It’s finally summer. Spongebob is on, and you’ve just finished your first bowl of Lucky Charms. There’s some Halo in your future, and maybe some Smash Bros Melee if your friends join you that day. The soundtrack to your morning might be Linkin Park’s debut album, Hybrid Theory, or maybe Slipknot’s ‘Wait and Bleed’ if you’re a little more alt. The year is 2000. Life is good.
Now it’s 2023, and the nu-metal revival is getting into full swing. Tallah and Evanescence are playing massive rock festivals. Bands like Tetrarch and Vein.fm wear their nu metal influences proudly, and joining the revival is longtime metaller Garry Brents and his project Memorrhage.
Garry Brents was born in 1987, the prime age for enjoying the peak of nu metal in the late 90s and early 2000s. His first favorite band was Korn, which he was reminded of while watching the Woodstock ’99 documentary from 2022. As a young teenager, he wanted to create an album on par with Iowa, Issues, and The End of All Things to Come. Twenty years later, armed with his experience, skill, and knowledge of songwriting and music production, he has created an album that captures the early 2000s nu metal spirit and sound, with some added modern flair.
“Brents has created an album that captures the early 2000s nu metal spirit and sound, with some added modern flair. ”
Memorrhage is a delicious mix of all the most exciting parts of nu metal: unhinged vocals, catchy, heavy guitars, weird turntable breaks, and massive choruses. Track one, ‘Memory Leak’, takes its name from the clever album title. It starts off with vocals à la Jonathan Davis over heavy guitars and expert production: thick but perfectly layered.
The style of ‘Memory Leak’ drives the first three-quarters of the album, though no two songs sound alike. With a classic nu metal title, ‘Reek’ introduces the requisite turntables tastefully, while ‘Old Wave’ brings some fierce hip-hop. Just as the ears begin to tire of the dense wall of sound, ‘Brain Wield’ stretches out the sound for a breather, but loses none of the intensity or nu metal character. It’s a perfect interlude before the final three songs, which introduce more of a Linkin Park sound than the Korn or Mudvayne styles of the first part.
‘Lunge’ is the first song that has a singalong chorus. It also features more Davis-style spitfire vocals for a wild track that is the Korn x Linkin Park collab you never knew you needed. The last two tracks, ‘Utility’ and ‘Ex-Sprite’, lean heavily into the Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda vocals, respectively. Although the melodic vocals layered higher in the strata lighten the album just a hair, the album still gets aggressive: the ending of ‘Ex-Sprit’ is one of the heaviest sections on the album.
Comparisons aside, Memorrhage is more than a love letter to nu metal. With some hardcore guitar breaks; industrial and grind influences; and cyberpunk, body horror, and time travel themes, it has its own identity as an album from the early 2020s; it is not the product of a throwaway side project. Garry Brents has absorbed too many skills and music genres to create a gratuitous album. Fans of heavy music will find something to enjoy here, whether it is the catchy guitars, sludgy but stratified production, lyrical themes, or the simple nostalgia factor. Memorrhage is truly a delightful listen.