STARTER PACK: Nu Metal Songs To Protest To, Part 2

Today marks one year of this administration in these United States, and we the people are fucking tired. Insane ramblings, executive orders announced through a platform that only came around to appease the right-wing crowd, and enabling widespread hate and violence both stateside and abroad. We here at The Nu Metal Agenda wholly condemn these actions and attitudes, and as such present this second round of protest songs.

The protest song is nothing new, but it is very nu, turns out. Who would have thought a genre founded on angst, rage, and experimentation would have a few things to say? We released our first collection of protest songs in June 2025, so if your favorite doesn't feature here, we may have already done so. Join us in this celebration of sonic resistance and musical dissent, as only we know how to present it.

System of a Down - "Deer Dance" - Rosie

"Deer Dance", the third track off their 2001 album Toxicity, deals with showing the façade of America and the ugly side of the so-called "American Dream," whether that be the prison industrial complex, fascism, the war on drugs, addiction, regime changes, and wars started by oil, political violence enacted and sponsored by the state.

"Deer Dance" is unfortunately evergreen and can applied to the current administrations use of Gestapo ICE and there belligerent overreach in American society. It doesn't matter if deportations don't affect you, they will find a way eventually. Lead singer Serj Tankian really gets to the core of why this cowardly fence-sitting is bad. People's lives shouldn't be political especially. The more you look away, the more ICE gets away with.

We can't afford to be neutral on a moving train!

Even though some members of the band have dubious "far-middle" opinions, with some even supporting the fascism they were against in the first place, "Deer Dance" is still a brutal reminder that fascism doesn't care who you are. If you don't fight back, nothing will stop them from getting away with state-sponsored violence.

Push the weak around / Push the weak around / Push the weak around / They like to push the weak around!

-rosiegothicc

Ho99o9 - "Pigs Want Me Dead"

Ho99o9 have always been confrontational. "Fuck your politics / Meet the apocalypse." So goes the refrain from the opening track on their debut, 2017's Mutant Freax EP. From the jump, the New Jersey duo, comprised of theOGM and Yeti Bones, have met the moment with their vicious mélange of rap, punk, and techno.

Still, "Pigs Want Me Dead" ups the ante considerably. The opening audio clip draws a line in the sand, admonishing young activists for draws false equivalences to the unique struggles of Black Americans. While one could read this stance as divisive, it's important to remember the context. "Pigs Want Me Dead" released in July 2020, deep into the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests spurred by the murder of George Floyd. Ho99o9 have always trafficked in messy, incendiary contradictions and this track is no different. More likely, Ho99o9 are calling for awareness, nuance, and critical thinking.

Truthfully, the entire lyric sheet is worth dissecting, but some key moments crystalize Ho99o9's POV. In the first verse, theOGM lays it all out:

Ain't no butterfly effect / What am I supposed to do when the odds up against me and the pigs want me dead / I ain't strapped / I'ma threat / Look at my skin

Later, he finishes:

Cameras everywhere / If I die, hide ya badges / They gon riot till this fucking city burn to ashes

In the second verse, Eaddy (aka Yeti Bones) hits back

If you put yo knee on my neck / Now my Glock down your throat / Worldwide BBQ burning pigs coast to coast / Usta hang from a tree now it's murder 3rd degree

The simple fact of the matter is that modern day policing in the US can be traced all the way back to Slave Patrols in the 1700's. The oppression and terrorizing of Black people are intrinsic to how law and order are maintained in this country—and abroad. From there, Eaddy lets loose, taking the scenario to its inevitable conclusion: all-out war. As he details retaliation against police, he ends on, arguably, the darkest observation: "no more paranoia" because his fears have materialized right in front of his eyes. The final audio clip homes in on one last, ever-prescient, hypocrisy:

...I don't mind the looting because you go to war to get resources. America invades countries to get shit.

Sonically, the track is equally harrowing. The raucous guitars have been traded out for a stark piano line against distorted bass throbs and haunting synths to fill out the nightmare landscape. Colder, darker, more menacing than Ho99o9's previous 2020 release, "Christopher Dorner"—another key track in the duo's evolution that could have easily taken this slot on the list—"Pigs Want Me Dead" is sound of Ho99o9 stripping away all the fun to deliver their message at point blank range.

-Drew Davis

USvsTHEM - "Pusherman"

It isn’t often that a band completely reimagines a classic song and creates something truly notable. Fortunately, USvsTHEM is not a run of the mill band. The rap-rock group, fronted by rapper Emilio Rojas, takes the Curtis Mayfield classic “Pusherman” and transforms it from a song describing the reality of a drug dealer attempting to escape the inner city, originally featured on the Superfly soundtrack, into one that frames the ruling class and the heads of pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations as the true drug dealers and exploiters of modern society.

