The P.O.D. Kast

It's an episode that begins with us talking quite frankly about our balls (and our strength), and you might need a lot of strength to get through almost two hours on an album that just doesn't quite get to where it thinks it's going, as the risks hardly ever pay off and at the end of the day, its biggest song is still a cover. But WHAT A COVER IT IS. We discuss what it means to have a cover hit hu...

BIG TRUCK! BIG TRUCK! After literal years of trying to get this album to win a Poll, Bryan's dream finally comes true and the boys cover Coal Chamber's debut, self-titled album and it does not disappoint. Perhaps the first nu-metal band to recognize the inherent silliness of the genre, from the lyrics to the interviews, we also recognize that this record absolutely kicks ass. It's clearly inspired...

It's a truly wild episode of the POD Kast this month, as Bryan talks about the first time he did acid...at the age of 12. It sets the tone for the entire episode, as we discuss Neighborhood Jesus, Mick Thomson's "sense of humor" and just how it became that a very heavy metal band made a very heavy sophomore album and still managed to capture the hearts and minds of people everywhere. Of course, th...

It's time for one of the most puzzling albums we've ever covered on this show, a pure nu-metal album that came out in the complete dead zone of 2013 from a bunch of guys who don't seem interested in anything other than trying to be famous. From a "club banger about football" to a myriad of ballads to songs about drugs and killing everyone, this album literally has it all. And it's all bad. So of c...

We finally get to talking about the band responsible for the best artist biography in the business, Mushroomhead. Covering their most popular album, "XIII", we take a read of the infamous bio as well as the "News" portion of their site, which we find is just as fluffily written as the biography is and purports their albums to be "a collection of anthems". The album is...ok. We discuss the songs an...

It's the first time that Bryan & John have been forced to tackle a band that isn't a nu-metal band, but greatly influenced a vast majority of the bands we've covered on this show. Named the Most Influential Album of All-Time by Kerrang! in 2003 (a list we investigate...it has some holes), it's easy to see how many bands of the nu-metal era were inspired by this record, even if they really didn't w...

30 episodes and 4 poll nominations later, Drowning's Pool magnum opus "Sinner" finally gets a review and it turns out it's not a moment too soon, as this one is a banger. Amidst talk of Bryan undergoing a personal rebrand, the boys do a rebrand of their own as they talk about originally disliking "Bodies" and realize during the work for this episode that no, it's actually one of the best nu-metal...

It's another episode Bryan absolutely did not want to do, as his attempt to juice the poll in favour of Far went sideways and we are forced to cover Hoobastank's major-label debut album. And what a debut album it is, as it sounds an awful lot like Incubus and we try to figure out what the drummer means when he says they were destined to sound the same because they grew up 5 minutes from each other...

It's therapy time for Bryan as John and Bryan get personal on this one, as talking about our dads leads into Bryan's history with drug use and ends with some extreme talk about...pole vaulting. Bryan's insistence that he could very quickly learn how to pole vault turns contentious, and we swear we find some time to talk about this album eventually. And what an album it is, exploring Papa Roach's m...

We don't think it's because of the album we were covering, but Bryan made it down to the Street Fight Studios just in time to vomit and then immediately record this episode. Bryan said that while he powered through, he doesn't remember most of the recording, but the takes are good and hot as we go deep on the album that broke 311, a melange of influences that is mostly pleasant to listen to but wh...

This album might not be exactly nu-metal, but it's the perfect fit for October as we discuss Rob Zombie's unique ability to invent his own genre that combines rockabilly, nu-metal, and good old-fashioned rock into something almost wholly unique (if you sort of ignore what he did before that with White Zombie). But does that make it any good? We break it all down from the three supercharged singles...

It's an album that contains multitudes this month, as the storylines are aplenty around PM5K's breakthrough album. The lead singer is Rob Zombie's brother. He's obsessed with science fiction (or so he says). The album contains almost no emotion whatsoever in a genre known for its ability to capture the feelings of youth. It's supposedly a loose concept album, but there doesn't seem to be a concept...

It's been almost two years since we covered a Korn album, and so the boys get down to business on what is likely the most important album in nu-metal history. It might have aged a bit weirder than you remember though, with some clear gimmick tracks mixed in with the bonafide hits and wonderful deep cuts you love. And we do too. This album absolutely rules. We discuss it all, from the funniest song...

