that really ground my gears.”
The founders of the genre got back together in 2007 after their split, and released their fourth studio album, ‘Resurrection.’ It eventually became one of the introductory albums of the genre. You can listen to it down below.