While the flow and many homages to the original lyrics remain intact, Rojas delivers significantly different but still irreverent verses. His performance offers a biting critique of how greed and rot within American and capitalist society have normalized possessing cures and treatments for illness while allowing people to die for the sake of profit. Though especially poignant in 2026, the song could have been released at almost any point over the past several decades and remained completely relevant to the ongoing crisis of for profit healthcare and the modern “pushermen,” such as the Sackler family, who have been responsible en masse for the opioid epidemic. This is all encompassed in a modern day Rage Against The Machine aesthetic and delivery, but with the band’s own style and attitude at the forefront. It’s a universally felt injustice rapped over crushing guitar riffs and driving percussion.

What more can you ask for in a protest song, really?

-Brandon Durden

Rekiem – “Imperio”

The Chilean take on nu metal, locally known as aggrometal, emerged in the Nineties alongside its U.S. counterpart, driven by similar themes of anger, disillusionment, and visceral frustration. In Chile’s case, this came at a time when the country was still grappling with the aftermath of Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship, and a generation raised in that shadow turned its ire toward authority, militarism, and discrimination based on appearance.

Among the pioneers of this uniquely Chilean strain of nu metal was Rekiem, a band that became synonymous with the aggro scene and helped define its raw energy and political edge. Their early records Unlike and Apgar:0 laid the groundwork for what would become a decade of cultural relevance. After the tragic loss of founding guitarist Julián Durney, Rekiem regrouped and released Zero in 2005 — a more refined but no less pointed record that confronted both local and global injustices.

On “Imperio”, Rekiem hones in on the brutal reality of U.S. interventionism with lines like “cuántos iraquíes por galón / cuántos cheques por cadáver” (“how many Iraqis per gallon / how many checks per corpse”) and “50 estrellas no son suficientes / en mi bandera” (“50 stars are not enough / on my flag”), laying bare a critique of imperialism that still resonates decades later. Tragically, those verses echo just as uncomfortably in the context of U.S. policy toward Venezuela under the Trump administration — proving that the targets of protest may change, but the systemic roots of injustice remain all too familiar.

-Diego Díaz Orellana

Motionless in White ft. Bryan Garris - "Slaughterhouse"

"Slaughterhouse" is featured on Motionless in White's most recent album, 2022's Scoring the End of the World, and being written during the COVID-19 pandemic, the album is full of political themes. 2020 was a tumultuous time around the world of course, but especially in the United States, who was not only dealing with the height of a pandemic, but the politicization of it as well. There were people refusing to wear masks because it was inconvenient, protesting quarantine because they wanted a haircut, and discrediting doctors and vaccines alike. On top of that, there was the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, sparking Black Lives Matter protests across the country. To round off the year, Donald Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, leading to the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

This political unrest opened the eyes of and radicalized a lot of people. Being an artist cooped up in your house, constantly being exposed to the violence and corruption showed by the government due to videos being shared across social media, is bound to influence your work. "Slaughterhouse" is a result of that experience. It is not subtle in its pissed-off anti-establishment and anti-capitalism viewpoint at all. With lyrics such as "In the land of the free, you're a slave to your wealth", "You fucking fascist, die, you fucking pig", and "What you gonna buy with all your money in Hell?", the band does not leave any interpretation up to imagination.

When questioned by Apple Music about the inspiration for the song, vocalist Chris Motionless said this:

"We live a life where a system is in place to make the rich richer. We're essentially the products in a slaughterhouse. They're selling our lives and our essence to make money off it. I'm fucking sick of it, and a lot of people are sick of it."

-Alex Cross

Sepultura - "Refuse/Resist"

Look, we can sit here and split hairs about this song not necessarily being nu metal, or we can celebrate that this song still fucking bangs over three decades later. I will die on the hill that groove metal is nu metal's hipster cousin, and this song, as well as much of the Chaos A.D. album, is a bridge between eras for the Brazilian outfit that is Sepultura. Riding the line between the thrash metal early days of the late Eighties and the nu metal-leaning mid-Nineties, this track has bounce and bombast in spades.

From the sample of then-unborn Zyon Cavalera's heartbeat on, this track challenges the listener not to get fired up, and that's before the bridge picks up the pace. Max Cavalera's final scream clocks in at around twenty seconds, and serves as a fitting line drawn under this call to action of a track. It feels like we're not far off from lines such as "tanks on the street" becoming a grim reality, but at least this song provides enough energy and rage to bring the resistance to those on those frontlines.