It's the best-selling album we've ever covered on the show and it might hold that record for a very long time, as we review Evanescence's Fallen, a record that sold an absolutely staggering 17 million copies worldwide, won two Grammys, and set numerous Billboard records. But is it any good? Bryan's convinced he's going to hate it, but on the strength of some very good singles and some very good ba...

It's our longest episode to date, as we tackle an album that Bryan feels was the first to ever accurately describe his life, Kid Rock's "Devil Without a Cause". We take a look at how Kid Rock's early career shaped himself for success with this album, his fourth, and how the key to all of it was him apparently believing that making a Korn song was "easy". Of course, we delve all into Kid Rock's wil...

It's the first time we've ever chosen an album because of our bonus singles episodes, as we put up 4 bands in our monthly poll whose singles we loved and much to Bryan's chagrin, Flyleaf won out. A band that seemed to take their nu-metal cues from Linkin Park more than Korn, this 2005 release comes right at the very tail end of nu-metal, bridging the gap between that genre and screamo in a way tha...

A band that certainly hoped to be all things to everyone, we're reviewing Godsmack's debut album that's a little bit Metallica, a little bit Creed, and a lot angry. Featuring songs with varying themes such as, "leave me alone", "I would like to be left alone", "stay away from me", and "I am a practicing witch", this is Sully Erna's album and it shows. We cover all of the bases here, from the afore...

One of the more surprising entries in the nu-metal canon if you knew nothing about the band other than what you heard on the radio, the album that features "Fly" is indeed a nu-metal album. We learn that Mark McGrath basically wanted to mimic Korn with this record, but it turns out they were ready to mimic any band they thought might make them popular, as this album is a weird pastiche of songs th...

An episode that was almost entirely influenced by the listeners saying how good this album is, Bryan and John go back and revisit Limp Bizkit's last album, their 2011 effort "Gold Cobra", and find that Limp Bizkit were still pretty good ten years past their prime. We take a look at how Limp Bizkit's earlier hits definitely influenced some of the songs we find here, and come to the realization that...

It's the episode that many of you have been waiting for, as we finally cover what is considered to be nu-metal's magnum opus, "White Pony". Coming out in the year 2000, it's easy to see how this album was the end of the first wave of nu-metal and ushered in the second wave, no matter how short-lived it was. We examine how Deftones approached making this album, from Chino being very concerned about...

In Bryan's words, it was time that we get to a truly bad album on the podcast. Never mind the fact we've reviewed Puddle of Mudd and a slew of bad albums for the bonus episodes, but we really dig in for one of the weirdest and most puzzling albums in nu-metal history, Crazy Town's "The Gift of Game". Buoyed by the #1 hit single, "Butterfly", this album sounds like a band capitalizing on a genre to...

It's been awhile since we last saw you, and we're thrilled you're back again for another episode of the P.O.D. Kast! This month, it's all about one of nu-metal's most divisive bands, Staind. A band that Bryan hated and John liked, the division in age between Bryan and John becomes clear as Bryan was fully moving away from nu-metal in 2001 when this album came out, and John was fully entrenched. Wh...

It's an album that Bryan has wanted to do since Day 1 of the show, and the day has finally come, as Jordan Uhl donated enough money to make it so! It's a classic POD Kast episode in that we talk a lot about the music, but we are just as fascinated with the band, as Orgy were another insane nu-metal story, from their inception to their eventual, extremely messy demise.   For an album that was relea...

We finally made it to one year here on the POD Kast, and our two hosts celebrate the occasion the only way they know how: by listening to a little bit of Limp Bizkit. It was 12 months ago when we first launched this podcast with Significant Other, and it makes sense to return to our roots, as we lean heavily into Fred Durst's self-indulgent phase with this one.   Released just over a year after Si...

One of the most iconic figures in nu-metal, Wayne Static, is almost more of the focus of this episode than the band is, as we look into Static-X's start as a band, Wayne's eventual death, and the band's decision to dress Edsel Dope up in a Wayne mask and go on a 20th Anniversary Tour of this album. It's the first album we've reviewed from the side of nu-metal that also held a pretty large industri...