Tallah's New Video Reveals The Gritty Modern Face Of Nu-Metal

It's totally fair to call Tallah a nu-metal band. The Pennsylvanian quintet, featuring Dream Theater co-founder Mike Portnoy's son Max on drums, bring the mixture of huge riffs, angst-riddled lyrics, and tormented psychological undertones that the genre became known for. At the same time, anyone who grew up with acts like Crazy Town and Adema might rear back at Tallah's more vicious moments, which thunder with overtones of hardcore and death metal; frontman Justin Bonitz forsakes classic nu-style bravado for a believably unhinged mixture of keening and bellowing. So to call the band nu-metal is accurate -- it just speaks to what that genre label means in 2019.

The band's new video for We, The Sad, directed by Paul Stamper, is a perfect visual representation of this. Gone are the alleys and warehouses of classic nu-metal videos; instead, the band performs in storm-ravaged woods, flecked with dirt and completely losing their minds. No one's hair is perfectly spiked, and no one's outfit feels calculated; if anything, Justin looks as though he'd just stumbled out of a job interview. Meanwhile, the video shows Tallah being slowly closed in on by what appear to be physical manifestations of anxiety and depression. It's deeply harrowing and genuine -- an illustration of the nu-metal revival's grim modern identity.

Describing the song, Justin says, "We, The Sad is about the oppression of the self by the society through subconscious mind control. When you are born into this world, you are born with no awareness of who you are. Through interaction with others, by and by you start to gain a sense of reflected awareness -- false awareness. It is not who you are, but an idea of who others think you are based on the idea of who they think they are based on the ideas of others. It is a deep sickness, and through these ideas you can be controlled. You want people to like you, so you tailor yourself in a way that is accepted by them.

"The question becomes, how do you escape this phenomena? It almost appears like a rite of passage. You are thrown into this with no choice or education on how to defeat it, and for any questions asked concerning the topic, any consideration of the truth, you are reprimanded, ridiculed, laughed at, and this creates a guilt -- an insecurity that further fuels the fear that keeps you trapped to begin with, makes the walls thicker. It is a sick cycle, and that seemingly-impossible-to-escape cycle is the source of all your sadness, all your anger, all your depression and anxiety, and instead of being brave and facing your weaknesses head-on, you numb yourself and retreat back to the comfortable -- the known -- the mother. We enslave ourselves because we are afraid to be free."

Watch our exclusive premiere of We, The Sad below:

Make sure to catch Tallah live on tour with Guerilla Warfare later this month, followed by an appearance at the Earache Factory at Boomtown Fair:

July 2019

18 - Lancaster, PA - Lizard Lounge
21 - Syracuse, NY - Lost Horizon
22 - Lakewood, OH - Winchester
23 - Philadelphia, PA - Voltage Lounge
24 - New London, CT - 33 Golden Street
25 - Amityville, NY - Revolution Bar
26 - Teaneck, NJ - Debonair Music Hall
27 - Long Beach, NJ - Brighton Bar

August 2019

08 - Winchester, UK - Boomtown Fair (Earache Factory)

Read this next:

• 6 underground metalcore bands redefining the scene right now
• The 12 most iconic nu-metal lyrics of all time
• The 21 greatest nu-metal albums of all time definitively ranked