-Lucia Z. Liner

Pupil Slicer - "Sacrosanct"

Pupil Slicer has been brutal and uncompromising in their politics since the beginning, and their third album Fleshwork released late last year was no exception. Chief songwriter Kate Davies was a welcome voice of righteous rage during a brutal year for a lot of people worldwide, and later single “Sacrosanct” condenses that rage into a powerful and insistent series of blows. In an interview with Metal Sucks following the album’s release, Davies describes the track as a “straight up angry track of unbridled rage regarding how the lives of those affected by subjugation and prejudice are treated like toys by the elite and how distant the suffering inflicted is to those that cause it.” The middle verse of the song is full of contrasts–“Feign cruelty / Indifferent / You can’t match me / I feel this ecstasy / Your pain to me.” In a world where a stroke of a pen kills thousands, where one children’s author’s Twitter grievances can metastasize into repressive legislation against trans people worldwide, or where daily deportation targets scrawled on the back of an envelope change the face of a city overnight, there is a unique comfort in staring the monster in the face and going “listen, we hate you a hell of a lot more than you hate us.”

It’s the last line of the song before the final breakdown that hammers everything home, Davies biting into the end of every syllable: “I. Hope. This. HURTS.” It’s the final outburst of anger, the tear gas canister thrown back by a crowd that’s tried everything else, praying the counterpunch makes it all the way to the top of the pyramid. Now more than ever, we need reminders that their hearts aren’t in this like ours are, and “Sacrosanct” is a hell of a track to keep in our toolkit for the years to come.

-Gabi Brown

grandson - "BRAINROT"

grandson has always been an artist that has been unafraid of diving deep into political and social issues with his music. His most successful song, “Blood//Water,” put that on display back in 2017, with poignant lyrics discussing the reality and depravity of capitalism’s inherent greed, and the reckoning that the ruling class will one day have to face.

Eight years later, grandson continues to refuse to pull punches with the lead single from 2025’s Inertia, “BRAINROT.” With riffing guitars and breakdown rhythms reminiscent of Refused and Chat Pile, grandson goes to task with seemingly every line. The somber intro lays it all out on the table, “I saw the news today and being human is a losing game we’re doomed to play/ numbed to the pain/ so distracted we don’t notice as our last chance slowly passes, then collapses.” He continues on throughout the song, not only calling out the dismay of genocide, wanton violence, and corruption, but also of our inability to meet the moment. The song is a warning that the attention economy and algorithmic driven society has desensitized and distracted us collectively so much that our humanity is being ripped away piece by piece.

grandson put it best in an interview with Kerrang! stating, “'BRAINROT' is about the distraction of the internet, the way our attention span is weaponised and attacked by technology companies to prevent any real momentum building on the pressing issues of our generation.”

-Brandon Durden

Powerman 5000 - "Organizized"

"Organizized" is the 2nd track of Powerman 5000's re-issued 1997 album Mega!! Kung Fu Radio. Formed six years earlier in Boston, MA, PM5K all but took over the scene by the mid-90s.

The instrumental has a unique funk and a harshness reminiscent of Rage Against The Machine, but self-described abstract lyrics offer thematic versatility when it comes to applying it to the current political climate of the United States. 29 years ago, “Organizized” probably meant something completely different. Through the lens of the past few years and the rising amount (and support of) an authoritarian regime, some could argue this song has gained a completely new theme.

Think fast cause you might get caught while you're asleep / The forces of evil run deep, they're so deep

PM5K has departed from their lyrical ambiguity in recent releases, but with their newfound substance it definitely gives their older tracks a second wind. It begs the question: were they being abstract, or were they being subtle?

Possessions possess they kill you distress / I know what's here and that is a mess / When you recreate the fact, you recreate the factual / What was never here becomes the actual

-Rosie D'Aiuto

Chat Pile - "Shame"

Chat Pile have always had a knack for capturing, in word and sound, the horrors of the American wasteland. Since their early sludgy EPs, the Oklahoma City band have pulled apart the feeling of being alive here and now at the mercy of our capitalist imperialist masters. It was only a matter of time before they widened their gaze to include horrors wrought by the American empire the world over. To be blunt, "Shame" is about the Palestinian genocide. The second verse makes this vivid:

In their parents arms, the kids were falling apart / Broken tiny bodies holding tiny still hearts / There are myriad ways to destroy human skin / Red flesh exposed raw over and over again

What sets Chat Pile apart is their ability to dig down into the existential torment. The band is smart enough, creative enough, adventurous enough to understand mere distortion and power chords won't do. Note how the bouncy, dissonant riff is just a little bit ugly. A little wrong. It's the sound of that gnawing feeling at the back of your conscience. Chat Pile know the horrors are manifold. Never before have such atrocities been so accessible to the naked eye. Month after month, countless hours of footage of the devastation in Gaza have flooded the Twitter timeline in HD. And the people in power insist it's not only necessary, but just. Biblical horrors enacted upon tens—likely hundreds—of thousands and we're supposed to feel good about it.

It stung hot in my eyes, the illusion of justice / It burned deep in my face, felt unbearably selfish

Chat Pile understand what's at the rotten core of the entire project—that the tears "flow from the same source" and that source is imperialism. "Shame" captures the dizzying, sickening feeling both of witnessing the world's first livestreamed and the sense that it won't be the last.

-Drew Davis